In the movie Almost Famous, the fledgling journalist out on tour with the band receives an explanation from the lead guitarist regarding life on the road: “This is the circus. Everybody’s trying not to go home.”

This quote pretty much sums up life in Los Angeles.

Like countless thousands of actors, writers, and musicians, Dunn & McCashen moved to L.A. in search of fame and fortune. In the late 1960s, the City Of Angels was the hippest place in America if music happened to be your bag (actually the supremely hip place to be was in a bag with John and Yoko, but I digress…).

Unlike thousands of others, Dunn & McCashen actually succeeded relatively quickly in their new town when Jose Feliciano and then Joe Cocker each covered a song the duo had written called “Hitchcock Railway.” This gave Dunn & McCashen enough juice around town to record a couple of albums and singles for Capitol, including their only appearance on the Hot 100 with a record called “Alright In The City.” The single just managed to scrape its way onto the chart at #91 in November of 1970 before immediately falling back out.

Unfortunately, the aspiring performers failed to find further fame or fortune, and so they had to do whatever they could in order to keep the dream alive and survive while doing it. McCashen played guitar on some other people’s albums and briefly tried his hand at production. Dunn tried working in another duo, did sessions as a backing vocalist, contributed a song to a movie soundtrack, and kept up with his writing, placing songs with (among others) Nancy Sinatra, Thelma Houston, and Diana Ross.

Musicians working hard to stay musicians. Just trying to stay in the circus for as long as they can.