KUDZOOSOUTHERN MUSIC • SOUTHERN FOOD • THE SOUTHERN THANG SEPTEM

BER  2018

ED KING1949-2018

ROCK AND ROLL HALLOF FAME GUITARIST

• AL KOOPER• JEANNIE GREENE

• JOE BENNETT & THESPARKLETONES

• ROCK & ROLL HEALTHCHICK

• CD REVIEWS• DVD REVIEWS

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FROM MACON TO JACKSONVILLEMore Conversations in Southern Rockby Michael Bu�alo Smith foreword by Charlie StarrFeatures in-depth interviews with stars from the bands born in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas during the hey-day of Southern rock—from members of Lynyrd Skynyrd (Gary Rossington, Ed King, Artimus Pyle) and Molly Hatchet (Danny Joe Brown, Dave Hlubek, Duane Roland) to �e Outlaws (Henry Paul), Blackfoot, 38 Special (Don Barnes, Donnie Van Zant), Gov’t Mule, Doc Holliday, Col. Bruce Hampton, Widespread Panic, and many others. Also included are recently discovered archival conversations with legendary Allman Brothers Band roadie, Red Dog Campbell and the original Marshall Tucker Band’s road crew chief, Moon Mullins.

MACON, GEORGIA

Michael Buffalo Smith ismakin’ it back to macon

buffalo’s first album since 2005 produced bylegendary capricorn producer PAul Hornsby.With special guests Tommy Talton, billy bob thornton & e.g.kight - with towson engsberg, billy eli, joey parrish, greg

yeary and daniel jackson. available from cdbaby, amazon, itunes and everywhere good music is sold.

for updates follow buffalo on facebook, twitter and instagram.

www.michaelbuffalo.net

contents6 The Vine9 Al Kooper Archival Interview with the Lynyrd Skynyrd Producer (2005)

17 ED KINGIn Memory of a Rock and RollHall of Fame Guitarist

23 Notes from the Dashboard of MyPickup Truck

26 A Love Song for Jeanie Greene29 Book Reviews31 The Rock & Roll Health Chick

Mercy Me (the Ecology!)35 The Sparkletones: Rockabilly

Legends41 CD’s, Vinyl & Downloads46 Sound & Vision: DVD Reviews49 My Back Pages50 The Southern Thang

Page 26

Page 9

Page 17

KUDZOO“Covering the South...”

Vol . 8, Issue 28 July 2018

“Sweet Home AlabamaLord I’m Coimin’ Home to you...”

THE VINEPublisher - EditorMichael Buffalo Smith

The “KUDZOO Army”Contributors

Tom Bell, Rick Broyles, JamesCalemine, Tom Clarke, PeterCross, Karen Fann, Dave Peck,Electra Posada, Angelo Saska,Phillip Smith, Bill Thames

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Cover Photo: Ed King

(Courtesy Ed King)

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Hi Gang!

By Michael Buffalo Smith

The following interview from ourarchives was conducted in the fall of 2005. AlKooper had a new album out called BlackCoffee. We spoke with the producer andartist about his career and Lynyrd Skynyrdconnection.

•••

No introduction is necessary. If you lis-ten to rock and pop music, you know who Al

Kooper is. For those of us entangled in theworld of "Southern Rock," he is best known asthe man who "discovered" Lynyrd Skynyrd.We spoke with Al about that legendary bandand a whole lot more.

I was listening to your album last nightand it was absolutely awesome. Wehave missed hearing your solo stuff.I couldn’t get a record deal. If you are over 50years old, forget about it. No matter how goodyour music is. Then when I actually got it Iwas 60. Talk about miracles, that was a mira-cle.

My first question is- it has been almost30 years since you did a solo album,what made you decide to do a record?Was it because of the fact as you've got-ten older you became almost an icon?No, no, no, in the music business there is norespect for seniority, unless you are Paul Mc-Cartney, Eric Clapton, or someone like that.But if you are not someone gigantic like thatthen forget about it. For instance someonelike ZZ Top, they don’t get any respect any-more.

I put them on the cover last issue.Yeah, I saw that online. But you know what Iam saying. Like me, forget about it. In 1989 Iquit the music business, producing for labelsand being involved on a day to day basis, I de-cided I wasn’t going to do that anymore. And

9

AL KOOPERArchives

LYNYRD SKYNYRD AND BLACK COFFEE: OCTOBER 2005

10

so in 1991, I think, I am not sure the exactyear, it could have been 1992, but at the Rockand Roll Hall of Fame Cream played. They re-formed and played and I really wanted to seethat. Well, I had been working with StephenKing at the time, the author, and he invitedme and a date to go to that. This made mevery happy because I wanted to see it and itwas in L.A. So I asked the actress Bonnie Be-dilia if she would be my date because she hadjust finished doing a Stephen King movie, andshe also loves music so I felt like it would be agood date. She accepted and we went thereand all of these people that I had known fordecades looked at me like I was invisible. Allthe work I had done my whole life didn’tmean anything anymore.

The musicians that were playing spokebut that was it. This reinforced the choice Imade because it was definitely the right one.My life was much happier after 1989 becauseI didn’t have to deal with those rat-fuck peo-ple that make up the music business. Thatgave me an inkling of what was going to hap-pen to me for the rest of my life if I didn’t goback into the music business, which is what Idefinitely wasn’t going to do.

So around 1995, I decided that I reallywanted to make another album and realizedthat I couldn’t get a deal if my life dependedon it. It just ain’t going to happen. So I justkind of tucked it in, and felt like if that wasthe only problem I had from the whole thingthat I could live with it. Then in 2003, Itoured Japan with my band. It was so suc-cessful, the record company, Sony, who hasmy catalog, they came and asked me if Iwould like to make a new album. I acceptedand even though it was in Japan with the in-ternet you can get it around. Get a Japaneserecord into America and people will buy it.Then right after that Steve Vai the guitarplayer, who has his own label, he came to meand asked to take that record to the rest of theworld. That is miraculous for someone who is60 years old. It’s like a miracle. I quit makingsolo albums 30 years ago because I got achance to make an album with a new recordcompany, that had an ad campaign, and got apublicist, they gave me tour support for athree month American tour, with a pretty bigband.

I made a pretty good album, so I said ifthis album doesn’t do well, then I am going tostop doing this. So here I had a really goodalbum going but it wasn’t selling very well. Ihad this good album support from this recordcompany, and I said I would stop and I stuckto that. Then after about 20 years I felt like Iwanted to make another one, but couldn’tmake it for another 10 years, until I got thatdeal. This one came out even better than Iplanned on it being. So that was great and forme that was a successful record. When youcan fulfill how you think that the recordshould be. My mantra is if you don’t expectanything, you can not be disappointed. I ap-preciate your criticism and that you get it.Some people won’t get it.

How do you feel that the album turnedout?

Couldn’t be better. It’s better than I thought itwould be.

I saw that you co-wrote with one of ourMuscle Shoals friends, Dan Penn, howdid you guys come to collaborate?It took me about one year to get up the nerveto call him. Like I am not worthy, fromWayne's World. Then we did get together andhe came over the my house and we tried towrite a song, but we sure did laugh. We gotalong and had a lot in common. We wrote afew songs and also laughed a lot too. We be-came good friends and I adore him. He is oneof the best people I have met in my life and inthe music business.

That song is humorous and I just loveit. "Going, Going, Gone." How old are you?

I am 48.You are definitely in the age range for thatsong. I have been doing that song live since Iwrote it in1994-95. People will come overafter a show and say they liked that song andwant to know where to buy it. So it is greatwhen you are a songwriter and can speak forother people, and they say that is exactly whatI think. Then you have scored a coup in songwriting. That song has really done that overthe years. A lot of people really like it and un-derstand it. They say "you speak for methere." As a lyricist you can’t beat that.

That is true. I was thinking last nightwhile looking over all your resume,that goes on forever, and saw one ofthe songs that you wrote, "This Dia-mond Ring." As a kid I remember thatbeing one of the first records I had. Iplayed it over and over. That was basi-cally my record collection as a little kid,that and some Beatles records.(Laughs) Cool.

Tell me about the Funky Faculty.

