The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers were a San Diego-based bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 group, perhaps most significant as the band that launched the career of founding Byrds' member, Chris Hillman

Chris Hillman

Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....

 and founding Eagles' guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

-songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, Bernie Leadon

Bernie Leadon

Bernard Mathew "Bernie" Leadon, III is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of two pioneering and highly influential country rock bands, Dillard & Clark and the Flying Burrito Brothers...

. The lineup included Hillman on mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, future Hearts & Flowers

Hearts & Flowers

Hearts & Flowers was a Los Angeles folk-rock club band, perhaps most significant as one of the groups that launched the career of Eagles' founding member and guitarist-songwriter, Bernie Leadon. The lineup included Larry Murray , Dave Dawson and Rick Cunha . Leadon replaced Cunha on their second...

 member Larry Murray on dobro

Dobro

Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...

, Ed Douglas on stand-up bass, Gary Carr on guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, and future Flying Burrito Brothers and Country Gazette member, Kenny Wertz on banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

. Leadon would replace Wertz on banjo when he left the group to join the Air Force

Air force

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...

 in 1963 (Wertz would ironically return the favor by replacing Leadon in the Flying Burrito Brothers when he left that group to start the Eagles in 1971).

The group recorded only one album, Blue Grass Favorites in 1963, but disbanded later that year. They have all remained in contact over the years, reuniting sporadically since 2003 and most recently in 2009 at the Adams Avenue Roots Festival in San Diego.