The First Chisel Ridge Band

THE FIRST CHISEL RIDGE BAND

 We used the name Chisel Ridge in several of the bands that I performed in.. I am unsure who came up with the name but we all agreed upon it. I feel like Chris Transou maybe could have thought of it. He had a brilliant creative mind when it came to words, jokes and sayings. In this band we performed mostly 1970's folk songs such as Crosby,Stills, Nash and Young and also some original songs that David Tenery had written.. We performed mostly in the years 1972 and 1973. I recall two of the times that we first performed. One was in the old Pleasant Hill Church Activity Center and the other was at East Wilkes High School after a ballgame. People brought quilts and blankets and sat on the gym floor unlike the sock hop dances we had played for in earlier bands but like a Woodstock venue. We were in the old East Wilkes gym and auditorium combination. Performing in this band  was Chris Transou on Banjo, David Tenery on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, Kim Pardue on pedal steel and acoustic guitar and vocals, myself on bass guitar and vocals, and Paula Dagenhart  on drums and also David Pruitt from Elkin on drums. Also at that time Kim, David and myself were in the Pleasant Hill Youth Choir and the group called The Revelations at the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Elkin North Carolina. David Tenery's dad was the pastor at the church. Kim's dad had a weekend house which was only a half a mile from his other house and both were in Jonesville North Carolina. We would practice there on weekends sometimes into the early morning hours. One night the Jonesville police came at 4 am and said that neighbors in the area were complaining about the loud music and they told us to do one more song for them and then we had to quit. They were real nice about it. In 1973 we regrouped the Band with David Tenery, myself, Ricky Swaim and Mickey Swaim. Ricky and Mickey were brothers from Elkin but were attending Gardner Webb College where we would practice. David and Kim graduated in 1972 and myself in 1973. Kim and I went to Starmount High School while David went to Elkin High School. On our New York City trip when we performed at The Bitter End Rock Club it was David, myself, Rob Conrad and Paula Dagenhart. Rob played electric guitar. Kim's dad had a weekend house which was only a half a mile from his other house and both were in Jonesville North Carolina. We would practice there on weekends sometimes into the early morning hours. One night the Jonesville police came at 4 am and said that neighbors in the area were complaining about the loud music and they told us to do one more song for them and then we had to quit. They were real nice about it. In 1973 I graduated from Starmount High School and pack up my clothes and left home to move in with David Tenery and his parents in Morganton North Carolina where we continued to play until 1974. In looking back at all of this we were serious about our music and wanted to make it in the industry at this young age. We had a real good folk and country sound not as country is today but something similar to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Sound. We had acoustic guitars, bass, drums, conga, pedal steel, banjo, mandolin and fiddle instrumentation for this genre. At this time was when I bought my 1972 Fender Precision Fretless bass, first of its kind and a Hofner A shape mandolin.
                                            My 1972 Fender Precision Fretless Bass