So the first time I heard Leo Lyons name mentioned was at the end of one of my favorite Ten Years After songs, their cover of “Woodchopper’s Ball” When Alvin Lee said:
And today 40 plus years after, I wish Leo Lyons a Happy 71st Birthday to Leo!!
Now I could tell you all about Ten Years After as they were one of my favorite bands in the late 60s and early 70s and while much of my love came from the blues and guitar of Alvin Lee, another aspect was the influences of jazz on their music, particularly the early music, ,and part of that jazz sound came from the keyboards of Chick Churchill and the bass of Leo Lyons. But how about I let Leo tell you a little about himself – from Leo’s Blog at Cyclone Music:
“Ten Years After is probably best remembered for the bands performance at the historic 1969 Woodstock Festival and featuring in the subsequent film of the event. Original guitarist Alvin Lee sadly passed away in March 2013 and will be missed, as Alvin and I started out together and shared many of life’s experiences, he was like the brother that I never had. After many Gold and Platinum Albums and thousands of concerts under our belts TYA is still going strong and, with the addition of new guitarist/vocalist Joe Gooch, the three original members are still touring and have recorded three new CDs.
and I love those new albums and the guitar of Joe Gooch!!
Aside from my career as a bass player I have done many things since starting out on my musical journey way back in 1960. I am a recording engineer and record producer and was studio manager of Wessex Studios, London in 1975. I have also owned my own studios. Songwriting is also a passion and in 1998 I moved to Nashville where I was a staff writer for a country music publisher. I lived and worked in Nashville until 2011 before moving back to my now European base.
What I didn’t know until this morning was that Leo and Joe had form a new power trio named Hundred Seventy Split(HSS) Leo writes at his blog…..
HSS is a three piece Blues/Rock trio featuring guitarist/vocalist Joe Gooch, Damon Sawyer on drums and myself on bass. Joe and I still work with TYA but we wanted to do something different that rocks outside of the TYA box. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing with TYA and I always enjoy playing the old songs that people still want to hear. However, that leaves no room for new material – hence the new project.
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Here’s Hundred Seventy Split with “Dance On Your Tombstone” recorded live at the Blues Garage…..