One man bands

[Mr Peabody]

As posted on another thread I discovered Deadsoul Tribe is basically Devon Graves who plays everything but drums. This brought to mind a couple of other such talented men who I was going to mention but I didn't want to hijack my own thread before it even got started so here we are with a new one. I thought it would be interesting for us to put our minds together and mention these multi-instrumentalist multi-talented individuals. Please I don't want solo acts, i want those who done most everything on their album. Here's who came to mind for me:

Aldo Nova and Trevor Rabin. Yes, believe it or not I have a solo album from Rabin a good decade before he joined in on a couple Yes albums. Both of these guys would be good candidates for "Where Are They Now".

[Troy]

Aldo Nova and Trevor Rabin. Yes, believe it or not I have a solo album from Rabin a good decade before he joined in on a couple Yes albums. Both of these guys would be good candidates for "Where Are They Now".

Rabin is making millions doing soundtracks for blockbuster hollywood movies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Rabin

Really solid one man studio efforts:
Adrian Belew- Here
Mike Keneally- Wooden Smoke and Nonkertompf
Bill Nelson- About 40 albums. Really.

I know Prince did this several times.

Today, it's actually pretty easy for even non-musicians to construct an entire album on a computer in a home studio. Heck, I did it. Go to the iTunes store and look up "The Van Allen Belt- Lactater-tots." Except for one guitar solo and some backing vocals, it's all me.

Because of this technology the whole "one man band" thing has less wow-factor today than it did in the past.

[bobsticks]

Hey Troy, check yer PM.

[3-LockBox]

Paul McCartney did most of the instruments on all of his, and Wings albums. Stevie Ray Wonder did it too. But as Troy pointed out, its not the feat it once was. Hell, if Troy can make an album all by himself...

[Jim Clark]

Finchy used to tout the virtues of one Bob Log III. I see his name out touring from time to time but never really felt motivated enough to check him out. Considering the source, I'm sure you understand why : )

jc

[Jim Clark]

Hell, if Troy can make an album all by himself...

Dood, you're on a roll.

jc

[nightflier]

Prince?!? I know he produces his own albums with his own company, but I always thought he had a whole gang of hanger-ons who did everything for him (I have this scary image of a whole army of elf-work-ethic interns all wearing purple lingerie & ass-less yellow pants being whipped about by that little dictator).

[nobody]

Bob Log's actually pretty fun in concert. Lo-fi electro sleaze blues if I had to come up with a way to describe him.

Hasil Atkins was another wild and crazy one-man-band. Drunken, old school rockabilly weirdness.

[Woochifer]

Could also add Boston to the list.

Aside from the late Brad Delp's vocals, Tom Scholz apparently played nearly all of the instruments on their debut album, despite what the original liner notes said. The recent remastered CD updates the liner notes on who actually played the instruments for each song, and went into the story of how Boston was never a real band so much as a studio project with Scholz controlling nearly every detail.

Scholz hired the other musicians because he knew that a "band" had a much better chance of getting a record deal than a one-man studio project. Once they got signed, Epic Records booked a bunch of studio time for the band in California, and indeed the members that Scholz hired showed up at the studio and played. Of course, almost nothing that they recorded wound up on the album, and all the while, the majority of the tracks were played and recorded by Scholz back in his Massachusetts basement studio.

[Mr Peabody]

That's interesting, a band claiming to be Boston is touring with Styx this summer. Maybe Schultz needs a cash infusion.

[bobsticks]

Hey Slumpy,

You remember Jerry Sprague...did the solo gig and did Jerry and the Juveniles. He would've been active round your parts probably during your college years. Jerry did the one man band, acoustic, "Margaritaville" thing.

I have no idea why I just thought of that.

[3-LockBox]

Prince?!? I know he produces his own albums with his own company, but I always thought he had a whole gang of hanger-ons who did everything for him

That's just his touring band. Prince is a multi-instrumentalist; he used to show off during his shows where he'd go play a short bass solo, then a drum solo; I think I even saw him play the sax. I know he can play keyboard/piano, too. Not saying he's great at any of them though. He's such a hamfisted guitarist.

[Hyfi]

Nobody mentioned William Orbit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Orbit
http://www.williamorbit.com/

[Woochifer]

That's interesting, a band claiming to be Boston is touring with Styx this summer. Maybe Schultz needs a cash infusion.

Scholz has a fairly stable group of musicians that he worked with on Boston's last couple of albums. Delp was the only original member that still toured with Boston, but he died earlier this year so I have no idea what's going on.

This is no different than The Cars touring last year without Ric Ocasek and the late Ben Orr, or the "Beach Boys" touring with only Mike Love and a bunch of stand-ins. I remember that Styx toured at one point without Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw (both of the original vocalists), no idea if the current tour is the real band or a couple of original members with bunch of hired hands.

[thereyet]

I really like Hermit of Mink Hollow, a Todd Rundgren solo effort recorded at his home in Marin.

thereyet