The Section

Thanks to the movie, The Wrecking Crew, you might have heard of a band of ace musicians that played on those brilliant pop songs from the 60’s

Thanks to the movie, “Standing In The Shadows of Motown“, you might have heard of the band of ace musicians that played on all those brilliant Motown songs.

But it wasn’t until I read an article in the April 11 issue of Rolling Stone that I realized there was a group of musicians called The Section.  The article, written by David Browne who wrote one of my favorite music books of recent years, “Fire and Rain” introduces us to Danny Kortchmar, David Lindley, Waddy Wachtel, Craig Doerge, Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel, aka The Section aka The Mellow Mafia.

The Wrecking Crew and Motown studio musicians were not fortunate enough to have their names in the credits. All one has to do to find those names is look at some of my favorite albums of that era like JT, Running on Empty, Simple Dreams or Excitable Boy.  Like those musicians from the 60s it was these men that brought out the best in the musicians that played with.   Danny Kortchmar came up with slowed down arrangement for “Handy Man”.  It was Russ Kunkel that suggested the band play for an encore a new, unrehearsed song by Jackson Browne called “The Load-Out”.  That version ended up on “Running On Empty”.

The Section may not get a movie about their lives but the music lives “on and on”.

Stephen Bishop with Russ Kunkel

Linda Ronstadt with Waddy

James Taylor with Danny Kortchmar

Jackson Browne with most of The Section

Fun Fact: Danny Kortchmar played Ronnie Pudding in This is Spinal Tap.  He’s the guitarist on the right.