Cold Steel

• Genres: Rock

Biography

Cold Steel was a short-lived country-rock group from the early '70s with close ties to the Flying Burrito Brothers. The group released one European album on Ariola Records in 1974. The group was founded by pedal steel player "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow, who had been a key member in the Gram Parsons/Chris Hillman-led Flying Burrito Brothers, playing on three albums and leaving in the spring of 1971. For Cold Steel, Kleinow teamed up with fiddler Gib Guilbeau, who had played with Clarence White and Gene Parsons in mythological '60s country rockers Nashville West. (When Parsons and White left to join the late '60s version of the Byrds, Guilbeau formed a band called Swampwater with Glen D. Hardin.) Though Cold Steel's one album featured only Kleinow's face on the cover, it was very much a group effort. The 1974 release was produced by Daniel Moore and Cold Steel, the other members of which included Greg Attaway (drums and vocals), Michael A. Bowden (bass), David Lovelace (piano), and Richard Bowden (guitar). Later that year, Cold Steel came to an end when Kleinow and Guilbeau teamed up with original Burritos bassist Chris Ethridge to form a new Flying Burrito Brothers that featured ex-Byrd Gene Parsons on drums and vocalist Joel Scott Hill (Canned Heat). This version of the Burritos released albums in 1975 and 1976. ~ Erik Hage, All Music Guide

cold steel