BLOOD ON THE SADDLE began as a musical idea in the summer of 1981 while GREG DAVIS was playing guitar in a Hollywood punk rock band called Dead Hippie. He was inspired by bands like X and the Gun Club, who were violently fusing traditional American Folk styles with punk rhythms. Late in 1981, he tried to form a band with Annette Zilinskas (The Bangs), but this attempt didn't work out.

In the spring of 1982, Greg moved to New Orleans and played Dobro in a bluegrass duo on Bourbon Street. There he realized that, like punk rock, bluegrass was played at a frantic tempo. After staying the summer in Nashville, Greg moved back to Hollywood to form a band that would fuse traditional American music with punk fury.

Greg and drummer, Hermann Senac, had played together previously and in the spring of 1983, Hermann's friend, Ron Botelho, joined the band as upright bass player. It was Hermann's idea to name the band after the traditional cowboy song that Big Al the Bear sings in the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland. Their music was a blend of Folk, Western and Bluegrass played at punk tempo. Their first gig was May 3 and by July 4, Annette Zilinskas quit playing bass in the Bangles and started singing in BLOOD ON THE SADDLE.

In early 1984, the band had two songs, "Ghost On My Heart" and "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again", released by the Bemisbrain/Enigma label on the compilation album "Hell Comes To Your House - Volume 2". In the spring of 1984 their debut LP "Blood On The Saddle" was released on the New Alliance/Enigma label. Both of these records were exported to Canada and Europe. At this time Greg and Annette signed a publishing deal with the prestigious old country music publishing company Peer/Southern. The band then began touring America and Canada. This first album generated enough interest in Europe for New Rose and Stiff records to release the group's second album "Poison Love" in the spring of 1986 on the continent and in the UK respectively. Chameleon/Suite Beat put the record out in the US and Canada. The band then toured the US, the UK and Europe, then America again, as well as Canada. In 1987 the group contributed a song each to two different compilations albums : "Rawhide", to a New Rose double LP honoring various New Rose artists, and "Born With A Hole In My Pocket" on the L.A. based Rykodisc labels "World Music" album. In the fall of 1987, SST records released the band's third album "Fresh Blood" in North America and New Rose released it in Europe. New Rose also released in Europe a compilation CD of the group's second and third albums together under the title "Fresh Blood". This CD was later exported to America but the band had broken up by this time.

A second line-up consisting of the trio Greg Davis with Ceasar Viscarra (Stains, DC3) on bass and Dave Shollenbarger (Steve Jones) on drums, expanded on the musical base developed by the original group with a series of gigs and recordings during 1988, but disbanded at the end of that year.

In the summer of 1989, Greg Davis did an extensive tour of Europe as a member of the L.A. punk rock band, The Vandals. There he recognized that the European's appreciation of BLOOD ON THE SADDLE's music justified another attempt at reviving the group. In 1990, Greg began recording with bassist Chris Engel (Dischords). In 1991, with Danny Rickard on drums, they played around Los Angeles. After the tragic death of Chris Engel on July 13, John Stephenson (Nip Drivers, Don't No) stepped in on bass for some recordings and gigs until the fall of 1992 when Ceasar Viscarra rejoined the band. This line-up played around Los Angeles until early 1993.

In the spring of 1993, bassist Billy Koepke (Tex and the Horseheads, Legal Weapon) joined the band after seeing BLOOD ON THE SADDLE play Raji's on Hollywood Blvd. Drummer Eric Davis had played with Billy previously and that summer they played in Los Angeles preparing for a European tour. In September, Semaphore Holland released "More Blood" on vinyl and CD as well as reissuing the three previous records on CD. The band then toured Europe for three months promoting these releases.

In early 1994, John Stephenson rejoined the band. John had been in a punk rock band with drummer Dave Frappier (Hated Principles) called Battle Scarred. This new line-up recorded four songs for the Olympia Washington label Kill Rock Stars in the spring of 1994. They then did a four month tour in Europe promoting the "More Blood" CD. The Kill Rock Stars 7 inch EP was released on vinyl in the US in the fall of 1994.
Since thenBLOOD ON THE SADDLE continues to create and perform a new interpretation of traditional American Western music with this brand new opus called "New Blood" : 17 titles like Winchester gun shots !