A lot can happen over 50 years. Orleans started as a trio (John, Larry and Wells) and I (Lance) was fortunate enough to climb on board before the first album was made. Since then, the live band has seen about a dozen different iterations (depending on how you count them). Each had at least 2 and usually 3 of the original 4 members in it, as others came and went.
Cindy Cashdollar, our lap steel and dobro playing friend from Woodstock, was inducted into the Nashville Cats at the Country Music Hall of Fame in May.
Yesterday (January 9th) was my birthday. I turned 67. Thing about it is, right behind that, on the 12th, it will be what would have been my brother Larry’s 70th birthday, had he lived to see it. Instead, he left this earthly plane in July of 2012.
For us, the 70s were about the rise of Orleans … 1972 through 1977, when John left the band for the first time. That threw a monkey wrench into things but, after some drama during a 2-year process of regrouping, “Orleans Mach 2” … Larry, Lance and Wells, along with new bandmates Bob Leinbach and RA Martin, re-emerged in 1979 with the “Forever” album and a #11 hit in “Love Takes Time”.
“Home” first appeared on my solo CD “Love Doesn’t Ask”, but only began being performed live by the band recently. Written with Johanna Hall and Don Schlitz, it tells a story of family; childhood, adolescence, marriage, parenthood, childhood again.
