The Solid Gold Band - Good Friends Are Hard To Find

Mainstream country band from Galena, Kansas, a little postage-stamp town in the southeast end of the state, just across the border from Joplin, Missouri. They worked a nightclub in Joplin called the Gold Dust Lounge -- according to the liner notes, they weren't just the house band, they actually owned the place. According to a 2011 news story in The Joplin Globe the bar opened in the late 1940s as the Freeway Cafe, and over the years was known as Dan's Branding Iron, The Wells Fargo, The Stampede, The Gold Dust Lounge, The Paint Stallion, The Horse Shoe Saloon and was slated to reopen as The Crazy Town Rockin' Saloon at press time in 2011, soon to be renamed The Blue Rose. The SGB was formed in 1974 by lead singers John Green and Jim Rowland (the guys who bought the bar) and played steadily throughout Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. They had a working relationship with Tom T. Hall and his band the Storytellers, who helped them in the studio for their album, "Meet the Solid Gold Band." The band included Alan Abbott (drums), Mike Bartlett (guitar), John Green (bass) Tyler Ogle (keyboards) and Jim Rowland on rhythm guitar.