The Ducks

A memorable but short-lived project, the Ducks were a bar band based in Santa Cruz, California whose lineup featured Neil Young on guitar and vocals, though he was not the leader of the group. A democratic quartet, the Ducks allowed all four members to take lead vocals and perform songs of their own, and their blend of country rock, blues, folk-rock, and straight-ahead rock made them the talk of their hometown during the three months they were together. The Ducks never released any recordings during their brief run, and only a few bootleg tapes documented their sound until Young arranged for the release of an archival live album, 2023's High Flyin'. The Ducks story began in early 1977, when Jerry Miller, best remembered for his work with Moby Grape, was putting together a new group which included fellow Moby Grape alumni Bob Mosley on bass and songwriter and guitarist Jeff Blackburn, who in the '60s recorded with the folk duo Blackburn & Snow. Neil Young, who had known the Moby Grape guys from his days sharing bills with them when he was in Buffalo Springfield, joined Miller and his band on-stage for a jam one evening. While Miller was busy with other projects, Young got together with Mosley and Blackburn, who were living in Santa Cruz, and he liked the chemistry they generated together. With Johnny Craviotto on drums (he'd previously worked with Ry Cooder and Arlo Guthrie), the foursome named themselves the Ducks and made their public debut at a Santa Cruz club called the Back Room. Rather than aiming to create a major new project, Young seemed eager to have a vehicle to play smaller shows and not be the center of attention; while he sang a handful of songs each night, so did the other three members, and his trademark guitar sound squared off against Blackburn's tough, straightforward approach. Playing bars for small cover charges (usually three dollars or less) and more concerned with fun than business, the Ducks developed a following by word of mouth, packing Santa Cruz clubs on a regular basis (fans started bringing duck calls to shows to quack their approval between songs), with Young briefly relocating to the city. When a local paper ran a story about the group, the secret was out, and they found themselves playing the biggest clubs in the area, though their admission price and all-for-one nature didn't change; Young usually shook hands with fans after their sets. The Ducks played five shows in Santa Cruz in July 1977, and 13 the following August, but as the mainstream music press began publishing reports about Young's new band, shows were soon overrun with fans who didn't understand the democratic nature of the group and their low-key philosophy, and they were sometimes inundated with requests for Young's songs when Mosley and Blackburn took their turns at the microphone. As his willfully small band started getting bigger, Young was hit with a burglary that robbed him of some of his most prized equipment, and plans to take the band on the road were scuttled when the members of Crazy Horse produced a contract that obligated Young to use them as his touring band, making it problematic for the band to appear outside Santa Cruz. After playing a set opening for the revived Moby Grape at the Santa Monica Civic Center in September 1977, Young resigned from the Ducks. Mosley, Blackburn, and Craviotto continued to play out and hoped Young might return, but interest waned without his presence, and after playing a gig opening for Elvin Bishop, the Ducks were history. Mosley continued to perform as a solo artist and take part in occasional Moby Grape reunions, Blackburn co-wrote the anthemic "My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" for Neil Young's 1979 classic Rust Never Sleeps, and Craviotto opened his own company manufacturing high quality gear for drummers. Young had some of the Ducks' August 1977 shows professionally recorded, and in 2023 the group finally enjoyed an authorized release of their music with the live set High Flyin'.
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