Michael Nesmith - Solo Career

Solo Career

As he prepared for his exit from The Monkees in 1970, Nesmith was approached by John Ware of The Corvettes, a band that featured Nesmith's friend John London, who played on some of the earliest pre-Monkees Nesmith 45s as well as numerous Monkees sessions, and had 45s produced by Nesmith for the Dot label in 1969. Ware wanted Nesmith to put together a band. Nesmith said he would be interested only if noted pedal steel player Orville "Red" Rhodes was part of the project: Nesmith's musical partnership with Rhodes continued until Rhodes' death in 1995. The new band was christened Michael Nesmith and the First National Band and went on to record three albums for RCA Records in 1970.

Nesmith has been considered one of the pioneers of country rock. He also had moderate commercial success with the First National Band. Their second single, "Joanne" hit No. 21 on the Billboard chart & No. 17 on Cashbox, with the follow-up "Silver Moon" making No. 42 Billboard/#28 Cashbox. Two more singles charted ("Nevada Fighter" No. 70 Billboard/#73 Cashbox & "Propinquity" No. 95 Cashbox) and the first two LP's charted in the lower regions of the Billboard album chart. No clear answer has ever been given for the band's breakup.

Nesmith followed up with The Second National Band, a band that besides Nesmith, consisted of Michael Cohen (keyboards and Moog), Johnny Meeks (bass), jazzer Jack Ranelli (drums) and Orville Rhodes (pedal steel), as well as an appearance by singer, musician, and songwriter José Feliciano on congas. The album, Tantamount to Treason Vol. 1, was a commercial and critical disaster. Nesmith then recorded And the Hits Just Keep On Comin', featuring only him on guitar and Red Rhodes on pedal steel.

Nesmith became more heavily involved in producing, working on Iain Matthews' album Valley Hi and Bert Jansch's L.A. Turnaround. Nesmith was given a label of his own through Elektra Records, Countryside, as Elektra's Jac Holzman was a fan of Nesmith. It featured a number of artists that were produced by Nesmith, including Garland Frady and Red Rhodes. The staff band at Countryside also helped Nesmith on his next, and last, RCA album, Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash. Countryside folded when David Geffen replaced Holzman, rendering Countryside unnecessary in Geffen's eyes.

In the mid-1970s, Nesmith briefly collaborated as a songwriter with Linda Hargrove, resulting in the tune "I've Never Loved Anyone More", a hit for Lynn Anderson and recorded by many others, as well as the songs "Winonah" and "If You Will Walk With Me", both of which were recorded by Hargrove. Of these songs, only "Winonah" was recorded by Nesmith himself. During this same period, Nesmith started his multimedia company Pacific Arts, which initially put out audio records, 8-tracks and cassettes, followed in 1981 with "video records." Nesmith recorded a number of LPs for his label, and had a moderate worldwide hit in 1977 with his song "Rio", the single taken from the album From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing. In 1983, Nesmith produced the music video for the Lionel Richie single All Night Long. In 1987, he produced the music video for the Michael Jackson single The Way You Make Me Feel.