The Cate Brothers

Arkansas natives Earl and Ernie Cate built careers as songwriters and performers whose work fused blues with rock & roll, country, and rockabilly. Signing with Asylum Records in 1975, pianist/vocalist Ernie and guitarist/vocalist Earl released their self-titled debut shortly thereafter, featuring contributions from Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve Cropper, former Band drummer Levon Helm, and former Eagle and Poco member Timothy B. Schmidt. Their 1976 follow-up, In One Eye and Out the Other, preceded the 1977 album The Cate Brothers Band. The single "Union Man" helped propel 1979's Fire on the Tracks to number 24 on the album rock charts in 1976.

Although the 1980s yielded few new recordings, the group sustained a strong following as a live act across Tennessee, Arkansas, and other Southern centers of country rock and blues. Early in that decade Earl and Ernie joined Helm and additional musicians to reconstitute the Band after the departure of guitarist Robbie Robertson; in addition to those road dates with Helm, the brothers worked with blues singer Maria Muldaur. Recording continued into the 1990s, culminating in the 1995 release Radioland, a distinctive blend of pop-oriented blues-rock, Stax-era soul-blues, and country-rock that included former John Mayall blues guitar phenom Coco Montoya. The album Play by the Rules appeared in 2004.