They are all professors at Berkeley College ofMusic in Boston which is one of the top musicschools in the world. They are great guys andamazing musicians.I started teaching atBerkeley around 1997 and I had been thereabout 2 months. One of the guys called meand he said he hated to bother me, but hisname was Bob Dozima and he taught atBerkeley. Every year they have a charity showfor the school and they rent a hotel or a build-ing and take a lot of rooms and all differentbands play in the rooms and then these bigmoney people come and walk around fromroom to room and have a great time. Heasked if I might want to play with them. Hesaid, "We don’t have a keyboard player andwe are in the Blues Room. I figured you mightwant to play but didn’t know anyone." I toldhim I would love to play with them. He saidthat we didn’t need to practice because it wasjust the blues. So by the third year I was incharge of the band. (Laughs) I added somehorns and was singing some songs, and thenwe talked about rehearsing so we could go outand play in town. They are great guys and wehave been around the world. We just getalong great and it is fun when we get on theroad. That is difficult to find, good musiciansthat are great people. If you can get awayfrom the egos and stuff. I like to play withpeople my age. I get nervous when I see anold guy playing in a band of 20-year-olds.John Lee Hooker used to do that. I like itwhen people play with those their own age

because as a band leader you don’t have toworry when you say, you know, "I want this tosound like blah, blah, blah. They don’t look atyou with blank faces." Make this sound a littlebit more like The Ides of March, and less likeBlood, Sweat, and Tears. (Laughs) Actually itis more the other way around, more likeBlood, Sweat, and Tears.

I'm sure you've worked around theMuscle Shoals scene, Fame and MuscleShoals Sound, right?Don’t be too sure, because I have never setfoot in there. But I was a big fan and someonesent me a URL to a Muscle Shoals websiteand there is a great picture of Bobbie Gentry’sbutt on there. It just stopped me dead in mytracks. I thought, what a genius photogra-pher. He got right to the bottom ofthings.(Laughs)

Sounds like Dick Cooper.Well, there you go it had to be a guy namedCooper.(or Kooper) It was the only one in allthose pictures that got right down to busi-ness. If he is a friend of yours and I could geta copy of that I would be a happy guy.

How long have you had your Jack Rus-

sell terrier?About three years. It is not an actual Jack, itis crossed with an English Foxhound, so it isnot as hyper as the Jack Russell. She is prettycalm.

My boy Taz looks just like that one inthe face. My wife took that picture (inside the BlackCoffee cd) and I loved it. I felt like peoplewould relate to that dog. She is really smartand her communication skills are really good.Best dog I have ever had.

The inevitable is that I want to talkabout Lynyrd Skynrd a little bit. I sawyou on the CMT thing the other day andI felt like they did a good job on that. Itwas like much better than I thought iswould be. Of course, VH1 did that Un-civil Wars, that was very nasty.

They don’t know what the fuck they aredoing.

It was the Jerry Springer mentality.I was a little worried when CMT called me.But I know a gal in Nashville that cuts myhair real good, so anytime I am offered some-thing there I try to take it so I can go downand get a good haircut.

You say she cuts your hair real good?Yeah, she is great and I do have some friendsin Nashville, from when I lived there.

Can you tell me a little bit about howyou came to discover this Lynyrd Skyn-ryd Band?I was producing this record down in Atlanta. Icame through on tour in Atlanta and I hadsome friends in The Atlanta Rhythm Section.I knew them when they were called TheCandy Men, in the late 60’s. I met them whenI lived in New York. We became friends so Icalled them and told them I was coming

Kooper with Billy, Ed, Artimus. Allen and Gary of Skynyrd.

through for a week in Atlanta. I told him thatwhen we came through we would have a greatjam session. So that is what I did. They had agreat studio. I came back, and as a matter offact, I was recording my back up band andthey were making there own album calledFrankie and Johnny. This was about 1972. Sowe were there for one month and workedevery day from noon until about eight.

Then I met someone that I went tosummer camp with and he was a manager ofa club and I thought I could just go to his cluband chase some women. Record all day andthen chase women at night. That’s what it’sabout. This place is called Finokeose onPeachtree Street. It was a rough place andthere were lots of fights going on and stuff.We had a private balcony and we would tellthe waitress to go tell that girl in the orangesweater that we were inviting her up here. Weloved going there. The first week we werethere they had a band called Boot playing. Iwent and sat in with them. In those days youplayed for a week at a time. It was not a onenight thing like it is now. You would be therefor one week. Boot played there for one weekand the next week I saw it was Lynyrd Skyn-ryd. I said, "what the hell is this?" Then theyplayed and I thought, boy this is a weirdband. They were doing originals. I alwaysliked that.

A couple of them really started gettingto me and I thought, this is really good. Thesinger is barefoot and walking around andthrowing the mike stand around. By the thirdnight I had heard some of the tunes and I washoping they would play them again and by theend of the week, I was completely sold andfelt like they were a great band. So I offeredthem a deal. We went back and forth on thatand I heard lots of great bands in Atlanta. Ididn’t even want to go home. I had my road-ies go back and pack up my stuff and got aplace to live in Atlanta and decided to staythere and start a label. That’s what I did.Skynyrd was the second album I released on

my label and it just knocked all the otherbands into the toilet unfortunately.

Oh, Sounds of the South, I rememberthat one. It always amazed me how leg-endary Ronnie became after the planecrash of '77. I guess when people diethey turn into much more of a legendthan if they had lived.Well, if that is the truth maybe I should havedied so I could have gotten a record deal.(Laughs)

I met Ronnie one time and that was thenight before he flew off fromGreenville, South Carolina. The nextday that he died in the crash. I metthem all backstage that night. I remem-ber asking him about how everyone inthe press has him painted as being abadass and wanting to fight all thetime. Which I am sure that he did fighta lot. But I remember him saying thathe would never fight unless he had to. Iwanted to see if you could tell me withall your experience of being aroundthat guy, what was he really like.He was an amazing bandleader. I have never

seen a better bandleader in my whole life. Noone was trying to lead that band if he was theleader. You know how there are fights inbands, well they didn’t have anything like thatbecause he would have whooped ‘em. He wasa tough little mother fucker and he was a niceguy too. He was not just tough, but he wasbright. He knew how to run a band. He did agreat job. I have never seen anyone run a bet-ter band in my whole career. The thing he didthat was different from other bands was thathe wanted that band to sound the same everynight. He was not interested in improvisationat all. There was no improvisation in thatband at all, except when they were first re-hearsing that song. They had a place out nearthe swamp where they would rehearse andthere was no air conditioning or anything.

Hell House.Yeah, well they would go out there and just

get it all together. They wouldn’t even jam,like when you are working with a band andthere is a guitar solo on the song, the guycomes in and tries to play a solo. They wroteall the guitar solos out, including "Free Bird."Every bit of that was planned out before Icame into the picture. Every guitar solo wasplayed exactly the same. I have never met aband that did that nor have I met a bandsince, and it was pretty amazing. He was agreat leader and you know we banged headsmany times during the making of the threerecords I did with them. It was always in anokay way. I would say something, then Allenor Gary would say, “Oh, man I don’t want todo that, it sucks. Al, just let us do what wedo.” Ronnie would say “Gary, I don’t like thatidea that Al is suggesting either, but I don’twant to stop him from speaking his mind.Even if we just use 10% of that idea, it’s some-thing we wouldn’t think of ourselves, so I will

Lynyrd Skynyrd in the studio with Al Kooper.

always listen to him.”And I thought, there was a wise guy. So

I did get some things in there and I think thata great way to judge a producer is to listen tothe album that they make after they split withthe producer. You know what I mean? It isunderstandable. I think that the first albumhas a certain sound and whether it is good orbad it doesn’t matter, it has a certain sound.There were little things that I like to do thatwas appropriate for them. When we split up Iwas rooting for them to make a great album. Iremember the day when the next record cameto my house and I put it on the turn table andlooked at the record and said “okay, kick myass” - and I thought it was the worst albumthey had done.

You had produced the first three right?Yeah.

I guess the second was my favorite. There are things I like about the first one.

Absolutely. I had never heard anythinglike that at that time. Yeah,me neither. The thing we had in com-mon, because I was from New York and theywere from Jacksonville, so you know, we did-n’t have too much in common. One thing thatwe did have in common was we worshipedthe band Free. On every album we did at leastone track that was a tribute to Free. On thefirst album it was "Simple Man" and on thesecond album it was "I Need You," secondtrack. "On The Hunt" was the third one. Allthree of those songs were where we weregoing for that Free thing.One thing that I loved was the musicfestivals and all of that especially Mon-terey Pop. Were you hands on there?Yeah, I was assistant stage manager.

