How the First National Band Became Pioneers in the Realm of Country Rock
The First National Band by Henry Diltz, 1971
The year was 1970 and Michael Nesmith was no longer required to fulfill his duty as a member of the Monkees, having bought himself out of his contract early. Free, eager, and unsure of where to go next, Nesmith looked toward the only music he knew he could find solace in — the familiar sounds of home. Harnessing the roots music of Texas and the country blues of the southeast, he would create his own unique blend of country and rock, inadvertently laying down the foundation for an entire genre of music yet to come into the mainstream, all while flying largely under the radar.
Writing twangy music was an act that seemingly came naturally to Nesmith. With previous songwriting credits on the Monkees’ self-titled debut, Nesmith proved to be a talented composer despite his own humbly doubtful convictions. He penned and produced “Sweet Young Thing,” a Cajun-inspired tune, and the country-tinged “Papa Gene’s Blues” which ultimately act as evidence of his early pioneering spirit with the experimentation of country sounds. Often rejected by the higher-ups, Nesmith was told time and time again that the music he was writing didn’t align with the dominating pop music of the time.
“That’s what I write,” Nesmith states, reflecting on those days. “I wouldn’t know how to write any other kind of song. There was an effort made to explain it to me. They said, ‘Well, you don’t want any twang in there because twang sounds kind of ignorant to the upper northeast, and while it may be appealing to the lower southeast, it’s not where we want to go.’” Despite staying in the made-for-tv group for five years by means of contractual obligation, Nesmith’s style remained unambiguously rooted in country music.
He cites his influences Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Jimmie Rodgers as being to him “something of a musical triumvirate.” Nesmith admits, “somehow I always get back to them. They, like Dylan, Presley, Cash, and The Beatles, had, and have, a clearly defined musical position — a pure approach to what they have sung and written — free from euphemisms and alive with their own emotions.” With the First National Band, the Texas native now had the opportunity to further delve into his forte and lean into the music he was so heavily inspired by.
Before the intervention of commercial country rock, there was the First National Band — a formed group of Nesmith’s closest musician friends who encouraged him to start a new band after his Monkees departure. The four-piece outfit consisted of Red Rhodes on pedal steel guitar, John London on bass, and John Ware on drums, with Nesmith assuming the role of the charming frontman, guitarist, and vocalist. Taking their name from the First National Bank of America, where Nesmith kept his money at the time, the band had set their sights on creating music with ambition that would wholeheartedly reflect their joint sound. “When Johnny Ware first suggested I start a band my reaction was distant and a little negative,” explains Nesmith. “But he continued to talk and through the conversation, I sensed some of the same spirit of the men who have so profoundly influenced me. So two days later Red Rhodes, John London, Johnny, and myself got together for a trial run and it all seemed to fall into place. Effortlessly and freely the music poured forth. And it was fun. Great fun. We played and sang and laughed for two weeks. Then I trekked off looking for a way to get all this out of my little rehearsal room.”
“The defining element of country rock is attitude. Rock’n’roll itself is an attitude, more than anything else.”
In the summer of 1970, the First National Band would make their objectives clear with the release of their debut album Magnetic South. The eleven tracks work in unison with one another to create a resonant, witty sound that fully brings to life Nesmith’s vision of pushing the genre in new ways — lyrically and sonically. “I’d say the defining element of country rock is attitude,” he says. “Rock’n’roll itself is an attitude, more than anything else. Being situated as I was, growing up among the rock and rollers and embracing them while listening to traditional country music, it was natural for me to bring this rock’n’roll attitude to the country blues form.” Rolling Stone even dubbed their offerings as “the best music you’ve never heard.” The debut album would help Nesmith solidify his Monkees exit while simultaneously working to put the band briefly on the map.
There are multiple recycled songs featured on Magnetic South that were previously unreleased and recorded for the Monkees, such as “Nine Times Blue,” “The Crippled Lion,” “Little Red Rider,” and the album’s opening song “Calico Girlfriend.” However, the First National Band unequivocally make these songs their own, putting their own flair on each song — a reoccurring trend that their next albums follow. For example, the original samba-oriented “Calico Girlfriend” is swapped out for an upbeat sound that starts off unassumingly acoustic, then explodes energetically with steel guitars, while “Little Red Rider” is given a reimagined facelift with a faster tempo and steel guitar solo that ultimately creates a fuller sound in contrast to the original. Other tracks like “Mama Nantucket,” and “Joanne” were specific to Magnetic South, the latter of which would climb the American Billboard charts to take the No. 21 spot in October and even gain radio airplay. This would be the highest position that any First National Band release would ever reach — and rightfully so.
