Red Willow Band

Billing itself as "The Best of Country Swing," the Red Willow Band recorded two albums for Lost Records in the late '70s and established a loyal following in South Dakota, the band's home base. In 1976 the Red Willow Band recorded its self-titled debut at Audio Etc. in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Lost released the album that same year. Two years later the band returned with its second and final album, Note for Note, which had been recorded at Jack Clement Studios in Nashville, TN, in July 1978. The album spawned one charting single, "I Wish I Had Your Arms Around Me," which peaked at number 97 on Billboard's Hot Country chart. Nearly 20 years later, in 1999, Way Back When surfaced, a two-fer collection convienantly compiling the band's two albums onto one CD. The Red Willow Band reuinted that same year to perform at the Sioux River Folk Festival in August. Of the band's members -- Chris Gage (guitar/piano/vocals), Hank Harris (guitar/vocals), Kenny Putnam (fiddle/vocals), Marley Forman (bass/vocals), and Barry Carpenter (drums/percussion/vocals) -- a few would continue on as musicians in successive years, most notably Harris, who remained active in numerous bands and also as a solo artist in the early 2000s.