What do you recall about that festivalthat you can share?Well, I think that the most important thing is

that it was the first one that had ever been. Iworked in the planning stages of it and therewere so many things that came up that wehad to deal with that had never happened be-fore. When you took a lot of people like thatand put them on a show, kind of like a DickClark Roadshow or Alan Freed Roadshow.Each band would come out and play aboutthree songs. There was a backline of amps orstuff and everyone would just come and plugin, you know. Then there was a backup bandfor people that didn’t have a band and theywould finish a song and the band would playthem off and then the next band would comeup. I knew we weren’t going to do that. I re-member saying to the stage manager, “Whatare we going to do between bands, because itis going to take about 20 minutes to changethe stage?” He was just going to play somegood music on the PA system. I said, “Really,

maybe we should have somebody on the otherside of the stage so there would always be livemusic going on.” He said, “No, I have to dealwith everything on stage and I don’t want tohave a band up there.” That decision that hemade still goes on today. So just a little thinglike that was something that had never hap-pened before. There had never been a showwhere there was a 20 minute or half hourchange over between bands. So that was onething that we had to deal with and that wasthe first time that had ever happened. Hisname was Chip Monk and it is a tribute tohim. It still goes on today some 40 years later.It was a good decision on his part. That thingthat I did there at Monterey was a jam ses-sion, we didn’t even rehearse. That is prettyobvious by the visual. (Laughs) They came tome and said we want to use this in the specialedition DVD. I felt it was totally embarrassingand my wife said, “Use it, you look great!” SoI said, “Alright, I’ll buy that.” That is the onlyreason I let them use it, because it is embar-rassing. It’s more humorous than anything

else. It has a certain garage thing going on.

I loved that whole documentary. To seeOtis Redding, it was great. He had the best back up band of all time.Booker T. and the MGs.

Let me ask you this. Now that you haveBlack Coffee out what are your imme-diate plans?I am between booking agents and I have notbeen able to book a tour. That is anotherthing that is tough nowadays is to get a book-ing agent. Now I have to let the record talk forme. So if the record makes a little noise orsomething, then I will probably be able to geta booking agent, otherwise I don’t know whatI will do. I spent many years booking myself,so I could do that, but I can’t rise above thefirst level like that way, so I will just play it byear.

Well, not to blow wind up your skirt oranything like that, the CD is really fab-ulous and all it is going to take is get-ting the right people to hear it. Letthem play it on that new - fangled satel-lite radio.They are playing it on XM now. They areplaying "Going, Going, Gone." Lots of peoplehave sent me e-mails that they heard it. I havenot heard about Sirius yet. Maybe becausethey don’t subscribe. I got three different e-mails in the past three days, from differentpeople that heard it on XM. These are peoplethat are waiting to buy it and are wanting toget it when it comes out. •

For more on Kooper, we highly recommendhis book Backstage Passes & BackstabbingBastards.

Kooper with Steve Martin and John Belushi- Wild andCrazxy Guys!

by Michael Buffalo Smith

After a long battle withCancer, the disease took thelife of our friend Ed King onAugust 22, 2018 at his homein Nashville. King who wrotethe signature guitar riff andmusic for “Sweet Home Ala-bama” (the late Ronnie VanZant wrote the lyrics), was 68years old.

Ed was a member ofStrawberry Alarm Clock, theband who scored a hit singlein the ‘60’s with “Incense andPeppermints.” He joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in1972, giving the band their unique three-gui-tar sound. King played on the band’s firstthree albums before a run in with Van Zantcaused him to leave in 1975.

Ten years after the fatal plane crashkilled Van Zant and other band members, Edjoined surviving members for a “TributeTour” in 1987, and the band kept going. Edwas forced to leave again in 1996 due to con-gestive heart failure. King joined the surviv-ing band members when they were inductedinto the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

On a personal note, I met and becamefriends with Ed following our first interviewfor GRITZ magazine. I would enjoy two moreinterviews with the guitarist in years to come,and in the early 2000’s, he agreed to join mefor my acoustic set at the annual WintersBrothers Summer Southern Jam in Ten-nessee, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and puff-ing on a stogie, he played his heart out on myoriginal songs. It was one of the biggest thrills

of my life. Later that night, Ed joined theWinters Brothers band for a red hot set ofSkynyrd songs.

The following day, Ed took a group ofus out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, flankedby his wife Sharon and former wife PatriciaKing Lipton, Ed sat at the head of the table,truly looking like the “King.” He was tellingthe waitress, “Bring us a big ol’ basket of bis-cuits, tubs of gravy, lots of coffee and then wewill order.” It was great!

In keeping with tradition, we chose toreprint an archived interview with Ed as away of remembering him “in his own words.”The interview took place in 1999, and is fea-tured in my new book From Macon to Jack-sonville: More Conversations in SouthernRock (Mercer University Press.)

Ed, tell us a little about your pre-Lynyrd Skynyrd career, “Incense &Peppermints” and your other accom-plishments.I grew up in Southern California and the

17

THE KING IS GONEREMEMBERING GUITAR GREAT ED KING

18

Strawberry Alarm Clock was my first realmajor band. I was 17. By November, 1967, wehad a #1 song with “Incense and Pepper-mints” and our picture on the cover of CashBoxmagazine. We never had another hit andthe band went bankrupt in late 1968. But itwas on one of our last tours that I met RonnieVan Zant and the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. Theywere our opening act for about three monthsof college dates we did in the South in 1970.Ronnie and I got along really well, and I toldhim if he ever needed another guitar player orbass player he should call me, and he did in1972 when Leon Wilkeson quit the band.

By the way, even though the music to“Incense” was written by myself and MarkWeitz, the keyboard player, we were not givencredit and never paid a dime for it. We wereripped off by managers and publishers andthe like. Oh well, we had a good time.

Sum up your days with the originalLynyrd Skynyrd band.I played on the first three albums along withthe First and Last album, which was actuallythe first album [that had been rejected by var-ious record companies]. I was recruited toplay bass on the first album, Pronounced, butduring rehearsals, Leon came out to the re-hearsal cabin. While there, the band played“Simple Man” with Leon on bass. I had neverheard the song before. After hearing Leonplay bass, I decided he should be the bass

player. He’s the best I’ve ever heard. To thisday, I never write a bass part without askingmyself “What would Leon play?”

As a matter of fact, the last two songswe recorded, “Free Bird” and “Simple Man”contain my bass parts that are very far re-moved from all of the other bass parts on thatalbum. Mainly because I had caught the vi-sion from Leon of how the bass should beplayed for this band.

One night, after the first album wasdone but not released, Ronnie came to me. Iwas sitting on my bed playing my Strato-caster. He put his arm around me and said“Ed, you’re really the worst bass player I’veever played with.” So, the next day Ronnieand Gary went out to this ice cream factorywhere Leon was working. They asked him toreturn to the band. Two days later, with Leonon bass, we wrote our first two songs with thenew lineup, “Sweet Home Alabama” and “INeed You”. Not bad for the first day.

I really enjoyed working with AlKooper. I believe, had it not been for Al, noone would’ve heard of Skynyrd. He was thevisionary behind the band and how it shouldbe presented to the world. We didn’t alwaysagree with Al, but I certainly enjoyed his pres-ence.(See also our archived Al Kooper inter-view in this issue! Ed.)

When we drove up to Atlanta to record“Simple Man,” we played the song for Al inthe studio. He hadn’t heard it. He didn’t care

SWEET CAROLINA ROCK AND ROLL.

silvertravis.com

“With this new album, the Silver Travis band has reached theirapex. This is a group of southern boys who work together like

a well-oiled machine. Think Dale Earnhardt’s #3 car if itplayed music.” - KUDZOO Magazine

for it and said “You’re not putting that songon the album.” Ronnie asked Al to step out-side. He escorted Al to his Bentley andopened the car door. Al stepped in. Ronnieshut the door and stuck his head in thru theopen window. “When we’re done recording it,we’ll call you.”

Al came back a few hours later, addedthe organ part and it was a keeper. I don’tthink any band before or since, making itsdebut album, could get away with doing thatto the record producer. There was a healthyrespect happening there and that is a reallyfunny story that reflects that.

