The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
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CYMARRON
“RINGS”
(Eddie Reeves, Alex Harvey)
Entrance 7500
No. 17 August 7, 1971
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Producer Chips Moman had something of an open-door policy at his American Recording Studios in
Memphis. One promising day in 1969, Rick Yancey (b.1948) walked through that door. Yancey, who was
born and raised in Memphis, had drifted in and out of music and likewise Memphis State University. That
morn, Rick approached Moman with some self-penned songs. “Chips listened, didn’t like the songs, and
hired me,” Yancey joked on the liner notes to Cymarron’s lone album. For a year, Rick hung around the
studios, working on recording sessions and trying to write that smash hit.
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Looking for some action, Sherrill Parks (b. 1948, Jackson, TN), a guitarist and sax player from Tennessee,
dropped by the studios. Rick and Sherrill hit it off, and soon talked of constructing a group to cut some hit
records. Rick suggested the addition of Richard Maine gra (b. 1948, New Orleans) to the group that was to
be named after a local TV Western series, “Cymarron Strip.” Richard had co-written some songs cut by
Gary Puckett and Skeeter Davis, had recorded with the Phyve, and had made some unsuccessful solo
singles for Scepter Records.
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Cymarron’s sound resembled the mellow folkie emissions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and America.
Moman, agreeing that the blend of their voices was quite good, gave the group a pile of tunes to practice,
and arranged for some top session musicians to flesh out Cymarron’s acoustic instrumentation. Sweet and
bouncy, “Rings” scaled the pop listings and nearly creased the Top 10. Nothing more, however, charted. At
least three more singles were issued before the fellows decided to branch off into other endeavors.
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