Batdorf & Rodney - Collection (1971-2005)

Although they first met in high school in Hollywood, California, John and Mark got musically together in the mystical desert of Las Vegas, Nevada in September 1970.

John, originally from Dayton, Ohio was in a Cowsills type band called the "Loved Ones", featuring soap opera star Patty Weaver and her brothers. He was 15 at the time. They signed with Atlantic Records chairman Ahmet Ertugen and moved west, but the band went nowhere.

Mark, who grew up in Hollywood, California came from a famous musical family. As a teenager, he played in various blues bands and jammed with famous bands like the orginal Blues Image, Jimi Hendrix, and many rock stars in Hollywood clubs.

By 1970, both John and Mark had tired of the Los Angeles scene and were both interested in the new music revolution of the 70s....acoustic music! They re-connected in Las Vegas and started playing acoustic guitars together. They were both heavily in the new sound of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Neil Young, James Taylor, and Simon & Garfunkel. After three months, they had conquered Las Vegas and had enough originals to head back to Los Angeles. By a magic coincidence, Ahmet Ertegun was in Los Angeles and offered to audition them. He immediately signed them to Atlantic Records and produced them himself in legendary Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The group eventually recorded three albums on Atlantic, Asylum (one of their first releases), and Arista Records. The three A's! They toured for five years with groups like Bread, The Youngbloods, Loggins and Messina, Three Dog Night, Dan Fogelberg, Chicago, Seals and Crofts, and every group from that era. They had several regional hits but never broke nationally before they had enough of the business. Batdorf and Rodney were actually before groups like America, Seals and Crofts, and Dan Fogelberg. They were always considered a major influence of that sound.

Today, John Batdorf persists as an active and beloved performer, gigging frequently on the US West Coast. Mark Rodney plays occasionally with a jazz trio and maintains his role as family man.