There’s a somewhat controversial arti-cle-at least among Skynyrd fans on theweb- in the April issue of SPIN. In it,the author mentions a time during theearly 90’s when Leon got his throat cutin his sleep, and some people blamed iton you. What’s the story?We had just finished playing a gig inNashville. That night Leon walked on stagetotally drunk and really screwed the gig up.We were all pretty annoyed. Seems that hehad waited all day at the Nashville airport forhis girlfriend Rhonda to fly in. She was fivehours late and he had spent the entire day atthe airport bar.

That night some of the guys flew backto Jax except me, Randall Hall, Leon andRhonda. Early in the morning I woke up – Ihad been sleeping in the lounge in the rear of

the bus - and walked to the front to talk to thedriver. On the way back to the rear I noticedLeon’s arm dangling out of his bunk andsome blood dripping from it. On further ex-amination Leon’s throat had been cut and hewas laying there in a pool of blood withRhonda. We went straight to a hospital andhad him stitched up - what a mess. Never didget to the bottom of it. Leon said he’d stum-bled and must have “cut” himself in the bushall way. Hmmmmm.

His girlfriend had been a source ofproblems, like bringing a hand gun on theroad and holding Leon hostage in his hotelroom, not letting any band members talk toLeon on the phone. And, at one point, told usLeon couldn’t tour with us anymore unless hegot more money. That was in ‘93 when wehad to hire a sub bass player for two legs of atour because Leon had “quit.” Later that yearhe beat Rhonda up and got sentenced to threemonths in prison. They shaved his head!Man, it was ugly. So, as soon as we reachedJax that day, the word started circulating thatI had cut Leon’s throat.

By the way, Rhonda [Leon’s ex] some-how slashed Leon’s wrist a year after this inci-dent, and that left Leon with no feeling in hislittle finger and some damage to his ring fin-ger on his right hand, the one he uses to fretwith. It’s a reporter’s job to write about whathe experiences. I spoke several times with the

guy who wrote that article. It seems hewanted to get the facts straight.

I know you probably get this a lot, butwould you mind sharing your thoughtson Ronnie Van Zant? Ronnie was two people. When he wasstraight, he was one of the finest people I’dever met; when drunk, he was a mad man.Unfortunately, towards the end of my tenurewith the band, he was drunk the whole time.That’s mainly why I left. Working with himjust wasn’t fun anymore - and he was the onlyreason I wanted to join the band anyway.

One of my fondest memories of Ronnie,one that displays his genius, was in January1975. I had written this entire musical piecein my hotel room. We were working onNuthin Fancy. He came by the hotel room tohear it and all I told him was “It sounds to melike the song should be about a train.” It tookhim only 15 minutes to write “Railroad Song”that night. Ronnie never wrote anythingdown- ever. But as long as the band could re-member the “groove” of the music, the lyricswould always come back to him.

One other thing comes to mind- andthis is so cool. Many times, in rehearsal whilewriting, the band would be playing, it’d getloud, and Ronnie, after completing a verse ortwo of lyrics in his head, would walk over tome. He’d cup his mouth to my ear and singme the song! On at least three occasions I wasthe first person to hear what he’d come upwith. I remember hearing “Saturday NightSpecial” this way and my jaw dropping. He

was an inspiration. I wish we could’ve partedon easier terms.

Tell us about the original reunion ofthe band, why you left and what youknow about Artimus’ leaving. I guess I stuck with the reunion band becauseI was chasing some kind of dream. I wasunder the impression that just maybe wecould write some music that mattered, andthat maybe Johnny Van Zant would do a goodvocal. I was misguided, I guess. I did it to my-self.

The ‘91-’93 version of the band was fun.Custer was a great drummer, and we hadsome great live shows. Artimus left the bandbecause . . . you’ll have to ask him. It’s waytoo complicated and I’m not sure I under-stand why. But that version of the band Ron-nie would’ve been proud of. We were tight,energetic and inspired. Every night was a mu-sical surprise. I had a blast.

In September of ‘95 I went into con-gestive heart failure while on the road. I hadbeen diagnosed with an enlarged heart backin late ‘92. I caught a really bad cold and theinfection landed in my heart. The only rem-edy is a heart transplant. I held my own from‘93 thru ‘95. Though touring did get a bitrough at the end.

I had hoped to get a new heart and re-join the band eventually. But the band kind ofdeserted me and maybe it’s just as well. Thedoctors say my health is doing a lot betterthan they expected, and that I may not need anew heart for five years. By that time, theysay, new technologies might be available sothat I won’t need the new heart at all. Whoknows.

I had thought the guys in the bandwere closer friends. I was mistaken. Took mea while for that to sink in. I didn’t expectthem to support me financially, but I didn’texpect them to forsake me either. The waythey handled my “leave of absence” was a dis-grace. I should be grateful to be away from

22

their influence, and I am. I wish I was 20again, but there’s no going back. I am enjoy-ing this time off. I do some writing, play withmy dog and my toys, enjoy an “island” smokeonce in a while, take a ride in my Jag convert-ible, it’s pretty damn good. I’m doing justfine, thank you.

Would you contrast for us the equip-ment you used in the early 70’s andwhat you prefer to play these days? In the 70s I used several old Strats - rosewoodneck models - and a great amp given to me byHartley Peavey- a prototype Road Master.During the reunion tour I used two custommade Strats by John Suhr and a Peavey Mace,and later used PRS guitars. Now, I’m back toold Strats, maple neck models this time. Al-most any amp that can pump 70 watts is goodenough for me, tubes only.

Did you hear the story about me gettingmy stolen 1959 Gibson Les Paul returned tome in August ‘97? The whole story is stillposted on the Nashville Scene website. It tellshow my stolen guitar was returned to me. Ithink my health did a major turnaround whenthat happened. I was in the midst of this law-suit against my “friends” and was really downin the dumps big-time. Getting “Lester” backwas a real lift, as you can imagine. I never,ever thought I’d see that guitar again.

What were your favorite Skynyrd songsto play?“Sweet Home Alabama,” “Simple Man,” “Sat-urday Night Special, “Needle and the Spoon” .. . I had a lot of favorites. “Curtis Leow” was agood one to play. The original version of theband only played “Curtis Leow” one time onstage. We were playing in a basement in somehotel and thought we’d try it. We neverplayed it again until the Tribute Tour withJohnny. But the songs, they were pretty muchall good ones.

What would be your advice to a younghot-shot guitar player or other musi-cian who thinks they have what it takesto make it in the music industry?Of course, we live in a different world than wedid when I was 15 years old. Back then, rockguitar was still in the pioneer stages . . . ofwhich I’m proud to say I was a part. But onething is probably still important. I always feltthat, even though I wasn’t the best playeraround, I had style. Most people could pickmy parts out on a record and identify them.The intro to “Sweet Home Alabama” will al-ways be a radio staple. And how many songscan you think of can be identified within thefirst two seconds? I’m really proud of thatone.

So, if you’re really convinced you havestyle and that you have something to say mu-sically, then you don’t let anything hold youback. I didn’t, although I could’ve quit manytimes. I had confidence in the little thingsthat I know I can do well. It also helps tolearn and hang out with as many musicians aspossible.

If you could have one wish granted,what would it be?I think my one wish would be to write the titletrack for a “Grade- A” movie. I’m working onit. • Rest in peace, brother Ed.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, 2006.

Notes from the dashboard of mypickup truckAfter several premier showings on the bigscreen with many guest stars in attendance incities like Jacksonville, Muscle Shoals,Nashville and Macon the Lynyrd Skynyrddocumentary If I Leave Here Tomorrowis getting rave reviews. The film recentlymade its TV debut on Showtime. A friend ofKudzoo (and contributor) Rick Broyles hadsome of his interview footage featured in thefilm. Congrats Rick! Can’t wait for the DVDrelease! . . . Citing health concerns, Dickey

Betts was forced to postpone three dates thathe was scheduled to perform on August 28 atthe Great New York State Fair in Syracuse,NY; August 30 at the Toyota Oakdale Theaterin Wallingford, CT; and August31 at the Casino Ballroom in Hampton Beach,NH. Betts, a Grammy-winning guitarist,singer and songwriter, and founding memberof the Allman Brothers Band, had recentlyexperienced what his doctors called a “mildstroke.” Yesterday, after describing to hisphysicians certain post-stroke repercussions,he was strongly advised to give himself moretime to recuperate. Doctors have assured

Betts that after three to five weeks he will be100 percent recovered and can resume histouring schedule. His tour is expected to re-sume November 1 at the Bell Auditorium inAugusta, GA. . . A.J. Croce has always trav-eled on his own musical road. For more than25 years, the creative pop iconoclast hastapped a variety of Americana sounds incrafting his music. Croce’s nine albums haveappeared on Top 40, AAA, Americana, Col-lege, and Jazz charts, and when his breakoutsophomore CD That’s Me in the Bar was reis-sued recently, it wound up charting in twoseparate decades.

