* Dennis Keller - vocals* Michael Stephen Knust (March 11, 1949 - September 15, 2003) - guitar
* Rob Landes - synthesizer, organ, piano
* E.E. "Bud" Wolfe - bass guitar
Fever Tree is a former American psychedelic rock band of the 1960s, chiefly known for their anthemic 1968 hit, "San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)"
The band hailed from Houston, Texas and started in 1966 as folk rock outfit, The Bostwick Vines. They changed their name to Fever Tree a year later after the addition of keyboard player Rob Landes.
Their fifteen minutes of fame arrived when their song "San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)" reached #91 in the U.S. charts, sometime in late 1968. Like most of the band's material, it was written by the couple of Scott and Vivian Holtzman, who also were their producers. This four-minute track captured all the band's trademarks: Dennis Keller's incantation-like vocals, the quick shifting between slow parts with an almost sacral feeling and faster, more rock-oriented parts, and especially the searing guitar work by Michael Knust.
Fever Tree also released their self-titled debut album, Fever Tree, in 1968, which charted at #156. A second album, Another Time, Another Place, followed in 1969. Apart from "San Francisco Girls", they never had another hit, although they later also tried writing songs themselves when they had dropped the Holtzmans as producers. The group disbanded in 1970, but reformed in 1978 with only guitarist Michael Knust remaining from the original line-up. The new formation of the group had little commercial success; Fever Tree was not heard of again until 2003 when Michael Knust died.
Dennis Keller has in the past couple of years fronted a new band called Fever Tree Rising. He has played to some good reviews.
One last piece of trivia.... The band's signature song was of course about those " San Francisco Girls" however Fever Tree never played in the Bay area.
