Bruce Langhorne

Bruce Langhorne was one of the most important session guitarists of the 1960s, particularly in the early years of folk-rock. He is most famous for playing on some of Bob Dylan’s records, including Bringing It All Back Home in 1965, Dylan’s transitional release from folk to folk-rock. Bruce also played with numerous musicians during their change from folk to folk-rock in the second half of the 1960s, including Tom Rush, Richard & Mimi Fariña, Richie Havens, Gordon Lightfoot, Eric Andersen, Fred Neil, Joan Baez, and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

He also played other instruments; performed live with Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, the Fariñas, and others; and produced Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. He has also done soundtrack work, including scoring Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand.

Bruce and Judy Collins at Anti-War Concert

Bruce and Bob Dylan on Les Crane Show

Langhorne developed a distinctive economic style that acted as the response half of a call-and-response with singer/songwriters’ vocals, often using rapid triplets of notes. The style arose partly as the result of a childhood accident in which he lost some fingers, limiting the range of techniques he could master, forcing him to concentrate on the accompanist role. When folk-rock came in, Langhorne used an acoustic guitar with a pickup, running it through a Fender Twin Reverb amp that he borrowed from guitarist (and fellow multi-instrumentalist) Sandy Bull. Influenced by Roebuck Staples of the Staple Singers, he would set up a tremolo effect in time with the song. The result was a sound, both acoustic and electric in color, well-suited to the period in which rock and folk music were combining.

Langhorne became a part of the New York folk scene in the early ’60s, where he started out as an accompanist to folk singer Brother John Sellers, who worked as an MC at Gerde’s Folk City club. As a result of his constant exposure at the club, he began sitting in with numerous Greenwich Village musicians and finding work as an accompanist both live and in the studio. One of his first recording sessions was for Carolyn Hester’s first Columbia album in 1961, a session which also included a then-unsigned Bob Dylan on harmonica.

Bruce, Carolyn Hester, Bob, and Bill Lee

Langhorne played on outtakes from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963, including the "electrified" single, “Mixed Up Confusion."

Langhorne’s biggest fame comes from just a few days of sessions in early 1965, for Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home album. Langhorne is heard throughout that LP, coming especially to the fore on “She Belongs to Me,” “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

As spelled out in the liner notes to Dylan’s box set Biograph, Langhorne is Mr. Tambourine Man.

In the track commentary, Dylan is quoted as follows: “‘Mr. Tambourine Man,” I think, was inspired by Bruce Langhorne. Bruce was playing guitar with me on a bunch of the early records. On one session, (producer) Tom Wilson had asked him to play tambourine. And he had this gigantic tambourine. It was like, really big. It was as big as a wagon-wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind. He was one of those characters…he was like that. I don’t know if I’ve ever told him that.”

For all the impression Langhorne apparently made on Dylan, he didn’t record with him again (other than on the soundtrack of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid), though he did play live with him at least once, for a 1965 appearance on Les Crane’s television show.

Langhorne was much more than an interesting footnote in Dylan’s career, though. In the mid- to late ’60s he was in the studio all of the time, adding particularly important contributions to the two Vanguard albums by Richard & Mimi Fariña. He made other notable appearances on Tom Rush’s first electric album, Take a Little Walk With Me; John Sebastian’s first album; Joan Baez’s Farewell, Angelina; and numerous other LPs. He also produced Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s first major-label album in 1968, Young Brigham. By the early ’70s, his session work was becoming less frequent, though he continued over the next few decades to work in soundtracks, as a live accompanist, and co-running a recording studio with Morgan Cavett.

Addendum by Cynthia Riddle, Director, Invisible Legend

Odetta, Bruce, and Les Grinage

Odetta and Bruce

Left out of the Unterberger bio above is Bruce’s relationship with the acclaimed folksinger, Odetta, dubbed “the queen of American folk music” by Dr Martin Luther King. Bruce and Odetta recorded five albums together and toured extensively on four continents over a three year period.

Perhaps Bruce’s most memorable experience with Odetta was at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, where they played “Oh Freedom” to an audience of 250,000, before Dr King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. The other musicians at that event included Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, as well as Peter, Paul & Mary.

Bruce moved from New York to California in the late ‘60s and worked extensively as a composer of movie soundtracks for directors including Jonathan Demme (Melvin and Howard, Fighting Mad and Swing Shift), Bob Rafaelson (Stay Hungry) and Peter Fonda (Hired Hand and Idaho Transfer).

Bruce was in his 50’s when a routine medical check-up revealed a severe case of high blood pressure and diabetes, leading his doctor to prescribe a salt-free diet. Devastated at the prospect of a lifetime of bland food, Bruce and his friend Cynthia sourced African peppers and spices, and mixed up a batch of sauce in the kitchen of his Venice bungalow. The result was Brother Bru-Bru’s delicious, sodium-free hot sauce.

The Venice, California home he shared with his wife, Janet, and their pack of rescue dogs had a lush backyard where his friends gathered regularly to celebrate anything, or nothing, joined together by friendship, great music and delicious food.

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