Craig Doerge

Craig Doerge (/ˈ d ɜːr ɡ i / ; born December 4, 1944) is an American keyboard player, session musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known for his keyboard work with Crosby Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Doerge (rhymes with Fergie) had an R&B band through college at Hartford, Connecticut, and then moved to Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles in the late-1960s to work as a studio player and songwriter with A&M Records, and with Jim Keltner, Larry Carlton, and others playing on early Kenny Rogers First Edition tracks, The Challengers, and cartoon shows, ("Groovy Ghoolies" and "Fat Albert"). After appearing on the Frank Zappa production, The GTOs' album Permanent Damage, he teamed up with Judy Henske, Jerry Yester and Jon Sieter, in the band Rosebud, marrying Henske in 1973.

From the early 1970s he appeared on many sessions. Initially these included albums by Lee Hazlewood and Linda Ronstadt, and he also recorded a solo album for Columbia Records in 1973. Aside from a principal role as keyboardist in the recordings of Crosby, Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne, he has played on albums by Gene Clark, Carly Simon, The Temptations, Shawn Phillips, Donovan, Mimi Farina and Tom Jans, Willie Nelson, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Hallyday, to name a few.

He was a founding member of The Section, a session supergroup, with Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel, which recorded three mostly instrumental LPs in the early to mid-1970s. This band continued through the 1980s in recordings and as a touring back-up band for Crosby, Stills and Nash, James Taylor and Jackson Browne.

Doerge has also collaborated as a songwriter with Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Paul Williams and others, and has worked on movie soundtracks. He won a Grammy Award for his participation as co-writer with Paul Williams and their song, "Life Goes On", sung in Lena Horne's Tony Award winning Broadway show, Lena. He was nominated for another Grammy in the blues category for the song, "World in Motion", co-written with Jackson Browne, and performed by Pops Staples. In recent years he has written the music for, and produced, two albums for his wife and lyricist, Judy Henske.

"Yellow Beach Umbrella," the lead track on Doerge's 1973 eponymous debut album, co-written with Henske, was recorded in 1976 by Three Dog Night on their American Pastime LP, by Andy Williams on his Andy LP, and by Bette Midler on her 1977 Broken Blossom LP, as well as by Libby Titus and Perry Como.