Pure Prairie League

Pure Prairie League
Pure Prairie League in 2010
Background information
Origin	Waverly, Ohio, United States
Genres	Country rock, soft rock
Years active	1970–1988, 1998–2002, 2004–present
Labels	RCA, Casablanca, Thirty Tigers
Associated acts	Vince Gill
Website	pureprairieleague.com

Pure Prairie League is an American country rock band whose roots go back to 1965 and Waverly, Ohio, with Craig Fuller, Tom McGrail, Jim Caughlan, and John David Call. In 1970 McGrail named the band after a fictional 19th century temperance union featured in the 1939 Errol Flynn cowboy film Dodge City. The band had five consecutive Top 40 LPs in the 1970s and added a sixth in the 1980s. The band has had a long run, active from the 1970s through the late 1980s and was revived in the late 1990s for a time, then again in 2004. As of 2016, they are still doing at least 100 shows a year.

Although the band has its roots in Waverly, Ohio, it was actually formed in Columbus and had its first success in Cincinnati. Craig Fuller, Tom McGrail, Jim Caughlan and John David Call had played together in various bands since high school, notably the Omars and the Swiss Navy.

In 1970 the first solid Pure Prairie League lineup was Fuller, McGrail, George Ed Powell, Phil Stokes on bass and Robin Suskind on guitar and mandola, with steel guitar player Call joining the band later that year. Call's steel guitar added country credibility and sparked guitar duels with Fuller that reinforced the signature sound of the band. They rose to popularity as the house band at New Dilly's Pub in the Mt. Washington section of Cincinnati.

In 1971 McGrail and Stokes left the band to rehearse with Bill Bartlett (of Beechwood Farm, Ram Jam and The Lemon Pipers fame). Jim Caughlan, who'd played guitar and drums with Fuller, Call and McGrail in earlier bands, took over on drums and Jim Lanham from California replaced Stokes.

Early on, the Pure Prairie League was looking for national artist representation and they made contact with a well-known Cleveland based rock and roll promoter, Roger Abramson. At the behest of Jim Westermeyer, Pure Prairie League's roadie (and former roadie for the James Gang), Abramson saw the band at New Dilly's Pub and later signed them to a management contract. Abramson was able to obtain a contract with RCA Records. He then placed Pure Prairie League as an opening act with many of the concerts he was producing.