Gordian Knot - Biography
By Eric Brightwell
The Gordian Knot were a country-and-folk tinged sunshine pop band from Mississippi, lead by Jim Weatherly. After a couple of profile raising gigs and one excellent record, they broke up.
James D. Weatherly was born March 17, 1943 in Pontotoc, a town named after the Chickasaw term meaning “Land of Hanging Grapes.” Weatherly began writing songs when he was about thirteen years old and performed them with various bands. He also showed promise as a football player. In 1962 and ’63, he was a quarterback in the only undefeated (and never tied) National Championship Rebel football team in Ole Miss history. In 1964, he was a quarterback for the All-SEC team.
Weatherly also formed his most enduring band, Gordian Knot at the University, although they were originally known as Jim Weatherly & the Vegas. They included bassist and songwriter Leland Russel, drummer Dulin Lancaster (ex-Tim Whitsett & the Imperial Show Band), keyboardist J.D. Lobue and guitarist Pat Kincade. Their music was a uniquely southern fried take on sunshine pop. In 1966, they played a show in Los Angeles, fell in love with the city and decided to quit school and stay. They were hired to perform at a party hosted by Nancy Sinatra who liked them so much that she hired them to accompany on her USO tour in 1967. In addition to serving as her backing band, they played a few of their own songs as well although in clips, the soldiers seem much more interested in the miniskirt and go go boot-wearing chanteuse than the quintet of college boys. They went down better with the crowd at The Factory where they played after returning.
The following year, in June, the band released their eponymous debut, The Gordian Knot (1968-Verve Records). Weatherly’s songs tend to have a garage ‘n’ country rock sensibility whereas Russell’s are more often pleasantly harmonized folk-pop in the vein of The Association. Lobue and Kincaide also contributed songs. In fact, the album was produced by The Hi-Los’ Clark Burroughs, who’d been the vocal arranger on two of The Association’s albums. That year they appeared as themselves in an MGM teen exploitation film, Young Runaways, in which they perform “Ophelia's Dream.” Despite their profile-rasing performances, the band didn’t feel like success was eminent and broke up after a final gig in Mobile, Alabama.
Dulin Lancaster showed up drums on a 1973 record by Dan Penn and retired to a trailer deep in the Mississippi woods. Weatherly was invited by a friend to meet Jim Nabors, who liked Weatherly’s songs enough to suggest he continue working as a songwriter for him. Weatherly moved to Nashville and became a successful country songwriter, for two years writing for The Jim Nabors Hour. He also penned several hits for Gladys Knight & the Pips, including most of Imagination, the album which produced an enormous hit with his “Midnight Train to Georgia” (which he’d actually written as “Midnight Train to Houston.”). Ray Price and Vince Gill have also had hits with his songs. He also recorded seven albums as a solo artist for ABC, Buddahin and Elektra and his own label, Brizac. He currently lives in toffee-nosed Brentwood, Tennessee with his wife Cynthia, their daughter, Brighton, and their son, Zack.