A.J. was only two years old when his fa-

Dickey Betts. Jim Croce (top) and his son A.J. in 1973.

ther, legendary singer-songwriter JimCroce, died in a tragic airplane crash in 1973,so he didn’t know his dad’s music firsthand.Instead, “I came to love it in the same wayeveryone else did,” he has explained, “by lis-tening to the albums.” While he describes hisfather’s music as “part of me, part of my life,”A.J. doesn’t record the elder Croce’s musicand mostly never performed the songs live.As a piano player, his interests tended tofavor the blues and jazz-rooted music of mu-sicians like Ray Charles and Allen Toussaint.And even when A.J. began to present JimCroce’s music in a special concert called“Croce Plays Croce” in large performing artscenters and concert series across the U.S., itwasn’t enough to inspire him to record his fa-ther’s work.

Last year, that changed when an adagency reached out with a concept for him torecord “I Got a Name,” his father’s 1973posthumous hit, for a Goodyear commercial.Themed “Make a Name,” the ad follows DaleEarnhardt Jr.’s life, from watching his fa-ther, through his own race car driving career,to his recent retirement. As it happens, thesong (written by Charles Fox and NormanGimbel) was originally recorded by Jim Crocefor The Last American Hero, a biopic aboutthe life of legendary NASCAR driver JuniorJohnson. The elder Croce titled what wouldbe his last album after the song. Now, 45years later, A.J.’s version will be released as adigital single, via Seedling Records on August24, 2018, for a new generation to enjoy.

(A.J. Croce’s ninth studio album wasreleased via Compass Records last summer.Produced by soul songsmith and producerDan Penn (“Do Right Woman, Do RightMan”), it’s his most soulful effort to date. Itwas written mostly by Croce, with one song aco-write with the late great Leon Russelland one an original Jim Croce composition,never before recorded. The album featuresmany music luminaries including Steve

Cropper, Vince Gill, and Jeff Taylor (TheTime Jumpers) and an all-star band withDavid Hood, Colin Linden, Bryan Ow-ings, The Muscle Shoals Horns, and the

McCrary Sisters. . .The music world suf-fered a great loss with the passing of theQueen of Soul, Aretha Franklin who diedat her Detroit home following a battle withpancreatic cancer on Thursday, August 16.She was 76. With a multi-decade career underher belt, Franklin was one of the most re-spected singers of a generation and was thefirst female inducted into the Rock and RollHall of Fame. Her death was followed bycountless tributes over the course of twoweeks, making it obvious to all just how muchshe was loved and respected •

24

a

Featuring Interviews with members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, the Rossington Collins Band, Gov’tMule, 38 Special, Widespread Panic, Col Bruce Hampton, Charlie Daniels, the Outlaws, the MarshallTucker Band, Molly Hatchet, Drive By Truckers, Blackberry Smoke, Devon Allman, Doc Holiday andarchival interviews with two famed roadies, Red Dog Campbell of the Allman Brothers and Moon

Mullins of Marshall Tucker!

FOREWORD BY CHARLIE STARR OF BLACKBERRY SMOKE

“I have known Michael for many years now and consider him not only a friend but a great writer! His way of accentuatingthe positive should be a lesson to music writers the world over. Buffalo rocks!” – Dave Hlubek (Molly Hatchet)

“Since I started reading Buffalo’s latest book, I can’t seem to get anything done. I can’t put it down. From Macon To Jack-sonville is full of life stories straight from the mouths of your favorite Southern rockers.” –Paul Hornsby (Producer and

Musician at Muscadine Studios, Macon, Ga. Formerly of Capricorn Records)

Mercer University Press, Macon, GA (www.mupress.org)

Also Available Through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Other Online and Brick and Mortar Book Stores!

More Conversations in Southern Rock

26

On Sunday 19 August, I lost a friend.Jeanie Greene has been a favourite singersince my student days and about a decade agovia a YouTube documentary trailer, a call toArdent Studios in Memphis and then a followup call to fellow favourite musician Don Nix,we became good friends. Jeanie was in awe ofmy all-time favourite, Bonnie Bramlett, andwhat started out as an attempt to arrange forthem to meet at a concert in Huntsville, AL,in 2010 turned out to be a shared experiencewhen I jumped on a plane from England too.

Jeanie wasn’t famous, though some ofher recordings are, most notably her backingvocals on some of Percy Sledge and Elvis’biggest hits, including "When A Man Loves AWoman", "Suspicious Minds" and "In TheGhetto". That kind of work almost demandsanonymity and Jeanie excelled in that areawith several major artists, including AlbertKing, Lonnie Mack, Boz Scaggs, James Bur-ton, Willie Nelson, Carl Perkins, Joan Baezand many others besides. Jeanie's misspeltname is listed in the Alabama Hall of Fameand, with an alternative misspelling, featureson a permanent street plaque across the roadfrom where she cut “When A Man Loves AWoman” with Percy Sledge in 1966. GeorgeHarrison introduces her at his 1971 MadisonSquare Garden concert for Bangladesh as partof “a whole lot of singers”, though she’s prop-erly named in the rolling credits at the end ofthe film and in the album notes.

Jeanie had been in a care home sincesoon after my last visit in 2015 and, notknowing her end was so near, I watched thewhole of the glorious Bangladesh concert in

full last Saturday night, for the second timethat week. The time before that had been withJeanie a couple of years ago, complete withher running commentary to the DVD that I’djust bought her.

What most attracted me in the firstplace, however, was Jeanie’s only solo album,Mary Called Jeanie Greene, which carriedthe names of Muscle Shoals’ finest sessionplayers and surely had to be worth a punt for50p at a second hand record store in anotherSheffield, my English university town. It cer-tainly was. The Alabama Troupers’ live albumwith Don Nix soon followed and it was onthese gospel infused recordings that Jeanie’sown voice could really be heard. I wish therewas so much more.

Decades later, it was almost surreal tobe talking with Jeanie on the phone for thefirst time, as if with a long lost friend andthen soon after around the kitchen table as anewly found one. Cruelly, health issues meantthat Jeanie had to prematurely abandon her

A Love Song for Jeanie Greene

Peter Cross and Jeanie Greene.(Photo Courtesy Peter Cross)

singing career a long time ago but seeing herstill straining with complete involvement, joyand passion as she sang along with others in achurch pew, in the back of a car or on thestage at a local diner was an uplifting and un-forgettable experience, as was listening toJeanie’s war stories from studios and theroad, all slowly but sharply recalled in greatdetail. The whole world can see something ofall this in an excellent three part interviewwith Jeanie Greene on YouTube.

I found Jeanie to be a kind, warmhearted and mischievous soul, who neverquite recovered from a few hard knocks dealtto her early on. To have shared our lives andappreciation towards the end was a completejoy.

Jeanie never started to use a computerbut was happy for me to set up a Facebookpage in her name(www.facebook.com/jeaniegreenelee), tostart documenting her work and to provide acontact forum for others too. My thoughtsand spirit was at the funeral home in Corinthon Friday 24 August and over the comingdays will remain with family and friends whoworked with and knew Jeanie for better thanI.

Thank you, Jeanie, wish I could “hug

your neck” one more time. Included here is aselection of my photos and a few others fromthe good times.

-Peter Cross, Coventry, United Kingdom

Don Nix, Jeanie and Leon Russell. (File Photo)

Jeanie with Bonnie Bramlettl. (Peter Cross Photo)

A CAROLINA BOY IN TEXAS. THE NEW EP FROM MICHAEL BUFFALO SMITH

Produced by Billy Eli & Jim Hemphill.With Billy, Jim, Joey Parrish & Michael McGeary.

Featuring Four Buffalo Originals.Painting Her Toenails • Empty Eyes • Karl Childers Blues

(She Likes to Ride a) Fat Boy

Available for Download or on CD fromcdBaby, Amazon, iTunes and many more. . .

