Buck Dharma

Lead guitarist and vocalist for Blue Oyster Cult, since its inception in 1967, Buck Dharma (born: Donald Roser) has successfully branched out to a variety of outside projects. He released a powerful solo album, Flat Out, in 1982, and wrote score "cues" for the 1992 film, Bad Channels, that were featured, along with two new Blue Oyster Cult tunes, on the soundtrack album. A four CD box set, Archive, released in 2002, samples Dharma's home recordings since the mid-1970s. Dharma has also found time to add his distinctive playing to albums by Kasim Sulton and Tommy Zvoncheck. The son of a jazz saxophone player, Dharma studied accordion as a child. Although he switched to the drums, his career as a drummer ended when he broke his left wrist while playing basketball. Teaching himself to play the guitar, while recuperating, he found his natural voice on the instrument. Sharpening his skill with a series of cover bands on Long Island, Dharma continued to play music after enrolling in Clarkson College, in the northern New York city of Potsdam. Striking up a friendship with future Blue Oyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard, Dharma and Bouchard continued to play together in two Potsdam-based bands -- the Disciples and Travesty.. Although Dharma temporarily returned to Long Island, and Bouchard to Chicago, they reunited after a few months in Stony Brook, New York. While they initially attempted to balance music with studies at Stony Brook College, it was obvious that music demanded more full time attention. Moving into a "band house", they joined with bassist Andy Winters and keyboardist John Wiesenthal, soon replaced by Allen Lanier, to form Soft White Underbelly in 1967. Signed by Elektra, Dharma and Soft White Underbelly, added vocalist Les Bronstein, before recording what should...