“Joanne” became one of Nesmith’s most beloved songs for its wistful recollection of unreciprocated love. Nesmith’s vocals capture the feeling of melancholic retrospection in such a moving and evocative way that it becomes clear he’s writing and singing from a place that’s close to his heart. The lyrics read as poetry and paint a fond, vivid picture of fleeting young love, while skillfully leaving the song’s message beautifully open-ended so as to resonate with its listeners’ own experiences. On the record, Nesmith also dedicates the song to his then-close friend Jack Nicholson and Mimi Machu, Nicholson’s then-girlfriend. Eventually, “Joanne” would become a regular inclusion in many of Nesmith’s future setlists and live albums.
Closing out Magnetic South is the vastly experimental “Beyond the Blue Horizon.” The band takes the 1930 film song from Monte Carlo and gives it a lush soundscape to perfectly conjure the image of a cowboy living on the range, who rejoices in the sight of a new day. Sounds of an alarm clock, a rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo in the far-off distance, and a tractor starting up usher in Nesmith’s tender vocals. To get the cinematic effect he was striving for, Nesmith drew upon what he observed when sitting in on The Beatles’ sessions for “A Day in the Life” in 1967. The result is a glorious nearly six-minute song that comes across as something taken straight from a film scene, with Nesmith’s vocals swelling to a heartfelt crescendo before wrapping up a hard day’s work on the farm.
The album as a whole flows with an unabashed sense of nitty-gritty Americana that cemented the group’s ambitions. The foursome stood firmly with their debut, letting the rest of the industry know that they had no intention of falling victim to convention from the get-go. Nesmith dedicated the making of the album to Lester Still and Bert Schneider as well as the guys from the Monkees, with production credits going to Felton Jarvis. He explains, “between Felton Jarvis, our producer, who gave us the benefit of freedom, Harry Jenkins, at RCA in New York, who gave us confidence, and Chet Atkins, at RCA in Nashville, who gave us strength, the music was transcribed. And this is it.”
On the off chance that you have never listened to Nesmith’s old-school reminiscent yodeling masterpiece, “Mama Nantucket,” before please do yourself a favor and listen to it now. You can thank me later.
With their collective sound now established, the First National Band would release their sophomore album Loose Salute in November of the same year. The album’s defining opening track “Silver Moon” barely missed the Top 40 list, yet still remains one of the group’s most widely recognizable songs today. Nesmith’s unreleased Monkee song “Carlisle Wheeling” was given the new name “Conversations” while the previously recorded “Listen To The Band” is given a countrified beautification. All nine songs on the album are his own compositions, with the exception of their impassioned cover of Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard’s “I Fall to Pieces.”
In 1970, Rolling Stone would highly praise Loose Salute for its down-to-earth country-rock sound. Country critic Charlie Burton said the band’s reimagining of Nesmith’s “Listen to the Band” deserved to become a “country and western standard.” As for the rest of the songs, Burton describes them as “good Hollywood cowboy music, fun to dance to, or eat enchiladas to” (the latter a reference to a lyric in “Bye, Bye, Bye”).
“Mike’s straightforward, no-bullshit vocals are a welcome change from the usual Byrds-y, constipated singing style generally preferred by country hippie bands, and the nine Nesmith originals on Loose Salute radiate, of not genius, then a good, solid versatility,” Burton continues. “The flavor of the songs go from country to Latin (‘Tengo Amore,’) to big band (‘Hello Lady’).”
In addition to Rolling Stone’s applause, Loose Salute would also gain positive feedback from Australia, which coincidently the band was scheduled to tour before their split. In Go-Set, an Australian music newspaper, the First National Band received much praise for their ability to beautifully weave together “attractive” melodies with Nesmith’s charming, “sensitive” vocals.
“Mike Nesmith has succeeded in developing a warm, breezy form of sentimental country,” the review reads. “His light voice rides smoothly over pretty little country backings of pedal steel guitar and things, all a very pleasant, easy journey. Country music can easily be a bore but Mike seems to be able to keep it swinging and marching along with a freshness and vitality that’s rare. He’s even confident enough to include a song that was a single for the Monkees and happily gets away with it.”
Overall, Loose Salute was a strong effort to expand upon their first release that showed them exploring new territories sonically and embracing the experimental state of music. “I was certainly inspired by the tenor of the times and the people who were doing it,” Nesmith says. “It was a great time to be in music, in a band, looking for some place to play.”
