Blue Mountain Eagle

Blue Mountain Eagle was a short-lived American rock group that evolved out of New Buffalo Springfield in August 1969 and recorded a lone album for Atco Records, which they were personally signed to by label founder Ahmet Ertegun. Rhythm guitarist/vocalist Dave Price (born on September 23, 1944 in Ballinger, Texas) and drummer/vocalist Don Poncher (born on July 29, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois) were original members of The New Buffalo Springfield, formed in September 1968 by Dewey Martin, the drummer in the original Buffalo Springfield. The new version of the legendary group played extensively between November 1968 and February 1969 before imploding when Stephen Stills and Neil Young took legal action to prevent Martin from using the band's name. In spring 1969, Martin and Price formed a second version of New Buffalo Springfield with bass player/vocalist Randy Fuller (born on January 29, 1944 in Hobbs, New Mexico) (formerly of Bobby Fuller Four) and lead guitarist/vocalist Bob BJ Jones (born on November 9, 1942 in Woodbury, New Jersey), who'd worked with Little Richard briefly. The new line up, now going by the name Blue Buffalo, recorded some tracks for Atlantic which were never completed and in June added second lead guitarist Joey Newman from L.A band, Touch. After a tour of the North West (billed as New Buffalo Springfield) in July 1969, the musicians sacked Dewey Martin and returned to Los Angeles where they added Don Poncher from the earlier line up. In August, the group adopted the name Blue Mountain Eagle, which the musicians had taken from a newspaper in Grant County, Oregon during their time with Dewey Martin. After Ahmet Ertegun personally signed them to Atlantic Records, the band recorded its lone album live in one session at Wally Heider's studios in Los Angeles in December 1969. During April 1970, Randy Fuller left to briefly join Dewey Martin's Medicine Ball and the band recruited bassist David L. Johnson (born on October 21, 1945 in Burbank, California) from Dr John's touring band. The following month, Atlantic released the group's eponymous lone album which only sold a few thousand copies. The group recorded a version of Stephen Stills's "Marianne" as a single but when that failed to become a hit, the group disbanded in September 1970. BJ Jones and Johnson went on to form Sweathog (band) in 1971. Newman went on to Stepson and Poncher did numerous sessions. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.