Bill Church – Bass

Who is Bill Church?

William ‘Bill’ Church started out playing bass in a band called Sawbuck in 1969, with Mojo Collins, Starr Donaldson, Ronnie Montrose and Chuck Ruff. As the band was beginning to record their first album, Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Van Morrison on his Tupelo Honey album. When Montrose rejoined Ruff to record Edgar Winter Group’s smash They Only Come Out at Night, Church remained with Morrison and appeared on the Saint Dominic’s Preview LP. When Montrose left Winter to form his own hard rock outfit, Montrose, Church was recruited along with singer Sammy Hagar and drummer Denny Carmassi. Church was replaced on the second Montrose album Paper Money by Alan Fitzgerald.

After Hagar left Montrose to start his solo career, Church rejoined the singer for eight studio albums from Nine on a Ten Scale to VOA until Hagar left to front Van Halen.

(biography details from Biography of Bill Church

The track transcribed here is from the live Sammy Hagar album from 1978 ‘Loud And Clear’. I didn’t realise this for many years but the track, ‘Young Girls Blues’ was written by Donovan. I absolutely love the opening guitar thing but the whole track has a dynamic range that gives the performance a depth you don’t see as often as you should in Rock music. The part is pretty easy to play and read and the tempo is steady so a good one for relative beginners.