Spring 2024

144 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 launches him to instant fame and fortune—but the executive did give him a tip that changed Beland’s life forever. “He told me to check out the Troubadour, a West Hollywood place that hosted an open mic night.” The Troubadour was a petri dish of up-and- coming talent, and Beland fit right in, showcasing his tunes and filling in on guitar for acts that needed a helping hand. “One day I was asked to play with a young Nashville songwriter who had just blown into town. I met him in the dressing room, and he taught me his songs.”That songwriter was Kris Kristofferson. “I never saw him again until a couple of years later and I heard he’d done a couple of movies.” Around 1970, Beland was introduced to a sultry young singer who was leaving her band, the Stone Ponies, to go solo under her own name, Linda Ronstadt. “We formed Swampwater with Linda,” he says. “We had a weeklong gig at the Troubadour, and Kris opened for us.” Interestingly, Kristofferson’s band included bassist Billy Swan, who later had a No. 1 hit with “I Can Help.” “He asked if I would play with him, so I worked with both acts all week. One night, he told me that a friend of his was going to sit in with the band. Johnny Cash got up on stage. I’m totally freaking… knees are knocking. The place went crazy, he looked ten feet tall to me.” Beland has scores of stories of encounters like this at the legendary club, including one night when Ronstadt took the reluctant guitarist to see an unknown piano player named Elton John. “Everything I got in my career I owe to those days at theTroubadour, backing peo- ple up,” he says. In Hollywood, Beland set- tled into the life of a professional session gui- tarist, playing on recordings by other artists, and for commercials and film scores, while also hon- ing his songwriting chops. Often, acts he record- ed with hired him to tour with them, and that Upon moving from LA to Nashville in the late 1970s, Beland quickly found himself recording and touring the world with both up-and-coming young artists such as Garth Brooks and established celebrities like Dolly Parton. Country music became Beland’s forte, and that meant moving to Nashville, where he became an in-demand player. Photo: Courtesy of John Beland