GARDEN PARTY BANDis a 3-piece band (and sometimes 4 and 5-piece band) that plays great California Country Rock, Oldies, Classic Country, and Classics - fun music! Garden Party features members from Butch Wax & The Hollywoods – one of the top bands in the area for the past 38 years. Garden Party plays lots of great oldies from the Butch Wax list and also country rock favorites from The Eagles, Rick Nelson, Vince Gill, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Rivers, Fleetwood Mac, CCR, Elvis, Brooks & Dunn, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks, Three Dog Night, Tommy James, The Rascals, and more!

“When we first got together, the first song we learned was Garden Party by Rick Nelson” says Gene Ackmann. “We played it every time we rehearsed and it has always been a favorite of mine”. The story behind the song was that Rick Nelson played a show at Madison Square Garden as part of a Rock and Roll Revival tour. Everyone from Chuck Berry to Bob Dylan and George Harrison and John Lennon were there. Rick came out to do his portion of the show and did his old hits plus some new material. The year was 1972 and he didn’t look like the fans remembered him from the Ozzie and Harriet TV Show. His hair was longer and he had a new sound – a sound that would become the L.A. country rock sound and the blueprint for bands like The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. The crowd at Madison Square Garden turned on Rick and began booing him when he tried to play his new material. Shaken and hurt by the experience he went home to California and wrote one of his masterpiece songs “Garden Party”. In the song Rick tells the story about the experience at Madison Square Garden and it became a #1 Hit for him in 72. “But it’s all right now – I’ve learned my lesson well – you see you can’t please everyone so you’ve got to please yourself”

“When I met Don Henley in 2003, the first thing I asked him wasn’t anything about The Eagles. I asked him what he thought about Rick Nelson and Rick’s contribution to music”. Henley said that Rick was a favorite of his and a big influence. He said that he and Glenn Frey and Linda Ronstadt would hang out at The Troubadour when they were unknowns hoping that Rick Nelson would come in and play – as it was a favorite spot of Rick’s. Randy Meisner was Rick’s bass player in the Stone Canyon Band and played and sang on Garden Party. Meisner later became one of the founding members of The Eagles.

We named ourselves The Garden Party Band as kind of paying homage to Rick and the great L.A Country Rock sound that he helped pioneer with the Stone Canyon Band - as well as the great string of hits he had in the 50’s and 60’s.