John Beland

Beland was born and raised in Hometown, Illinois, and was the eldest son of Clarence and Celine Beland. While growing up, he listened to a number of well-known American music artists. This included Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson. He was inspired by the music from a young age and began to play the guitar, predominantly rock and roll. At six years old, he received a toy Davy Crockett model guitar, but wouldn't own a guitar until he was seventeen. During high school, Beland played with local bands, performing in small venues and at private parties. He practiced on his own at home, while listening to Dick Biondi on WLS radio. In an interview, Beland recalled the influence The Beatles had on his life as a young musician. He stated that he had never heard music like it and inspired him as a guitarist. Beland became more involved in local music over the coming years as a teenager. He took little interest in school, instead, he focused on practicing blues and jazz tracks that were popular at the time, including Mose Allison, Ramsey Lewis and Bo Diddley. He was also strongly influenced by the Rolling Stones. He formed a small jazz trio in his hometown and regularly played small gigs. They would take pop songs and, as Beland described it, "jazz them up". Performing these musical blends further influenced Beland's youth. As his tastes and performances matured, Beland began to have a passion for jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi's music. His biggest inspiration as a teenager was The Byrds. He recalled hearing The Byrds' single "Mr. Tambourine Man" for the first time and being instantly connected and inspired by the Bob Dylan written track. As Beland performed more regularly, his music began to take on The Byrds' sound, showing how they had influenced him as a young musician. Beland's life changed in 1967 when his father secured a new job, meaning the family would be moving to Los Angeles. They took a 3-day train journey from Chicago to California. They ended up living an hour outside Los Angeles, in the town of La Puente. Beland didn't attend his new school in Southern California and instead spent his days sneaking into movie studios and record companies to learn more about passions of filmmaking and music. When his family and the school realized what he was doing on a daily basis, they moved him to a continuation school for troubled teens. Determined to follow his dreams of becoming a musician, Beland recorded a dozen original tracks on a stolen tape recorder. When he was dropped at continuation school the next day, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles in hope of getting a record deal. He lived on the streets for a couple of weeks after leaving home, speaking to publishing companies and record labels on a daily basis and showing them his homemade demo tape. After speaking to a record executive at Capitol Records, he advised Beland to try playing live at a club in Los Angeles called the Troubadour. Every Monday he attended open mic night at the venue and for $1 he would be able to perform for 15 minutes. He became well known by performers and regulars at the club, before host, Larry Murray decided to showcase Beland at the primetime slot in front of numerous record label executives. After performing one night at the Troubadour, he was approached by Lois Dalton, who was a former member of The Back Porch Majority folk group. She had set up their own music production group and she offered to help Beland in any way she could. After weeks of living on the street, Beland was desperate for somewhere to stay. Dalton and her family took him in. Dalton spoke with Beland's parents and it was decided he would stay with the Dalton's in Los Angeles to pursue his music career under her guidance. ==Music career==

