"[1] Featuring Parsons on guitar and vocals, Ian Dunlop on bass and Mickey Gauvin on drums, the ISB failed to make a lasting impression on either the Top 40 Pop or Country charts with any of their recordings.
[2] In November, Parsons headed out to Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon district on a scouting trip; while there, he stole Nancy Ross away from David Crosby, and began a torrid love affair with the aspiring film star.
Frustrated by his inability to find commercial success with the ISB, Parsons soon took to playing honky-tonks in the Los Angeles area with his friend, Bob Buchanan (co-author of "Hickory Wind"), and eventually decided to focus exclusively on country music.
Impressed, Hokom convinced her boyfriend, Lee Hazlewood, owner of LHI Records, to sign the post-breakup Parsons and Nuese to an exclusive contract as the ISB.
Jon Corneal, a drummer from an earlier Parsons band, answered the call, though he was making a good living playing as a session musician in Nashville.
[2] Three session musicians were hired to augment the threesome: Joe Osborn on bass, Earl Ball on piano and JayDee Maness on pedal steel.
[1] The newly re-formed International Submarine Band recorded their first single in July 1967, under the watchful gaze of producer Hokom: two Parsons compositions, "Luxury Liner" and "Blue Eyes".
[2] Four months later, in November 1967, the same group, plus newcomer Chris Ethridge on bass, entered the studio to record what would become the band's only full-length album release, Safe at Home.