Hey jlrush

[picker]

What ever became of the Mid-Missouri Hell Band?

[jlrush]

Hey picker,

The Mid-Missouri Hell Band split up in the early 80's when Mike Henderson (mandolin) moved to Nashville to eventually become a session player and retained writer.

Mike Imgarten (banjo) followed him later on and Forrest Rose (bass) died a few years ago of a brain aneurism after a late night jam in Arizona.

I can't remember who played guitar with them but they all sang and were the best bluegrass band in the state during the 70's.

Henderson wrote and co-wrote a lot of tunes in Nashville and The Fabulous Thunderbirds covered one of them, a song called Powerful Stuff.

These days you can hear Henderson and Imgarten in a Nashville band called The Steel Drivers. Check 'em out here:

Henderson is on mandolin and Imgarten on bass. The others in the band all live in Nashville, I assume.

That's cool that you remember them. Enjoy!

The 'Hell Band' was originally from Columbia, Mo.

[picker]

I never got to see them myself. I joined the Navy about the time they started making noise around the state. My best friend told me about hearing them sing an amazing acapella version of John the Revelator, the old Son House tune. He was still raving about it 4 years after hearing it.

 

I just happened to think of them for some weird reason, and I knew they were from Columbia, so I wondered if you knew anything about them. Bands come and go, and sometimes good things happen to them, sometimes not. I wondered what had become of them.

[jlrush]

Check out the Steel Drivers.