(Jerry Bradley - January 22, 2004 - Southern Illinoisan

 

MURPHYSBORO — Lately, you'd have to wake up pretty early and join a church to catch The Gordon's at play. But this weekend, one of the tightest and most talented bands in Southern Illinois will hit the Liberty Theater for an evening of bluegrass of the gospel and country variety.

The Gordon's are a blend of bluegrass and gospel with a twinge of country. Gary Gordon is a world class player on many different instruments and his wife Roberta Gordon plays autoharp and sings like a country angel.

 

Unless you're a member of a regional Christian congregation, it has been hard to catch the Gordons. It's been so long in fact that Gary himself can't quite recall the last time they played a late night secular gig.

 

“We've been doing Sunday morning and special services a lot over the fall, and pretty much locally,” said Gordon. “That's been kind of fun. I like doing that. We've been staying pretty close to home since October.”

 

One of the rumors circulating about Gary Gordon centers around a band called Farm more than thirty years ago. This group of Southern Illinois rockers who toured with two drummers was allegedly scheduled to play Woodstock, but was bumped at a last minute, big ticketaddition of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

 

Turns out that this wasn't quite the case, so Gary set the record straight.

“This is the only big time fact,” he said. “Irving Azoff, an industry kingpin and manager of the Eagles, told one of the guys in the band that he wanted to get a hold of Farm and make them stars.”

 

Azoff, by way of note, could have done just that. Besides managing the Eagles, Steely Dan, and REO Speedwagon in the early years, Azoff is a Hollywood heavy in the music and film industry.

 

Farm started getting serious airplay in '71 and was mostly, according to Gordon, “folks from Southern Illinois who played extremely high-powered original music.”

 

The band played very much the music of its time, according to Gordon. He wanted to be more specific, but had a hard time of it.

 

“It would be hard to put your fingers on it. It was kind of like the Allman brothers meet the Grateful Dead. Boy, I'd hate to put a different kind of moniker when it's not original.”

 

Farm has one self-titled album which has been re-released several times. Gary played both slide guitar and six-string guitar.

 

“Although my slide guitar was very unique for the time,” he said. “It was more like a steel guitar hung around my neck.”

 

But that was a long time ago. For now, the Gordon's have plenty of projects on their plate for 2004.

 

For beginners, their latest album, “Time Will Tell Our Story,” (2002) is still getting good press from folk and bluegrass magazines.

 

“The critics really seem to love that one,” said Gary. “We've got a lot of

really feedback. We've been working on quite a bit of stuff. We're writing songs. We have a lot of original stuff which just needs to be honed a little bit. A lot of it is ready to record. We're finally attempting to finish with some Irish players a few years ago. That's one thing that's on the table for 2004.

 

Gordon also said that Kyle Lehning, Randy Travis' producer, has contacted the Gary and Roberta about a gospel song for Randy, called “I Waited for
the Lord.”