Biography
Since the dawn of the 1970s Craig Doerge has ranked among the premier keyboard players of his era, carving out a long-running career both as a highly sought session and touring musician and as a composer. Several noteworthy late-1960s dates already featured his playing, among them the GTO's Permanent Damage album, which appeared on the Bizarre imprint. Once the new decade opened, he advanced to arranging duties for Lee Hazlewood on Cowboy in Sweden, contributed backing vocals to Russ Giguere's Hexagram 16, and performed on Cyrus Faryar's Cyrus as well as Alexander Harvey's self-titled 1971 release.
Doerge first distinguished himself from the larger pool of Los Angeles session players when he joined Rosebud, the ensemble that also counted Judy Henske and Jerry Yester among its members; the group issued two singles and a self-titled LP on Reprise before disbanding. Shortly afterward he wed Henske, whose previous marriage to Yester had ended. In 1972 he surfaced on Graham Nash/David Crosby, the inaugural album by the duo, and soon thereafter appeared on Jackson Browne's Asylum debut plus releases by Barbara Keith, Casey Kelly, Donovan's Essence to Essence, Shawn Phillips' Bright White, James Taylor's One Man Dog, and Linda Ronstadt's Don't Cry Now.
His affiliation with the Section, alongside Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Russ Kunkel, proved equally pivotal; the unit cut two Warner Bros. albums and a third for Capitol. Although the Section achieved little commercial traction under its own name, fellow musicians regarded it as one of the era's elite backing ensembles. Doerge participated in seven Jackson Browne albums across the 1970s and 1980s, yet it was his role within the Crosby & Nash touring and recording unit—and later within the core rhythm section supporting Crosby, Stills & Nash on the trio's late-decade reunions—that placed the Section's work before the widest audiences on disc, on radio, and onstage. During this same period Doerge and Henske began co-writing material, several pieces of which were adopted by Crosby & Nash and by Crosby, Stills & Nash, while Crosby himself also collaborated directly with Doerge.
By the middle of the decade Doerge, both independently and alongside his Section colleagues, was contributing to an expansive roster of sessions that included Carole Bayer Sager, Libby Titus, Jackson Browne, Bette Midler, and Phoebe Snow. In subsequent years he took part in reunion tours and recordings involving Crosby, Stills & Nash (and occasionally Young) as well as various solo endeavors by members of that circle; concurrently he continued to perform and record with Henske, among those projects her 2000 album Loose in the World.
Doerge first distinguished himself from the larger pool of Los Angeles session players when he joined Rosebud, the ensemble that also counted Judy Henske and Jerry Yester among its members; the group issued two singles and a self-titled LP on Reprise before disbanding. Shortly afterward he wed Henske, whose previous marriage to Yester had ended. In 1972 he surfaced on Graham Nash/David Crosby, the inaugural album by the duo, and soon thereafter appeared on Jackson Browne's Asylum debut plus releases by Barbara Keith, Casey Kelly, Donovan's Essence to Essence, Shawn Phillips' Bright White, James Taylor's One Man Dog, and Linda Ronstadt's Don't Cry Now.
His affiliation with the Section, alongside Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Russ Kunkel, proved equally pivotal; the unit cut two Warner Bros. albums and a third for Capitol. Although the Section achieved little commercial traction under its own name, fellow musicians regarded it as one of the era's elite backing ensembles. Doerge participated in seven Jackson Browne albums across the 1970s and 1980s, yet it was his role within the Crosby & Nash touring and recording unit—and later within the core rhythm section supporting Crosby, Stills & Nash on the trio's late-decade reunions—that placed the Section's work before the widest audiences on disc, on radio, and onstage. During this same period Doerge and Henske began co-writing material, several pieces of which were adopted by Crosby & Nash and by Crosby, Stills & Nash, while Crosby himself also collaborated directly with Doerge.
By the middle of the decade Doerge, both independently and alongside his Section colleagues, was contributing to an expansive roster of sessions that included Carole Bayer Sager, Libby Titus, Jackson Browne, Bette Midler, and Phoebe Snow. In subsequent years he took part in reunion tours and recordings involving Crosby, Stills & Nash (and occasionally Young) as well as various solo endeavors by members of that circle; concurrently he continued to perform and record with Henske, among those projects her 2000 album Loose in the World.
Albums