Bassist Bruce Barthol started out in music at just about the top, at least within the context of San Francisco in the mid-'60s. Born in Berkeley, California, in 1947 (some sources say 1949), he became an original member of Country Joe & the Fish at age 18. He was on the three-song EP that the band recorded itself, and played on Electric Music for the Mind and Body -- arguably one of the greatest psychedelic albums to come out of San Francisco -- and the two records that followed it. Barthol left the group in 1968 and worked on relatively few recordings after that; he was on Country Joe McDonald's solo LP Paradise with an Ocean View (1976), played bass for Rosalie Sorrels, produced one album for ex-Blues Project guitarist Danny Kalb, and annotated an album of songs from the Spanish Civil War. In 2003, he rejoined McDonald, Chicken Hirsh, and David Bennett Cohen in the Country Joe Band. One of his songs also appeared on Barry Melton's 1997 live album Saloon Years. He was also musical director with the celebrated performance art group the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Bruce Barthol died on February 20, 2023, at the age of 75. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi