Carl's Scrapbook: The 70s: Raintree County

After the group Cinnamon folded, Jesse and I decided to take another shot at an eight-piece horn band. For a little over a year the group "Raintree County" played teen clubs, frat parties and special events covering most of the state of Florida. Featuring vocalist, Willie Mets, (who had been the singer for The Canadian Rogues, out of Lakeland) Raintree County was a musically rich group of musicians capable of performing many of the large group musical styles that were popular in the early seventies. They covered the songs of brass based groups like Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Buddy Miles Express, Pacific Gas and Electric and the latin sounds of Santana (the horn players switched to percussion instruments). There was also a good sprinkling of Beatles, CCR, and the R&B hits of Memphis and Muscle Shoals.

In the very beginning, we had hoped to have two lead vocalists, Ron Whitney and Willie Metts and even made an audition demo with both singers. But Ron decided to go into the night club scene with a smaller group and the group below was what we went to work with.

---------- RAINTREE COUNTY Early 1971 Back Row: Gary Henderson (trumpet) - Danny Province (keyboards) Middle Row: Steve Birthisel (drums) - Carl Chambers (guitar) - Jesse Chambers (bass) Front Row: Howard Shumate (trumpet) - Willie Metts (vocals) - Greg Towle (sax) ----------

Toward the middle of 1971, Steve Birthisel (a gifted jazz drummer) decided he needed more income than was being generated by the eight-piece band. The music was good and it was fun, but it was not especially lucrative. Birthisell was replaced by Rick Burnett, a more straight ahead rock drummer from Auburndale, who had been playing with the band "United Sounds". Burnett would go on to record with the Georgia based southern rock band, "Grinderswitch" on Capricorn Records. Sometime earlier, Danny Province left the group and was replaced by Randy Boyte from Leesburg (formerly of "We The People") on B3 organ and electric piano. The trumpets were played by Howard Shumate and Gary Henderson and the saxophone was played by Greg Towle. Raintree County played out the rest of 1971 in this configuration.

Raintree County "Live" 1971 [CLICK HERE]

By mid-1972, the law of diminishing returns coupled with some health problems caused the demise of the eight-piece "Raintree County".

Later in that year I worked for several weeks with Terry Shipe on bass, John Morey on organ, and Steve Birthisel on drums at the Winter Haven Holiday Inn using the name Raintree County. This was the first group I had ever played with, that was put together specifically to play in a lounge and although it was a very talented group of musicians, there was really no relationship between this group and it's namesake.

Raintree County  (Quartet) 1972   [CLICK HERE] "Live"  Holiday Inn - Winter Haven, FL

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