29

BOOKSRaymond L. AtkinsSet List(Mercer University Press)

After reading CampRedemption and SweetwaterBlues, I became a serious fanof Raymond Atkins’ writings.With his latest novel, SetList, I may have just becomehis biggest fan. The noveland its main character are

more than a little identifiable to me personally. Blanchard Shankles is a 60-year-old, life-

long guitar player who has played in bands forover 45 years. Now the rough life of a rock androll musician is catching up with him, landinghim in the hospital with serious heart problemsand forcing him to look closer than ever into thedeepest recesses of his own life. Atkins titles eachchapter after a rock song, usually the songs thatmost of us players of that same age have per-formed countless times, from “Free Bird” to“Crazy Mama,” “Lucky Man,” and “Heart ofGlass.”

The conversations and nostalgic memoriesdiscussed by Blanchard and his songwriting part-ner John Covey, ignite a fire within those of uswho recall the music with love and happiness.One side note that I found absolutely cool wasAtkins including actual, complete lyrics of manyof many songs penned by Shankles and Covey.

Set List is an honest, well written novel foranyone who longs for the days of Grand FunkRailroad, Black Sabbath or the James Gang. Astory of life, love, mortality and music. A true rockand roll dream.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Michael Buffalo SmithFrom Macon to Jack-sonville: More Conversa-tions in Southern Rock(Mercer University Press)For his fourth title for Mer-cer University Press ofMacon, Georgia, Michael Buf-falo Smith delivers a sequel tothe 2016 interview collectionCapricorn Rising.

With the new book, Smith collects over 20years of interviews with more great stars ofSouthern Rock, including members of LynyrdSkynyrd (Gary Rossington, Ed King, ArtimusPyle, JoJo Billingsley, Mike Estes); RossingtonCollins (Dale Krantz Rossington, Derek Hess);Blackfoot (Jakson Spires, Rickey Medlocke, GregT. Walker); Charlie Daniels; 38 Special (DonnieVan Zant, Don Barnes); Gov’t Mule (WarrenHaynes, Allen Woody, Matt Abts); WidespreadPanic (Jimmy Herring); the Outlaws (HenryPaul); Molly Hatchet (Danny Joe Brown, DaveHlubek, Duane Roland, John Galvin, Riff West);Doc Holliday (Bruce Brookshire, Eddie Stone);Devon Allman; Drive By Truckers (PattersonHood); Blackberry Smoke (Charlie Starr); LesDudek; Hour Glass (Mabron “Wolf” McKinneyand more including archived interviews with leg-endary Allman Brothers roadie Red Dog Camp-bell and Marshall Tucker Band road crew chiefMoon Mullins. There are literally hundreds ofgreat stories from the southern rock road here,capped off with a foreword from BlackberrySmoke front man Charlie Starr.

There’s a reason why Buffalo has come tobe known as the “Ambassador of Southern Rock.”He has proven himself to be the official archivistof the genre time and time again, and his love forthe bands and their music is unquestionable.

From Macon to Jacksonville will be a wel-come addition to the library of any true fan ofsouthern rock, classic rock and 1970’s music. Areal winner.

- Angelo Saska

Southern music historian Michael Buffalo Smithpresents a series of interviews with some ofcountry music's biggest stars, assembled fromhis archive of over 15 years of conversations.Tthe volume is filled to the rim with countrymusic history, stories and photographs.

Includes one on one interviews with: Cowboy JackClement; Marshall Chapman; Marshall Chapman II;Bobby Bare; Jerry Reed; Tony Joe White; Jeff Hanna

(Nitty Gritty Dirt Band); Greg Martin (Kentucky Headhunters) ; Richard Young (Kentucky Headhunters);David Allan Coe; Shooter Jennings; Montgomery Gentry ; Charlie Daniels; Don Winters; Donnie Winters (WintersBrothers Band) ; George Lindsey (Goober); Peanutt

Montgomery; David Ball; Barney Barnwell; Ricky Skaggs;George McCorkle (Marshall Tucker Band) ; Billy Eli; PaulThorn; Kinky Friedman; Kara Clark; Hank Williams III ;

Unknown Hinson

AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM and LULU.COMSIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE FROM THE AUTHOR

michaelbuffalosmith@gmail.com

michaelbuffalo.net

MY KIND OF COUNTRY

WE ONLY HAVE ONE PLANET.

DEADLINE FORTHE NEXT ISSUEOF KUDZOO IS OCTOBER #1

31

Iam always saddened and amazed by thesongs from way back in the ‘70s, about our soci-ety and environment, that are still very relevanttoday! Marvin Gaye had it right in 1971 with“Mercy Mercy Me,” and here we are today strug-gling with the same threats.

Kids, if you don’t know that song listen toit! And then listen to Inner City Blues! If thosetwo songs don’t touch your soul, something iswrong. The Beach Boys wrote a song “Don’t GoNear The Water” that same year. I was only four-years old in ‘71, so I don’t remember how thingswere, but obviously they were bad enough formusicians to notice.

I do know that decade is notorious for thepollution, and I do remember some of the prob-lems as I got older. Remember the U.S. ForestService’s Woodsy the Owl telling us to Give AHoot, Don’t Pollute?! And who didn’t cry fromKeep America Beautiful’s Cody Iron Eyes, theCrying Indian?!

Psychologists know that if kids are taughtsomething at a young enough age and in such away that makes them invested, it will become apart of who they are. So the family I knew in the‘70s who threw trash out of their car windowwhile driving down the highway, whenever theywanted, clearly didn’t know or didn’t care. But Idid, and I have never forgotten all of those im-ages.

It makes me cringe when people don’t re-cycle, filling up their trash cans with items thatwill never break down in the landfills, taking upmore and more valuable space on our planet and

wasting resources which could be reused in otherforms. Is it too much trouble? Do they not care?

I am known to take uncaring people’s re-cyclables to my house for recycling. It makes mesick when a restaurant, venue or event doesn’t re-cycle. Multiply the ones we see by some number Ican’t even fathom. It makes me angry when aplace is giving out food samples, and there are allthose little plastic cups and utensils going in thetrash can. That’s all recyclable plastic!

All that trash is taking up precious space!It should be illegal! We all have to live on thisplanet! No one should have the right to make itmore polluted when there are solutions.

What does this have to do with “health,”you might ask? Well, without clean water, air andsoil it’s game over for all of us! That is somethingwe cannot afford to ignore or leave to our chil-dren or grandchildren for future worries. Andanyone who thinks it’s better for the economy topollute?! Can you eat, drink or breathe money?! Ipromise, you don’t even want to go there withme!

I realize many of the people out there talk-ing about health are touchy feely and about peaceand love. Those things have their place for sure,but don’t forget the Rock-n-Roll part of MYhealth trip! That’s the part that means I’m a badass, who says it like it is and isn’t afraid to standup and speak out! Now let me put my moneywhere my mouth is.

You may have heard about and/or seenpictures of our recent water crisis in Florida.Seven counties in southwest Florida have beendeclared to be in a state of emergency, declaredby the person who is partially responsible for al-lowing the emergency to happen in the first place!Is it a hurricane, you ask? Is it a drought? Wildfires?

When you think of Florida, what is the firstthing that comes to mind?! For a lot of people, it’swater. Almost the whole state of Florida is sur-rounded by the ocean. Now that ocean, fromClearwater to South Marco Beach and the water-

The Rock & Roll Health Chick“Mercy Me (the Ecology)”

ways in the counties reaching over to the ever-glades, is highly poisonous. Some of that is peo-ple’s drinking water, which is alreadycompromised and running low.

Some people are trying to convince us thatthe naturally occurring Red Tide, which happensas a result of warm waters and algal blooms, is toblame. When the algae gets so thick, it will turnthe water red and deplete the oxygen in the water.Red Tide kills plant and animal life which lives inthe ocean and then the animals that need to eatthem. Red Tide usually occurs during the sum-mer and lasts only a few days. This Red Tide haslasted for 11 months! That is not normal.

According to the NOAA, the past six yearshave been the hottest in history. Now, add thewarmer waters and air temperatures from globalwarming, agricultural runoff of pesticides andfertilizers used in production of sugar and citrus,and you’ve got a disaster we have not seen before.We have no current fix for this disaster, but thereare possible solutions. Their implementation justhas to be a priority.

