"Personal" sites that promote an individual's work, family, interests, etc. have a place and purpose on the web; but they don't have a place or purpose on a site dedicated to Redwing, Glad, and the New Breed.

So, although this section is, indeed, about me, the subject matter will be limited to the bio material necessary to answer a question that many people have asked me over the course of this site's existence:

Who am I and what is the conection between me and Redwing?

Usually people assume that I'm either an old New Breed fan from way back in the sixties or a major player from the old Sacramento music scene.

I'm neither from California, nor old enough to have been there in 1960s when all of this stuff was starting to take formation. I was born in 1971, and I have only lived on the east coast my whole life.

This information begs one to ask: how does someone from the east coast--who didn’t exist in the 60s and spent the first few Redwing years in diapers--come to putting up a page about a group that called it quits some 20+ years ago and are far from a household name, even for most classic rock die-hards?

How do I even know who the "New Breed" is?

Here’s the story:

For those who don’t have the time to read the long winded account that follows, here’s the short version: I discovered Redwing through my love of Poco.

Now, for those who are interested in hearing the more detailed version, here’s the full story:

I’m a big music fan. I live with my wife about an hour east of New York.

Being a dedicated music fan, I like what I like, and, even though I like plenty of mainstream "big name" bands, I’m also not afraid to dig up more obscure groups.

Just like an anthropologist likes to dig up old ruins to find gems, I do the same thing with the bands I like. If I find a band or a particular style that really does it for me, I just keep digging deeper and deeper. And along the way, I happen to find what I think are some great groups.

So the trail to discovery of Redwing’s music came through a lineage of other groups. The first group in this picture would have to be the Eagles. That’s the mainstream link in this equation. Everyone knows about the Eagles, right? Some folks are content to have a copy of their greatest hits package; needless to say, I don't have much use for greatest hit compilations. I cherish full LPs.

Anyway, if you dig one level deeper than the Eagles, you'll definitely find information on Poco.

Most people my age don’t know about Poco, and--like everyone else my age who might have known of them at all--I knew Poco only from the Legacy reunion in 1989 ("Call it Love" was the hit). But everything I read about the Eagles kept mentioning--among other country-rock groups like the Flying Burrito Brothers--Poco. This was, of course, because primary Eagles bassist Randy Meisner was Poco’s original bassist. Also, as you know, Tim Schmit later became the bassist for the Eagles, and he was also a former member of Poco.

You'll also find Poco mentioned in articles about the Eagles because they were among the obvious forerunners (and influences) to the Eagles’ sound.

So I started digging up info on Poco and old vinyl copies of Poco recordings, and, before long, I was a die-hard Poco fan.

Tim Schmit was the classic, long-time bassist for Poco. Can you see where we are going with this?

Just like all the Eagles literature mentioned Poco, everything I read about Poco's history mentioned--among other bands like Boenzee Cryque, the Illinois Speed Press, and the Buffalo Springfield--Glad and the New Breed. And the "Feelin’ Glad" LP and the Contenders, etc. etc., etc., etc.

So, you can see we are getting deeper into the soil here through a "Pete Frame Family Tree" type of thing. (While we're on that subject, click here to see a Pete Frame family tree on Redwing.)

I was certainly interested in checking out "Glad." I had never heard of Redwing at this point.

Well, you can find the Eagles at any record store. Poco? Well, for that you have to go to a good record store. Now I wanted to find some Glad. That’s a bit tougher.

So using this wonderful, then-new-ish piece of Internet technology that has now become standard, I was able to find other die-hard fans of the whole early 70s California country rock scene. I put the word out in a circle of Poco fans that I was looking for--among other things--the Glad record.

Several people responded (Poco fans are extremely generous folks) and I was on my way to getting a copy.

Again, I hadn’t even heard of Redwing at this point, but before I even got a chance to hear the Glad record, I was to come into my first exposure with Redwing.

A fan from, of all places, Finland (thanks, Pekka!) had some other stuff I was looking for, and he was going to put it on side A of a tape for me and drop it in the mail. He asked me what he should put on side B to fill up. He asked about Glad...

So I said (thru e-mail), "Thanks, but actually someone else (thanks, Karen!) has already agreed to send me the Glad tape, so I’m waiting for that already. Just throw something on there that you think I might like."

So he responded, "Do you have any Redwing? Those are the guys in Glad after Tim left."

I said, "I don't have any Redwing, that sounds great."

I didn’t really care at this point, because I didn’t know anything about Ron Floegel, Tom Phillips, and George Hullin; or even Glad as a group.

Remeber, at this stage of the game, my connection to Glad came through my knowledge of Tim Schmit. At that time, he was my sole link, and I’d never heard of Redwing or knew anything about the other membebrs of Glad. So they weren’t a priority for me.
 
A few days later, the Redwing tape (the first album) arrive at my door from Finland. The Glad tape--which ironically was being sent from someone who lived about 20 minutes from me--hadn’t arrived yet.

"Alright," I thought. "I know nothing about this Redwing group, but let’s check it out."

Well, I was blown away. I was hooked immediately, and not too many bands do that for me that quickly.

I was immediately impressed by the first verse of "Underground Railway." The tune had a great melody & hook, and it had "balls!"

I love vocal harmony, I love strong melodies, and I love the production & sound that 1970s technology allowed. This record had all those elements. And, most importantly, there was passion that cut through all the different moods. As a songwriter and listener, these are the kinds of things that get me musically excited.

I continued to obtain the remainder of the Redwing albums and learn more about the band.

So, I got into the music through the connection with Tim Schmit, but I now appreciate and am a fan of all the Redwing guys for their own very worthwhile merits--not just through association. And when I decided one day that I wanted to put up a website, I thought, "I could do ANOTHER one on a band that’s already out there, like the Eagles, but why not put up some info about a classic band that doesn’t have a web site already? Why not put up a web site that music fans might actually get a chance to use as a resource to learn something new from? Or to really excite those in the know who thought that no such page would exist?"

I could find plenty of, say, Beatles sites, but what would really, REALLY blow me away if I found it on a site on the Internet? Something like Redwing, where I never actually met anyone who knew about the band. Thus, the Redwing/Glad/New Breed site was born.

This is the third incarnation of the site. The originally was posted in MAY of 1998. It was primitive, but informative. In April, 1999, it was updated and improved through new information and the use of frames. And I meticulously did the entire think in pure HTML, typing each backslash, ampersand, and <td> tag by hand! This new one, now called "Redwing Online: a site dedicated to Redwing, Glad, and the New Breed," was posted in February of 2001 and is hopefully the best yet.

If you enjoy what you see here on these pages, please visit the special thanks page. There are a number of people who have made valuable contributions to this web page, and I would like to be sure that they are recognized.

Thanks for reading.