When I started playing guitar in 1969, it was the beginning of the fine-tuning of rock music, when serious musicianship and tone played a big role in the evolution of rock. Myself, like many of you, spent countless hours, everyday holed up in our bedrooms practicing our instrument of choice. This was long before VH1, MTV, The Midnight Special, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and other watch able means of fingerings, chord changes and hair length. Sure, there was the rare occasion of a rock band on TV, but what if you missed it? So when we wanted to learn our instruments we had to listen to records over and over again. And that's what I did with my Ten Years After LPs. Not just to learn guitar licks but to improvise along with that great rhythm section, Chick Churchill on piano and B-3, Ric Lee on drums and on bass, Leo Lyons.

Leo Lyons, one of the founding members of Ten Years After is residing in Nashville these days being a songwriter and a recording engineer all while still smokin' on the bass. The icon in the Woodstock movie that jams and never lets go of that drivin' groove still plays, today, with that same amount of passion that he had 30 years ago. Just watch the DVD of Woodstock (my personal favorite performance) or the Isle of Wight to observe a musician obsessed with rockin'! This cat has jammed with Jimi Hendrix at The Scene in New York, Janis Joplin and several others from that period. He has some great stories (he's even writing a book tentatively titled 'There and Back Again'). His musical journey started in the early '60's. But his claim to fame was his rock hey days with Ten Years After. They made their first album in three days in 1967, then recorded their second one, live ("Undead", hence the irony in the name) in a London blues club called Kooks Kleek performing tunes such as Woody Herman's "Woodchopper's Ball". Invited by Bill Graham to play both of the Fillmore's, the band starting building a reputation as a live act. The band would go on to tour the U.S. 28 times during its prime. If you want to check out his TYA material, a good CD to get is "Essential Ten Years After". It's a great compilation of live and studio tracks. One thing about Leo is that he plays with the same fire in or out of the studio. His descending bass line on "I'd Love To Change The World"(a song that TYA has never performed in concert), the live rendition of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", "Love Like A Man" all feature a prominent factor of this rock and roll ensemble, heartfelt bass playing. "Going Back To Birmingham" is a rockin', balls to the walls version of the Little Richard classic. Of course on "I'm Going Home", the bass sounds like a freight train. But what is also magic about this performance is how Leo plays the spaces and knows when to drop out, and when he comes back in the dynamics hit the ceiling. [By the way, I had the honor of playing his '62 Fender Jazz that he used at Woodstock. A well-worn instrument that has a great neck that tapers off at the end as get near the headstock. He had swapped his '61 'P' Bass to Ian Hunter for the Jazz back in the early sixties] Just a note, "I'm Going Home" from Woodstock is a different than the "Recorded Live" version. Both are fantastic. I asked him about the Marshall stacks that have his name stenciled in on the "Recorded Live" album cover, and he told me he sold them. But while he used them, he would set all the knobs on 6. And they were the 100-watt Marshall's. Ten Years After went their separate ways in the mid 70's. They did regroup in 1989 for an album called "About Time" for Chrysalis Records. It featured two original songs by Leo. Several different artists have recorded his song "Working In a Parking Lot". In 1997, TYA regrouped again and performed in Brazil to a great reception, so they went on tour, playing festivals through out Europe in 1998. Then on August 14, 1998, they played the "Woodstock Festival" at the original sight they had performed at 29 years earlier. The concert was titled "A Day in the Garden" and was broadcast on the internet. Infoseek reported that 57 million people logged on during the festival.

Leo became a pro player at age 16. In the early sixties he formed a band called The Jaybirds (which eventually became Ten Years After, a name that Leo came up while looking through a music trade paper) with guitarist Alvin Lee in which he also managed. Famed producer Joe Meek (yes, of the well known studio compressors) signed and recorded the group. They played the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962 right after The Beatles. Leo even played with Tony Sheridon. And also use to jam with Albert Lee at the Top Ten Club when time provided. From '63 thru '66, he worked as a session player in London town, performing on records, radio and TV. He also toured as a sideman with several popular acts of that period and even played jazz with guitarist Denny Wright at the Rascasse Club.

Leo has always had a love for the recording studio. He's produced records for UFO (with Michael Schenker), Magnum, Waysted, Procol Harem, Frankie Miller, Richard and Linda Thompson, Brigette St. John, John Martin, Kevin Coyne, Sassafras, Motorhead, Hatfield and The North, The Bogie boys, The Winkies, Chris Farlow, Chevy and many others. He has also recorded cartoon soundtracks, music videos and stage musicals. He also had his own rock band, Kick. They put out two CDs. In the mid 70's,he worked for Chrysalis Records as a studio manager for Wessex Studios in London. He then went on to build two commercial studios of his own. After years of being a workaholic, Leo bought a farm to settle down enjoy his home life with his wife, Sally and their two sons. He still continued to record and write songs in his home studio. His songs came to the attention of a publisher in Nashville. After several years of commuting back and forth from the U.K. to Music City, he was signed as a staff writer for Hayes Street Music. He then made the move to Nashville. He guested on CDs by Leslie West and Savoy Brown (He played on three tracks, "She's Leaving" with Foghat's Roger Earl on drums, "Mississippi Steamboat" and "Everybody Says They Want It" featuring Duke Robillard on guitar). Matter of fact, that's when I first met Leo. Savoy Brown was performing at a club in downtown Nashville, called Jack's Legs and Leo joined long time friend Kim Simmonds and band for a couple of tunes. He was playing great. Soon after, I interviewed Leo for this article. He told me that he had just gotten of the road with blues guitarist Scott Holt (Buddy Guy) and wanted to spend more time in Nashville. Being on the road left him unavailable for engineering and session work. So I mentioned to him that I have a rock and blues band called The Bumper Cables and we play one to two nights a week locally and we needed a bass player. So, he's been helping us out for couple months and it really rocks. We do a of couple TYA songs. Talking about Déjà vu. The equipment that he is currently using is his 88' Warick Streamer Pro 4-string bass and a '86 Wal 4 string bass through a Gallien-Krueger 1001RB head and Gallien-Krueger 4-10 RBH speaker cabinet. His strings are .040-.100. He plays hard. I have personally seen him break four or five in just a few months!

Lyons has always had an admiration for country music since Jimmie Rogers. Even on the TYA album, "Cricklewood Green" there's a country-tinged song called "Year 3000 Blues". So from providing the foundation in Ten Years After, producing heavy rockers UFO and now writing songs in Nashville, Leo Lyons has always been opened minded to all kinds music. He has quite a history but he's still going strong.

Guy Lee