Gary Yoder

Gary Lee Yoder was an American songwriter, guitarist, mouth harp player and vocalist, born January 25, 1946. He was an army brat, growing up in Germany, Japan and various places in the US, before settling with is family in the university city of Davis near Sacramento, the state capital in northern California. This is where he started out in garage/psyche rock band The Oxford Circle 1964-67 with, among others, drummer Paul Whaley who later would become a forming member of Blue Cheer in San Franciso in 1967. In late 1967, he formed the more psychedelic oriented KAK with fellow The Oxford Circle member Dehner Patten on lead guitar. With three new members, KAK settled in San Franciso, and in early 1969 released a sought after LP for Epic. When they split up soon afterward, Yoder replaced Leigh Stephens in Blue Cheer 1969-71 (Stephens was fired after the first two, classic acid rock albums since he critisized the others' drug use and abuse, after which he left the music industry...), and also disappeared from public life (which never kept him from playing). He died August 7, 2021, aged 75.