“I was certainly inspired by the tenor of the times and the people who were doing it. It was a great time to be in music, in a band, looking for some place to play.”
On their final album, Nevada Fighter, the First National Band went out with an understated bang. Some of their best work is housed on the album, with a lyrical throughline of introspection embedded. There is a sense of assuredness that is embodied in the album’s sincere songs, regardless of the fact that some of them were tracked after the band had split. It’s Nesmith’s poignant vocals and storytelling that ultimately hold the album together. Songs like “Only Bound,” “Here I Am,” and “Grand Ennui” are a testament to Nesmith’s evolution as a writer.
“I was following a sound in my head,” he reveals. “I just love music. I’m drawn to it like a fire on a cold day. And because I didn’t play very well — I wasn’t a trained musician, and I didn’t have a lot music theory — I had to make up things that I could play. That’s how I became a writer. And the more I did that, the more these directions would open up in my head, and the way I knew something was good is when it came out unique, and I hadn’t heard it before. That’s how things bounced in there – it was a kind of mixture of everything that was going on at the time, but from my own point of view. I knew what it was supposed to sound like before I ever actually played it.”
The band gives a mesmerizing cover of Bob Nolan’s “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and revives the previous Monkee recording “Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun to Care)” to its finest version. On “Only Bound,” Nemith shows off his vocal range yet again by climbing to a strong, powerful, and impressive finale, much like on Magnetic South’s “Beyond the Blue Horizon.” The album dreamily fades out with “Rene,” a heartachingly beautiful instrumental where Red’s steel guitar serves as a final goodbye to the end of an all too transient era.
First National Band triliogy bilboard hanging on the Whisky a Go Go, courtesy of Matt Burton
The Red, White, and Blue trifecta of albums were all impressively recorded and released in a little less than 12 months, ranging from early 1970 to 1971. While the band members were finally experiencing a small dose of the type of recognition in America that they had desired from their hit “Joanne,” the group was beginning to fall apart. “We couldn’t call it country, it wasn’t rock’n’roll,” explains Nesmith. “There was no marketing niche, no bin in the record store, no radio, no format. I mean, we were just completely out in the weeds with this.” An unsuccessful overseas tour led to the group inevitably splintering apart in the latter half of 1970. Though the allegiance between members was short-lived, both Nesmith and Rhodes would continue to work together until Rhodes’s death in 1995.
“I was heartbroken beyond speech,” says Nesmith in regard to the large success that bands like the Eagles would find. By the 1970s, country rock had fully entered the mainstream, earning FM radio airplay. “I couldn’t even utter the words ‘the Eagles’ and I loved ‘Hotel California’ and I love the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, all that stuff. That was right in my wheelhouse and I was agonized, Van Gogh–agonized, not to compare myself to him, but I wanted to cut something off because I was like, ‘Why is this happening?’ The Eagles now have the biggest selling album of all time and mine is sitting in the closet of a closed record company?”
While this surge of the genre’s popularity seemingly overlooked Nesmith’s work with the First National Band, it certainly does not undermine their aptitude as musicians. Defined as “a trilogy by a cowboy for today’s America,” the First National band’s three albums not only reflect their unwavering determination to demolish the traditional mold of country music but also finds common ground at every turn with how in sync they were as musicians. Each album feels like a journey through the landscapes of America, both sonically and lyrically.
The trifecta of albums flows stylistically with cohesion and seamless transitions that give the sound a sense of unity and wholeness in the same way it does on the Beatles’ Abbey Road, each song hypnotically bleeding into each other. Through the lyrical depth of their saga of the old west, the band laid down some of the best groundwork for the future surge of country rock, fusing two genres in a way that had never been done before. Their innovative ethos allowed Nesmith to hone his skills as both a producer and songwriter. It is easy for listeners of Nesmith’s music to identify with the vulnerability in his vocals and lyrics. With the First National Band, he found his early footing that would lead to much of the greater focus on poetic lyricism in his future projects.
At its core, all three albums are a celebration of the band’s mission to be different from the rest. “If you have a point of view and if you can render that point of view in your art…then you’ve got two of the elements that are combustible,” Nesmith proclaims. “Get ‘em together in a room, raise the temperature a little bit, and you’re going to have warmth all the rest of your life. That’s what the First National Band is to me — the expression of those ideas as a band.”
The First National Band by Henry Diltz, 1971