Backwater (band)
| Backwater | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Mobile, Alabama, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1975-79; 1997 (reunion) |
| Labels | Bongwater |
| Associated acts | Gerry Groom |
| Past members | Robby Catlin Larry Hardin Trippe Thomason Scott Pettersen |
Backwater was an American jazz fusion band, formed in Mobile, Alabama and active in the 1970s. The group was formed by Robby Catlin and Scott Pettersen, with Larry Hardin and Trippe Thomason rounding out the original lineup. The quartet formed in 1975, playing clubs and working as session musicians in Birmingham, Alabama. The group's first album, Backwater (1976), sold well throughout the Southeast and received radio airplay, leading to touring stints with B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris. Lineup changes plagued the band for much of the rest of their career. Pettersen and Catlin, alongside Tom and Myra Woodruff, produced one more recording (1978's North of the Mason-Dixon and the Heart of Dixie) before splitting as the decade closed. The band's original members reunited in 1997 for a one-off "20 year reunion" concert.
In the early 1970s, Robby Catlin formed Backwater as a trio playing cover music. The Mobile, Alabama-based trio (with guitarist Bob Bishop) performed covers of top 40 singles and became staples of fraternity parties and high school dances. In 1975, childhood friends Larry Hardin and Catlin formed a band with Scott Pettersen, Steve Ferrell and Jim Reid (with whom Catlin had performed in junior high school as part of the band Free Will) along with high school friend Jim Henderson and Bishop. The band moved to Birmingham, Alabama where they played cover music at The Morris House club. Ferrell, Bishop, Reid and Henderson left the band (some to return to college) and Catlin, Hardin and Pettersen met Trippe Thomason, who would be incorporated into the band as keyboardist in late 1975.
Guitarist Gerry Groom also joined the band in early 1976, but left following the recording of their debut. Groom, who had been a child prodigy that studied under and performed with Duane Allman, was instrumental in pushing the group into a more blues-based improvisational style and encouraged the band to find its own voice. Groom also introduced the group to John Hammond Jr., whom they backed in a 1975 concert. The group only owned one vehicle — a bread truck — and they lived together in a condemned home on the south side of the city. Eight months after forming, the band decided to record their first album. The band was largely inspired by artists such as Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and Mahavishnu.
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