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The Have To Band
There are several reasons that Nashville, Tennessee is known as “Music City”. The overabundance of musical talent in town stems from the fact that over the years musicians have flocked there to “make it” in the recording industry. As a result, most Nashville businesses have employees that were forced to get a REAL job but still want to put their chops to use. This was true for the Thomas Nelson company, where Doug Smith, Randy Gordon, and Steve Warfield worked. They started a band, and the company was quick to utilize them for company events and functions. For that reason, they christened themselves “The Have To Band” since NOT entertaining was not an option. For some events, they enlisted help from Jamey Ratzlaff and Kenny Balch to round out the instrumentation.
The Memphis Croon Dawgs
Eventually, Ratzlaff became a Thomas Nelson employee and a permanent member of the group. They got some gigs outside of the company events, so a name change was in order. They stuck with a ’50s motif, and even wrote and recorded a fictitious account about themselves called “The Ballad Of The Memphis Croon Dawgs”.
The New Croon Dawgs
When Doug Smith left the band, long-time picking buddy, Don Dixon was brought in (guitar/vocals) and the name of the band changed again. They also dropped the ’50s motif and expanded to a harder and more current repertoire. Here are some live recordings they did at Log Cabin Studio (Randy’s garage)
