Throughout these changes, John Duffey remained the group's spiritual center and greatest influence, and his initial ideas about keeping a light touring schedule and staying close to home continued to prevail. He was replaced in 1994 by lead singer Moondi Klein. During that year the Scene recorded the album "Like We Used To Be," but Starling did not wish to stay with the band long term. Reid left the band in 1993, and Duffey convinced former member John Starling to return to the band for the next year. Coleman proved to be very controversial, as many purists objected to his use of an electric bass in what is an acoustic genre, but the albums produced by the band after Coleman's arrival maintained the traditional appeal of any of the Scene's earlier albums. In 1986, Rosenthal and Tom Gray both left the band to focus on other pursuits, and were replaced by Lou Reid and T. The band recorded several more albums in the 1980s and firmly established themselves as one of the most influential bluegrass bands. Around the same time, the group switched record labels from Rebel Records to Sugar Hill however, while Starling had been officially the band's frontman, these changes made little significant difference to the band's overall sound. In 1977, John Starling left the group to focus on his medical career, and was replaced by singer and songwriter Phil Rosenthal, whose song "Muddy Water" had been recorded by the Scene on two earlier albums. But the band's philosophy of not touring and maintaining their day jobs eventually caused some changes in membership. Though the Scene remained a non-touring band, they were prolific recorders, producing seven albums in their first five years of existence, including two live albums (among the first live bluegrass albums). The band's popularity soon forced them to play more than once a week-but they continued to maintain their image as being seldom seen, and on several of their early album covers were photographed with the stage lights on only their feet, or with their backs to the camera. Their weekly shows included bluegrass versions of country music, rock, and even classical pop. Duffey's stratospheric tenor anchored the group, but the vocal blend of Duffey/Starling/Auldridge set a new standard that attracted new audiences to what had been a niche music. The Scene's first home was the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda, Maryland, where they spent six years before starting weekly performances at The Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, Virginia.īluegrass reached a second peak in popularity in the early 1970s, and the progressive bluegrass style played by The Seldom Scene was particularly popular. Duffey repaired musical instruments, Eldridge was a mathematician, Starling a physician, Auldridge a graphic artist, and Gray a cartographer with National Geographic. Duffey was invited to the jam sessions, hit it off with John Starling, and decided to give music another try at the time when Auldridge arranged for the group to play as a performing band.ĭuffey proposed some rules that the others agreed to including playing only one night a week at local clubs, doing occasional concerts and festivals on weekends, making records, and keeping their day jobs. Then came mandolinist John Duffey, who had quit the Country Gentlemen two years before due to disillusionment with the music business. These sessions included John Starling on guitar and lead vocals, Mike Auldridge on resophonic guitar and baritone vocals, and Tom Gray on bass. The Seldom Scene is an American bluegrass band formed in 1971 in Bethesda, Maryland out of the weekly jam sessions in the basement of banjo player Ben Eldridge.
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