Al Perkins (Born January 18, 1944) is a Texas-born American guitarist. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential Dobro player", and even began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in 2001 - designed and autographed by Perkins.
After some time in the US Army, Perkins moved to California with the band Shiloh, which also included Don Henley and future producer/record executive Jim Ed Norman. He went on to record and tour with the Flying Burrito Brothers,Richie Furay, Dan Fogelberg, Stephen Stills, Leonard Cohen, Gram Parsons, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Daniel Amos, The Rolling Stones, Joe Walsh, Michael Nesmith, Randy Newman, James Taylor, Debby Boone, Tori Amos, The Eagles, Bethlehem, and McGuinn and Hillman. In 1971, Perkins became a member of Stephen Stills band, Manassas. After Manassas broke up in 1973, Perkins joined fellow Manassas member Chris Hillman in forming the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band; when that group splintered in 1975, he joined Mason Proffit.
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.
While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."
Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. He attended Roslyn Elementary School. His mother, Marsha Klinitsky, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His grandfather was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." Cohen attended Westmount High School, beginning in 1948 where he was involved with the Student Council and studied music and poetry. He became especially interested in the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. As a teenager, he learned to play the guitar, and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. Although he initially played a regular acoustic guitar as a teenager, he soon switched to playing a classical guitar after meeting a young Spanish flamenco guitar player who taught him "a few chords and some flamenco."
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young). He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time. Stills was ranked #28 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Stills became the first person to be inducted twice on the same night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with CSN and the Buffalo Springfield.
Stills was raised in a military family. Moving around as a child, he developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his youth in Gainesville and Tampa, Florida, Louisiana, Costa Rica, Panama Canal Zone and El Salvador, where he graduated from high school, and was an avid sailor. He also attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida and Saint Leo College Preparatory School in Saint Leo, Florida.
Kevin Montgomery (born April 4, 1988) is an American ice hockey player who currently plays for the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League while under contract to the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League.
Montgomery was drafted 110th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche. Recruited from the United States Development program in the NAHL, Montgomery then joined Ohio State University in collegiate hockey. Midway through his freshman year, Kevin left the Buckeyes for the London Knights of the OHL for the remainder of the 2006–07 season. During the 2007–08 season, Montgomery was then named to the United States team for the 2008 World Junior Championships.
Upon completing his second year with the Knights, Montgomery signed an Amateur Try-Out agreement with the Avalanche's AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters on April 3, 2008, and played out the remainder of the season. Prior to the 2008–09 season, Montgomery signed a three-year entry level contract with the Avalanche on October 1, 2008. After appearing in the first five games of the AHL season with the Monsters, Montgomery was then re-assigned back to junior team the London Knights.
Christopher "Chris" Hillman (born December 4, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) was one of the original members of The Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his work with The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the country-rock group Desert Rose Band.
Hillman, the third of four children, spent his early years at his family's ranch home in rural northern San Diego County, approximately 110 miles (180 km) from Los Angeles. He has credited his older sister with exciting his interest in country and folk music when she returned from college during the late 1950s with folk music records by The New Lost City Ramblers and others. Hillman soon began watching many of the country-music shows on local television in southern California at the time such as Town Hall Party, The Spade Cooley Show and Cal's Corral. Hillman's mother encouraged his musical interests and bought him his first guitar; shortly thereafter he developed an interest in bluegrass, particularly the mandolin. At age 15 Hillman went to Los Angeles to see the Kentucky Colonels bluegrass band at the Ash Grove, and later convinced his family to allow him to travel by train to Berkeley for lessons from mandolinist Scott Hambly. Around this time, Hillman's father died.