The Cache Valley Drifters are progenitors of California Americana

IN THE BEGINNING.... The Cache Valley Drifters started their life together in the summer of 1972 as a band of buskers, folksingers, deadheads, trekkies, and aficionados of Bluegrass....the perfect modern acoustic ensemble.

In the beginning the group started as a friendship between

The Cache Valley Drifters are progenitors of California Americana

IN THE BEGINNING.... The Cache Valley Drifters started their life together in the summer of 1972 as a band of buskers, folksingers, deadheads, trekkies, and aficionados of Bluegrass....the perfect modern acoustic ensemble.

In the beginning the group started as a friendship between David West and Cyrus Clarke. The humble beginnings of this band began at the Bluebird Café on Anapamu street in Santa Barbara but David and Cyrus actually met at a seaside hotel near East Beach one fateful night.

Now the hotel is the luxurious Hyatt, but back in 1972, it was known as the very run down Mar Monte Hotel. In those days Santa Barbara was a repository of elderly people, hippies, and beatniks.

There were two bars in the hotel, The Brewery and Blackbeards West. The former was Santa Barbara's badass rocking blues bar while the latter was run out of the room size of a kitchen and featured small groups of acoustic players. It was at Blackbeards that Dave & Cy met. David and his partner, Chris Clayton were playing three nights a week while Cyrus and his partner, Steve DeGroodt, were playing the other three nights; black on Sunday. I think it might've been another act at the time floating in and out of the scene called Animal Bob and Michael...the name of that act is enough....

One night Cyrus came down to watch Chris and Dave, but Chris was not there. David asked Cyrus to sit in and honestly, never looked back. We just started playing music together that night and didn't stop till about 1984....

The rest is history.....