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Golden, Gene

He is a keyboardist, vocalist and composer who began his professional music career in Nashville in the 1960s.

He was a member of The Squires and later took over from the singer Robert Knight when he joined The Fairlanes in 1966 as a vocalist and organist.  He then became a member of the variety band The Graduates who performed at several nightclubs in Nashville as well as entertaining the troops in the southeast during the Vietnam War during the late 1960s and early ‘70s.  They released the single “7th Generation Breakthrough” which would be their only release.

In moved on in 1972 when he became a member of the R&B group The Turning Point.  They worked their way around the Nashville clubs for the next few years until joining Kenny Rogers in 1976.  Growing in number from three members to seven they went on to perform on the majority of Kenny’s albums from then until the 2000s.  He left the band after twenty years to concentrate on other projects.

Aside from his work with Kenny Rogers he has worked as an independent producer from his own studio at Old Hickory in Nashville and written a theme for a television series which won him an Emmy and co-written a Cleo-Award winning jingle for the Special Olympics.  In the early 2000s he joined up with the musician Tom Crain who had previously been a long-time member of The Charlie Daniels Band and together they released The Golden Crane album.

Kenny Rogers recordings
The Gambler (Don Schlitz)
United Artists UA-X1250-Y (UAST-20122)


Sources:

  1. http://nashlinks.com/sixties.htm
  2. http://nashlinks.com/seventies.htm
  3. http://swampland.com/articles/view/title:tommy_crain
  4. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gene-golden-mn0000196776/credits
  5. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Gene+Golden