Goodbye To The City

Cowboy Country Swing Dance King

Back in 1979 I was living in Colorado Springs and trying to make a living with a band we called Out Of The Blue. Things were going good until bassist and cofounder of the group Gary Durr decided we weren’t doing enough rock and roll and quit the band. Steel guitarist Jon Mitguard, drummer Geoff Geiss, and I chose to “carry on” and found another bassist named Jim Bingham. We had a little break early in January of 1980 and I flew down to Nashville to visit my songwriting pal J. Remington Wilde and see some other musician friends. Shortly after arriving back in the Springs I got inspired to write a little polka type bluegrass tune called Goodbye To The City. It was kind of a tongue twister….all about leaving town and getting back to that honky tonk dance hall where the good times were waiting. We started playing it on all our gigs and it always brought some dancers out on the floor. By June we were getting pretty tight, and decided to try and record “live” at a club called Bilbo Baggins on the north edge of Colorado Springs. We hired Tom Gregor from Startsong Studio, who brought his mixing board and an eight track reel to reel recorder out to the club for a couple nights. We also hired magical multi-instrumentalist Denny Osburn to join us for the gig on piano, mandolin & lap steel.

L to R Geoff Geiss, Jim Bingham, SS, & Jon Mitguard. Photo by Mary Ann Nardo.

It sounded like this:

We had some great gigs all over Colorado while the band lasted, but by August it had run it’s course and I headed back to Iowa. After a few months there I returned to Denver and tried to get a new band together with Gary Durr, but that was not meant to be. Late in 1981 I was back in Kalo, Iowa, and my Oklahoma buddy Lloyd “Abe” Abraham moved down from Minneapolis to try and play music with me. We dubbed ourselves the Hillbilly Soul Brothers, and would work as a duo or add bass and drums for Billy Buffalo Band gigs. Abe was such a great singer and creative musician on guitar, dobro & harmonica. In February of 1982 we went out to Junior’s Motel Studio in Otho, Iowa and recorded a whole “album” in one night. Owner Kirk Kaufman engineered and everything was cut “Live to Two Track”…..Goodbye To The City was one of the songs we had worked up into a nice little acoustic arrangement.

Photo by Fred Larson for the Fort Dodge Messenger.

Towards the end of the Eighties I started jamming with some friends in Fort Dodge, and eventually we formed a group called the Frontier Fiddle Band. We got a lot of gigs at The Fort Museum thanks to our drummer-singer-mandolin & fiddle playing member David Parker….who also happened to be the director of the museum. In 1991 we went out to the Otho studio again, and with Kirk Kaufman’s help, recorded a bunch of tunes for an album/cassette project. Dave Hearn played accordion in the group, and Herb Dreasler played acoustic guitar. The band became affiliated with the Iowa Arts Council, and we were able to play all over the state for town concerts, threshing bees, and city celebrations.

L to R Herb “The Tahlequah Kid” Dreasler, “Montana” Dave Hearn, William Buffalo, & “Colonel” David Parker. Photo by Debbie Smith.

Here is the Frontier Fiddle Band version:

In 1994 Debbie and I organized a “Buffalo Reunion” for current and former band members I had worked with at the Laramar Ballroom in Fort Dodge. We started the day out with a picnic lunch and acoustic jam at Loomis Park. This was way before the days of cell phone videos….but Denny Osburn had the foresight to bring along a video camera. His wife Pam used it to shoot most of the footage which he later edited and sent to me. Here’s a link you might enjoy, which includes a nice version of Goodbye To The City with many musicians crowded onto the stage of the Laramar. Denny Osburn on mandolin, Dave Hearn on accordion, Brian Nelson on bass, David Parker on spoons, Herb Dreasler on guitar, Dolor Adams on drums, Brook Hoover on guitar, and Tim Kelly on guitar. Kris Karr jammed with us in the afternoon, and was our sound man for the evening.

Video shot by Pam Osburn and edited by Denny Osburn in his Kansas City studio.

Unfortunately Denny Osburn passed away in 2022. He was a great friend and did more to help me dress up my songs than any other musician. We miss him! Found this clip on his YouTube page.

So we are coming to the end of the Goodbye To The City Saga. The last chapter was written in 2014 when Denny and fiddler pal Kenny Putnam helped me produce The Gift Of Song album. ( See my earlier Substack post ). Our version of Goodbye To The City was a little slower than the early versions, but included some great instrumental parts by my “Virtual Buffalo Band”…..

Here the Gift Of Song version:

Thanks for reading and listening this far. Please feel free to create your own version of Goodbye To The City, and send me a copy. Contact me for easy low cost licensing for any commercial project. Most of these tracks can also be found online for your streaming pleasure.