Career beginnings (1960s) Beland spent much of his early career living with Dan and Lois Dalton and their family. Under their guidance, he signed a music publishing deal, which allowed him to buy his first ever guitar, a Guild F-50. Dan Dalton began to use Beland on many of their music production group's tracks, which ended up securing Beland a solo record deal. He started on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, playing to the studio audience between set changes at a rate of $250 a week. Engelbert Humperdinck recorded one of Beland's tracks, titled Nashville Lady, which secured Beland more income. Around the same time as his The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour performances, he befriended two struggling singer-songwriters, Glenn Frey and JD Souther. Both musicians would play for food and beer as a duo Longbranch Pennywhistle. Beland joined them playing on gigs as they reminded him of the Everly Brothers. He also worked with R.B. Greaves when he was a young struggling songwriter before he had his number 1 single in 1969. Ronstadt's bass player was replaced in the early 1970s by Beland's friend and former One Man's Family band member, Thad Maxwell. Shortly after Maxwell joined Linda Ronstadt's band, the backing band started their own band called Swampwater. Their sound was a combination of Guilbeau's hard driving Cajun rock and Beland's Byrds-Beach Boys style harmonies. Shortly after the formation of Swampwater, they were signed by the Nashville-based Starday-King Records and secured an album deal. The group recorded their first album in Albuquerque, New Mexico with John Wagner as the producer. They created a country hit titled "Take A City Bride". The track was the first Los Angeles-based band to score a Billboard country hit single. Fortuitously, two brothers from Florida, Howard and David Bellamy, arrived in Los Angeles in 1976. They had just scored a massive hit with "Let Your Love Flow". New to the local scene, they hired Beland to record with them. He played on their records and helped them form their first touring band. Later that year, The Bellamy Brothers, with Beland leading the band, joined Loggins and Messina on tour. The Bellamys' follow-up single, "Crossfire", was a hit in Europe, featuring Beland's signature big electric guitar sound that actually inspired Bonnie Tyler's record, "It's A Heartache". "Crossfire" failed to sustain The Bellamys, and after a major equipment robbery in Chicago, Beland left the act. Mac Davis then hired Beland in 1977. He toured the country with Davis, primarily working Las Vegas, but lost interest in Davis' slick cabaret-style show. While on tour in New England, Beland became close friends with Davis' opening act, Dolly Parton. Beland and Parton became friends. Soon after returning to Los Angeles, he parted ways with Davis and became Parton's guitarist. Her new single "Here You Come Again" was released that year, and her career skyrocketed. Beland then began to tour with Parton throughout the United States. Beland took the members of The Flying Burrito Brothers into the 16-track studio at Atlantic Records, where they demoed a number of country style songs Beland had written along with fellow Burrito member Gib Guilbeau, his old bandmate from Swampwater. The demos were highly commercial, so Bo Golsen immediately took them to Curb Records' A&R head Dick Whitehouse, who offered the group a deal, under one condition: The label wanted one of their own to produce the band. Beland would not hear of it and threatened to quit. But Golsen reminded him of the opportunity ahead if he played along. Beland agreed reluctantly to the deal and soon producer Michael Lloyd was assigned to the band. Although Beland and Lloyd got along together in the studio, Beland hated the idea of having to turn over the reins to another producer, especially one he did not want in the first place. Lloyd had produced acts like The Osmonds and The Bellamy Brothers, and although he had success with them, Beland felt his production work was too lightweight for a band like The Flying Burrito Brothers. In 1981, they received the Billboard number-one music award for making the transition from pop to country music. They also received Record World Magazines award for "Best New Vocal Group of 1981". A year later, they spearheaded a campaign which helped get their idol, the late country music legend Lefty Frizzell, inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. That same year, both Beland and Guilbeau moved from California to Nashville to become a true part of the country music industry. Beland went right to work doing sessions, while Guilbeau concentrated on songwriting. Through it all, problems with Curb Records persisted. A third album produced by Randy Scruggs was shelved, even though it yielded two hits, "Blue and Broken Hearted Me" and "Would You Love Me One More Time". Beland lobbied for a producing role but continued to be ignored by the label. In 1983, they were teamed with producer Brent Maher, who produced The Judds. Beland approved this development, as the two had worked together on his solo album in 1972 when Maher was an engineer at Las Vegas Sound. Now Maher was a hot producer, and he and Beland worked well together. The single they did was an old John Fogerty song called, "It's Almost Saturday Night". Both Beland and Guilbeau were excited about this recording because it was reminiscent of their days with Swampwater. It had the big sound of Guilbeau's fiddle, matched with Beland's big Telecaster. The single was a hit, but then Curb fired Mayer over a financial dispute, and the duo was back to no producer. Meanwhile, The Flying Burrito Brothers reunited in the mid-1990s. Beland took control and produced the band's three critically acclaimed studio albums, Eye of a Hurricane (1994), California Jukebox (1997), and Sons of the Golden West (1999). During the recordings, Beland produced guest performances with Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Ricky Skaggs, Buck Owens, The Oakridge Boys and Charlie Louvin. Beland and The Flying Burrito Brothers toured Europe at the end of the 1990s, performing throughout Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, before finally calling it quits in 2000. In recent years, Beland continues to produce artists and perform solo. When not recording or performing, he is hard at work on his upcoming, long-awaited biography, Best Seat in the House, as well as hosting his own radio talk show of the same name, featuring guests such as Dolly Parton and other major names he has played behind over his 40-plus year career. ==Recognition==

• Billboard Magazine: Best Crossover Award (1981) • Record World Magazine: Best New Vocal Group (as part of The Burrito Brothers) (1981) • Dove Nomination: "Isn't It Amazing" (1989) • ASCAP: "Cowboy Beat" (1993) ==Discography==