Let me explain how this all works. LakeOkeechobee is the largest freshwater lake inFlorida and ninth largest freshwater lake in theUnited States. It spans five counties and covers730 square miles. The lake filters all the waterfrom the tributaries that flow into it from thesouthern portion of Florida. Because of the toxic

agricultural chemicals in our waterways, LakeOkeechobee is especially important for storageand filtration. This happens before the water goesout to the surrounding waterways, the ocean andinto the aquifer via the Everglades. The Ever-glades and all the previous steps of filtration arecrucial, since this aquifer is where most of southFlorida gets it’s drinking water. But the Ever-glades are endangered as well.

The Army Corps of Engineers releases theoverflow from Lake Okeechobee when high waterlevels threaten flooding of developments thatshould not have been permitted in these flood-prone areas. This release of lake water causes amajor shit storm in south Florida .

This is a basic summary. 1. The toxic load in Lake Okeechobee is too great.It includes the agricultural runoff from FloridaSugar, citrus and other agriculture. I have alsoread that The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conserva-tion Commission is using more toxic glyphosate(Roundup) to kill invasive plants in the lake.

2. Florida Sugar is the major contributor to thetoxic load, using glyphosate and fertilizers. It usesthe lake for its’ own source of recirculated fertil-ized water, which makes it more and more toxicuntil it cannot be used any longer. Guess whatthey do with it then...

3. The lands surrounding Lake Okeechobee, pre-viously used for water filtration, have been over-developed and cannot filter the water overflow orprotect the waterways from toxic runoff. Toxicrunoff from humans includes leaking sewer lines,gas and oil from cars, fertilizers and weed killers,etc.

4. The voters of Florida demanded that the landspreviously used for water filtration be protectedand preserved, but money talks and that mandatehas not happened. So, what you get is 130 milesof dead zone on the west coast of Florida. Thesenumbers are rising and will continue to risegreatly with the planned second release of toxicLake Okeechobee water in the next weeks.

The released water also reaches to the east coast,but so far there are not the clear reports of devas-tation we are seeing on the west coast.

According to CNN on August 23rd, andthese figures are most likely low, there are 100dead Manatees (which are still endangered al-though they were downgraded to “vulnerable”),300 sea turtles, at least 12 dolphins and millionsof pounds of fish. There was also a dead 26-footwhale shark that washed up on shore, and manyshore birds are dying.

The ocean, sand and air are toxic. Life-guards are having to wear gas masks. The touristindustry, which is the industry that supportsFlorida, has lost ninety million dollars so far. Thefishing industry is also suffering. By allowing theunsustainable practices of agriculture, especiallybig sugar and the lack of protection of the naturalfiltration systems, we are seriously compromisingthe ability to live in the lower half of the state.

If you’ve followed me here and/or listenedto Rockin’ Your Health, you’ve heard me talkabout the grim reaper we call sugar and howharmful and addictive it is. Once again, sugar iskilling us, and this time we don’t even have to eatit to incur the damage. This is just one example ofthe many man-made disasters all over our coun-try and planet. These are allowed because moneytalks louder than doing the right thing for a lot ofpeople in positions of power.

The best thing we can do is to educate our-selves about what is really going on, not whatmainstream sources tell us. Voting is critical, butvoting with our dollars has an even faster andgreater impact. Since there are so many peoplewho need to be forced to do what’s right, and

money talks so loudly to many, how wespend our’s truly changes how others be-have.

You know I would say stop buyingsugar. It is killing us and our planet. But,people feel they have to have it, so we canat least make sure the sugar we buy wasproduced where people aren’t clear-cut-ting valuable lands and where it is not anon-native plant, so growing it doesn’t re-quire toxic chemicals and huge amountsof valuable water.

We’re all in this together. It’s up tous to make things better, and I’m here tohelp.

You can read more about sugar andthe environment here.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sugar-cane

Electra (The Rock-n-RollHealth Chick) is an Inte-grative Health and Nutri-tion Consultant and Coach,specializing in the health ofmusicians. She is the co-creator and host of “Rockin’Your Health,” which isheard on FM radio,streaming on www.Elec-traLandRadio.net, and isarchived atwww.OurHealthRevolu-tion.net/radio. You can

find her online at ElectraLandProductions.netand on FB and Instagram at Rockin’ YourHealth and ElectraLandRadio.

The algae that has taken over the waterways down south.

Rockabilly REbels

35

An Archival Interview withBandleader Joe BennettBy Michael Buffalo Smith

The following feature interview dates back 23years the fall of 1995 when I sat down with JoeBennett in between guitar lessons at SmithMusic Store in Spartanburg, SC to learn allabout the first band to put Spartanburg on themap, the Sparkeltones. Although Joe is no longerwith us, his band mates continue to play showshere and there even today. Their legacy cannotbe denied.

Joe Bennett and his band, The Sparkle-tones, cracked the Top Ten back in 1957 with anoriginal song called “Black Slacks.” The boys fromSpartanburg, South Carolina, lead by seventeenyear old Joe, the oldest band member, foundthemselves performing with people like Connie

Francis, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Pat Boone andcountless others. The Sparkletones appearedtwice on The Ed Sullivan Show and three timeson American Bandstand, and held the countryspellbound with a new type of music that fusedhillbilly country, rhythm and blues and rock androll, called “rockabilly.” One of The Sparkletones’most memorable shows found the boys rockingout in front of a very special guest.

“We loved Elvis Presley,” says Joe Ben-nett, relaxing in his studio, just before starting ona mile-long line of students. “We all loved Elvis.We had just gotten a record in the top ten and wewere hot. Our manager knew that Elvis was ap-pearing across town, and he went and talked toTom Parker, and told him, ‘Hey, I’ve got somekids from Spartanburg, South Carolina who areplaying in town. I’m going to get you a table andreserve it. Do you think Elvis would come?’ Andhe said ‘Sure, I’ll get him there.’ We didn’t knowanything about it. So the curtain opens and thebright lights are hitting us in the eyes, and we’rehearing all this commotion from down in front.People squealing and such. And we were dancingand rocking and rolling. Then the lights comedown and there he is, sitting right there at thefront of the stage, Elvis. We went to pieces. Icouldn’t even remember how to make a G-sev-enth chord. My knees were knockin’ home sweethome. And he’s sittin’ out there laughing and en-joying himself, with about five or ten body guardsaround him. He stayed for the whole show, andthen after it was over he came back to the dress-ing room. The first thing he did was to grab oneof our costumes. We had those custom-made cos-tumes with the sparkles and the stand-up collars.And in later years, Elvis wore similar costumes onstage.”

The boys had been discovered by talentscout Bobby Cox, who was so impressed by theband that he quit his job at CBS Records to be-

The Sparkletones

come their manager. In a whirlwind of instantfame, The Sparkletones were signed to ABC Para-mount, followed by a recording session the verynext day, in which they recorded the Bennett-Denton penned rockabilly tune, “Black Slacks,”which would become their biggest hit, and resur-face almost 40 years later in the Disney film, TheRescuers Down Under, performed by the lateJohn Candy.

The record company had a song that theywanted The Sparkletones to put out as a follow upto “Black Slacks.” The band was slated to appearon The Ed Sullivan Show, and they had anothersong, written by Sparky Childress, that they werethinking about playing on the broadcast. Therecord company told them that if they played thatsong instead of the one they had chosen, theSparkletones would never be back on Ed Sulli-van, and they would pretty much be ticked off atthe band.

For whatever reason, the band’s managerdecided to let them play Sparky’s song. That bleweverything up for The Sparkletones.

With several failed attempts at coming upwith a second blockbuster hit, The Sparkletonesplayed for a while, and eventually disbanded. Butthere were no regrets. They had bathed in thewarm light of success longer than most peopleever dream of.

Joe Bennett went into the Air Force in1960 as an Air Traffic Controller, continuing toperform during off duty times. In the mid-sixties,he taught music at Clark Music in Spartanburg,and then he transferred to Carlos, California towork with Mickey Hart (The Grateful Dead) atHart Music Company.

Joe had met Mickey while serving in theAir Force. In the book, Conversations with theDead, Mickey talks about his meeting with Joe,and the band they formed, Joe & The Jaguars.

