Swampwater

About

Swampwater started out as a continuation of Gib Guilbeau & Wayne Moore's band The Reasons, better known as Nashville West. The original lineup of The Reasons was Gib (vocals, rhythm guitar), Wayne (vocals, bass guitar), Gene Parsons (drums), and Clarence White (lead guitar). Clarence & Gene left to join The Byrds in 1968, leaving Gib and Wayne alone. As replacements, Gib & Wayne brought in Gib's brother in law Stan Pratt to play the drums and Clarence's brother Eric to play bass guitar (Wayne moved over to lead guitar). The Reasons carried on with this configuration until Linda Ronstadt saw them at a club gig at hired them on as her backing band. Only problem was, she only needed three out of the four, as she already had a lead guitarist (her then boyfriend John Beland). Gib, Stan, & Eric amicably split with Wayne to join John as Linda's backing band. Shortly thereafter, Eric gave up the bass but stayed on as their road manager. He was replaced by Gib's friend and collaborator Thad Maxwell, who had never played bass prior to that point. The band developed a sound that combined the new hot sound of Country Rock that was really starting to develop at this time with Gib's Cajun roots. Because of their Cajun influences, the band adopted the name Swampwater. They took a break from touring with Linda in 1970 to record an album of their own. It took two days.