Wheatstraw Suite

I've Just Seen a Face

Back Porch Bluegrass

Reuben's Train

Copperfields

Rainmaker

I'll Fly Away

Live!!! Almost!!!

Black-Eyed Susie (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Old Joseph

Dixie Breakdown (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Sinkin' Creek (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Duelin' Banjo

Banjo in the Hollow

Lonesome Indian

Doug's Tune

Nobody Knows

Old Man at the Mill

Dooley

Old Home Place

Ground Hog

Walkin' Down the Line (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Cold Trainin'

Polly Vaughn

Rainin' Here This Morning

Taters in Sandy Land / Gimme Chaw T'baccer (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Somebody Touched Me

There Is a Time (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Pretty Polly (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

The Whole World Round (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Never See My Home Again (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Buckin' Mul (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Old Blue (Recorded at the Mecca, Los Angeles)

Old Road New Again

Funky Ole Hen (feat. Herb Pedersen & Tim Crouch)

Common Man (feat. Herb Pedersen)

Save the Last Dance for Me (feat. Cheryl White, Herb Pedersen & Sharon White)

Sweet Companion (feat. Herb Pedersen)

My Last Sunset (feat. Bernie Leadon, Don Henley & Herb Pedersen)

The Whole World Round (feat. Herb Pedersen, Sam Bush & Tim Crouch)

Always Gonna Be You (feat. Don Henley & Herb Pedersen)

Tearing Our Liberty Down (feat. Herb Pedersen, Ricky Skaggs & Tim Crouch)

Take Me Along for the Ride (feat. Herb Pedersen)

Old Road New Again (feat. Don Henley & Herb Pedersen)

Jim Dickson, an LA-based producer, who would later manage The Byrds, brought the Dillards to Elektra. The group recorded the first of five albums for Elektra, Pickin’ And Fiddlin’, in 1963.

Elektra was no stranger to the top instrumentalists who regularly played bluegrass in Washington Square on weekends, but The Dillards hailed from Missouri even if their appeal was to the same urban-folk market. They were already known nationally as regular guests on TV, appearing as The Darling Family on the networked Andy Griffith Show.

The Dillards, featured brothers Rodney on guitar and dobro and Doug (who later teamed up with Gene Clark) on banjo, and recorded two further, spirited bluegrass records for Elektra before leaving the label in 1964. A few years later they were re-signed, by which time The Dillards had moved beyond bluegrass in a more country rock direction.

Wheatstraw Suite, released in 1968, and a couple of years later, Copperfields, skillfully and cleverly stretched the conventions of the genre though still resting on their same brilliant musicianship and keen harmonies.

The Dillards

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