Hello friends and country folk ! It is time to ….. Get Back to the Country ….. with Gene Parsons !!! Thank you so much for stopping by to read along with us. Lets chop this log and get right into it !
Have you ever heard the song ” Take it easy ” by the eagles? ” Box of Rain ” by the Grateful Dead? ” All of my love ” by Led Zepplin? “Coming into Los Angeles” by Arlo Guthrie? ” Flying ” by Desert Soap ? These songs all have one thing in common, The B-bender guitar. What is a B-bender guitar ? I shall explain in this short video….
Gene Parson’s is the inventor of the B-bender guitar and is probably best known as the drummer for the Byrds from 1968 – 1972. There is no relation to Gram Parson’s who was also in the Byrds for a brief period during that era. Gene Parson’s and his wife, Star Deckar live in Caspar, California in Mendocino county near the Pacific Ocean. Gene acquired a piece of land in the early 1970’s in Caspar and has since built 3 homes and his workshop on the property. Gene and Star rent out one of these homes through VRBO.com. They call it Stringbender Cottage . Keeley and I got the privilege to stay at the Stringbender cottage in April of 2015.
Before I begin, I would like to explain my personal relationship to the B-bender and how It came into my life. From 2010 – 2014 I was in a band called Desert Soap.
Desert Soap was formed by 2 songwriters, Michael McSherry and Primo Mendoza. Primo approached me with a vision for this band ; Primo’s words – ” Bread. The original 4-member Eagles as produced by Glyn Johns and managed by Geffen/Roberts. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and/or Young. The Clarence White Era Byrds. These are the musical demigods whose fruit quenches Desert Soap’s thirst for influence…” In this band I wrote songs, sang lead and harmony vocals, played acoustic guitar, a little bass, and soon had the unique experience to learn and play the B-bender guitar. My band mate Primo had a very specific vision for the sound of this band. One key ingredient to the Desert Soap sound was the B-bender guitar. In 2011, Primo contacted Gene Parson’s and had him craft the Desert Soap B-bender guitar (shown in the video and photo above). On the back of the guitar Primo requested that Gene script a personal dedication. It reads ” For Primo – Yesterday’s Train ” and it is signed by Gene Parson’s. Upon the arrival of the Desert Soap B-bender guitar I was given the task to learn and play this guitar to bring the sound vision of Desert Soap to life. To begin, I started researching Gene Parson’s and Clarance White who together created the original design and patent for the B-bender.
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Clarence White was really the first musician to play the B-bender and the sound pretty much debuted on the 1968 release of the finest Byrd’s album ” Sweetheart of the Rodeo ” . Here is the very first television debut of the B-bender guitar being played by Clarence White (center). Here they perform ” You ain’t goin nowhere ” written by Bob Dylan. Gene Parson’s is playing drums.
6 years after meeting the B-bender guitar in Desert Soap, I had found myself with the amazing opportunity to meet the legendary musician and inventor of the B-bender guitar, Gene Parsons. Gene and his wife Star have a great little hideaway in Mendocino country. Like I said before, they have a cottage that they rent out on vrbo.com. I just emailed them and arranged to stay there with them for 1 night on a road trip Keeley and I were taking to northern California. Easy done ! The cottage was built by Gene and friends back in the late 1970’s. It is a simple, well-kept cottage that is surrounded with nature and flowers. The cottage welcomes you with an old Acoustic guitar on the wall and other instruments scattered about. It is discretely peppered with Gene’s musical past; a few Byrds CD’s by the little cd player/radio, a copy of the original B-bender patent on the wall, articles about Gene marked in various magazines under a side table. It was awesome! I was so excited by all this stuff and where I was and whose place I was at! It was FAR OUT man ! !
A little while after we arrived Star came by and knocked on the door to welcome us. After we settle in Keeley and I headed to the beach which was about 2 miles away. It was an amazing spot and no one was there ! We had a few beers and I collected drift wood and read magazine articles about Gene Parsons on the beach. Here is a photo of Keeley at that beach spot.
Later we drove back to the cottage and as we approached the driveway to come into the property, Gene and Star were heading out to dinner. Gene was driving and so was I. We pulled up next to each other and we both rolled our windows down. ” Hello there “, Gene said… It was pretty cool meeting Gene this way. It reminded me of how people run into each other a lot where I grew up in the country of the midwest. People often pull up to one another while in their cars and roll the window down to have a quick chat. That was what we did, had some small talk. At the end of our conversation I asked Gene if we might be able to take a tour of his shop in the morning? He replied, ” Well I don’t know…” then he said ” well of course, that would be just fine. Just come through the gate from your cottage and come by the shop anytime after 9 am.” Groovy man. Personal 9 am shop tour with Gene Parsons!
The next morning we went through the gate and were greeted by MAGIC ! Gene and Star’s miniature horse. His name is Magic. He has hair covering his eyes , he plays with a yoga ball, rolls around on the ground and is just a very special animal to be near.
Here is Star brushing Magic…
After a little hang with Star and Magic, we continued through the property to Gene’s workshop. We knocked on the door…” Come on in !..” We opened the door and there stood Gene Parsons to greet us! It was a treasure to behold! A well-organized, highly personalized and densely packed workshop of the legendary craftsman, inventor, and musician, Gene Parsons.
Gene’s father was a machinist and he learned the trade from his father. Before his career began as a musician he worked as a machinist manufacturing parts for an automotive company. He started learning this skill at an early age as well as developing his talents as a multi-instrumentalist. Gene developed a love for traditional folk and bluegrass music and became proficient with many instruments including the banjo, fiddle, mandolin, acoustic guitar, harmonica, pedal steel and later the drums.
Gene has such a humble and welcoming way about him. He seems so content with his life in his workshop still making and installing his most prized invention, the B-bender. He is very genuine and loves to share his passion with anyone who is interested. In the photo above, Gene is putting a guitar strap on an acoustic B-bender. He first invented the electric B-bender which is fairly simple for him to install. It took him much more time to figure out how to make and install the acoustic B-bender. He likened it to building a ship in a bottle, having to install the entire thing through the sound hole of the acoustic guitar.
Another love of Gene’s is trains. Somehow he found the additional time over the years to construct a fully functional 1/8 scale steam locomotive. He made every single piece of this fully functional train. He plans to lay track around his property to run the train in the next couple of years. (sorry I don’t have a better photo of the train)
It was a truly an amazing and humbling experience to meet Gene at his home and get to know him in the shop which he built and has created many B-bender guitars as well as the one I played in Desert Soap. It was one of the most special moments I can remember. Gene’s long history of personally making all of the B-benders that are ordered is soon coming to an end. He will soon be retiring but has been training a local luthier over the years to take over the construction and installation of all future B-bender orders.
When our shop tour had come to an end, we went out to the yard with Gene to spend a little time with Magic. Gene went into the house and reappeared with some carrots for us to feed to Magic. We fed Magic carrots with Gene and he held Magic’s lips and moved them and spoke as if Magic was talking to us. So cool.
To end this post I will leave you with a video of Gene himself explaining and summarizing the B-bender guitar in his own words. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this short history and my account of meeting Gene Parsons. Take care and go listen to the Byrd’s !
Get Back To The Country 