After the breakup of The Sparkletones, Joehad become disillusioned with music. Leaving hisguitar at home in Spartanburg, he joined the AirForce and got sent over to Spain. About three orfour months later, he became tremendouslybored, and decided to call his daddy and get himto send him his guitar and small studio amp. One night Joe was sitting in the PX, scorching

through some rock classics like “Johnny B.Goode,” when this guy with a pair of drum sticks

in his back pocket walked in and began to watchhim and listen attentively. It was Mickey Hart.Hart had been a world champion in the drum andbugle corp, and when he heard Bennett rockingout, he was drawn in by the sound.

Hart didn’t really know anything aboutrock and roll at the time. He had been dealingwith elevens and fourteens, lots of off-beat drumand bugle formations. Probably no one present atthat meeting would have guessed that Hart onesoon be known world-wide for his drum workwith The Grateful Dead.

One thing lead to another, and Joe andMickey struck up a friendship. Shortly thereafter,Joe told Mickey that he was starting anotherband, and needed a drummer. That band becameJoe & The Jaguars, and the rest is, as they say,history. To this day, Mickey credits Joe Bennettwith teaching him how to rock.

Mickey got out of the service first, andwent to live with his Grandparents in Long Is-land, New York. Joe bought a Volkswagen inSpain, and sent it over to Long Island for Mickeyto drive around until he got out of the service.The Thanksgiving when Joe got out of the service,he came to Long Island and spent the Holidaywith Mick’s grandparents. Then he drove the VWhome to Spartanburg.

About three or four months later, Mickey’sdad, who had been separated from his mother

Joe Bennett.

since Hart was a child, called to inform Mickeythat he was running a music store in Carlos, Cali-fornia called Hart Music. He invited his son tocome out and work with him.

Pretty soon, the store was in full swing,and they started needing teachers. Joe was theonly guitarist Mickey knew. He called Joe, andsaid “hey, come on out.” Joe had gotten married,and was living near Cannon’s Campground. Hetook a look around and decided nothing was hap-pening at home, and decided to go for it.

Joe spent about three years in the mid-sixties living out in California, teaching and gig-ging around with Mickey and others. Joe’s wifewas never happy on the West coast, so he endedup coming back home to Spartanburg.

Between 1971 and 1981, Joe returnedhome to Spartanburg to teach guitar, servingsome 250-300 students weekly, while authoring atext book, Joe Bennett’s Guitar in the Rock Mode.In 1988 he moved to Alaska to do some work asan air traffic controller, write music, and explorethe Alaskan wilds. He recently returned home toSpartanburg to teach guitar once again, while stillchurning out original music. Joe feels verystrongly about his home town, as well as theplethora of musicians that have come out of Spar-tanburg.

“I gotta tell you something. We traveled alot, and then I went in the Air Force and traveleda lot, but this area, and I’d say Spartanburg inparticular, has more really good pickers than I’veever seen in one place. It’s like a little Nashville.There’s something about the area that motivatespeople to play the guitar. You know, there was aguy named Hank Garland, one of the jazz greats.He was the first one to come out of Spartanburgand become famous, really. And then there wasBuck Trent, and Bobby Thompson, who is one ofthe super session men in Nashville now. Andthere were others, Dale Burgess, Rusty Milner,who plays with the Marshall Tucker Band now,and Stuart Swanlund. I taught a lot of these guys.And then there’s Ronald Radford, who playedwith Randy Travis, another great player. Thereare so many who will come in here in their greasywork clothes and pull one off the wall and smokeit for a while and then go back to work. A lot ofpeople are content to just get together and jam,and have fun, and that’s okay too.”

These days, Joe Bennett can be found,most days, teaching guitar at Smith’s. He still hasa passion for the instrument, and the people whoplay it.

“Here’s where we have problems with mu-sicians around here. Most of them are good coverpeople. They can play other peoples licks, butthey can’t make any money at it. But they be-come so influenced by it, that when they do go todo original stuff, it comes out as a warmed overversion of the player they’ve been listening too.With my particular stuff, I was playing horn lickson the guitar. In those days, there weren’t anyguitar licks to copy. I listened to Bill Haley andthe Comets. I also listened to a lot of countrymusic. I cut my teeth on country, and we wererockabilly - we had the two part harmony, me andSparky - we were sort of a rock and roll EverlyBrothers. It was just a lot of fun.”

An Exclusive Interview with JoeBennett

What's life like for Joe Bennett these days?Teaching at Smith Music in Spartanburg....writ-ing weekly. I have a new Christmas album onHendersonentertainment.com. I wrote eleven ofthe twelve songs. Songs recorded by One-eyedJack on liquidaudio.com. Also others of mine(new stuff) are on that site for download. My fam-ily and I are in good health thank goodness...myyoungest is daughter Lindsay in Middle school.Little Joe, 14, is in his first year high school, theyare great kids.

Do The Sparkletones still play gigs? Tell usabout 'em. Yep...we play at least once a year at Sparkletonesday at Cannons Elementary School. We’d like togo out a few times annually if the price was right.Everyone still has great chops and for someold guys, we can still kick pretty good!

Where did you record the new track forthe Rockabilly Hall of Fame cd?“Old Time Rock and Roller” was recorded at Hen-derson Entertainment studios here in Spartan-burg. State of the art studio. Me and a drummachine.

What music do you like listening to?I listen to Jazz, blues and old time BeBop. I likethe "Great Guitars" series...Charlie, Barney andothers. It still confirms my belief that great play-ing starts with those little things called digits atthe end of your hand! Phooey on all those pedals!

Who are your rockabilly heroes?Elvis - the old stuff- and Carl Perkins are my all-time heroes of rockabilly...in that order. BuddyHolly had the right stuff too. Nowadays I like TheDimaggios...lots of great musicians out thereusing those digits!

What’s your instrument of choice?Stratocaster, ditto, ditto...well you know...cut myteeth on one. I need to really get into the stringsand control them. I can't on a Gibson or Telly.People throw a fit about antique guitars but lis-ten, the electronics, fret-boards, etc. are so muchbetter than they were back then. I'll take thesenew strats anytime. Sure would like to have thatol’ ‘57 back though!

Tell us a bit about your hometown and it’smusical legacy.

Pound for pound, Spartanburg has more reallyquality musicians than any other small town Ihave ever seen. It's growing like a kudzu vinethough and will soon be a veritable metropolis, Ifear. I keep around 80 students per week andthere are kids waiting in line to learn to play. Notjust for me but other teachers also. It has to besomething in the water. The reason many folkswon't support local concerts by name acts here isthat someone in their family or the next doorneighbor can probably play better! It is part of lifeto play music.

What are your memories of playing the EdSullivan Show?Ed Sullivan show? Anna Marie Alberghetti wason the first night in November of ‘57, so we didn'tremember too much about that one...we were allin a daze....just kidding. It was a great experiencewith all the hoopla and people making a fuss overyou. We were just country boys and didn't knowenough to be scared. I worried about breaking astring. Strats go out of tune when you break astring.

What about American Bandstand?American Bandstand. Dick Clark was a great guyand they really were nice to us.There were kidsour own age there and so it was real comfortablefor us. We played live so we could get good crowdreaction. It was awesome.

The Sparkletones with Elvis.

VIVE LE BOOGIE!PAUL HORNSBY IS RED HOT!

From his years working with Duane and Gregg Allman as a member of Hourglass, to his many yearsas a member of the Capricorn Rhythm Section, andas Record Producer at Capricorn, Paul Hornsby hasproduced and performed on some of the Greatest

Southern Rock albums ever. Now Hornsby steps intothe Spotlight with his First Ever Solo album,

RED HOT! “Paul Hornsby was my mentor when I was a young

musician growing up in Alabama. I learned a great dealfrom him in my formative years and still learn from him

today. He is a master musician and producer and one ofmy closest friends, and I am so glad he has finally comeout with this, his own first solo project. I know everyone

will enjoy this fun music and fine playing!”

- Chuck Leavell, Keyboardist and Musical Director forThe Rolling Stones; Conservationist

“After so many years of producing and playingwith great artists like Duane Allman, Eddie

Hinton and Toy Caldwell, Paul is finally gettingthe spotlight, and it is more than well deserved.He gets a few of his old friends in on that act,

and together, they turn out a fantastic CD full ofclassic tunes from rock to blues to rockabilly -from the Ray Charles hit “Mess Around” to theblues of “Key to the Highway” and the rockin’

boppin’ “My Gal is Red Hot,” all featuringHornsby’s stellar piano work! Turn it up!”

- Michael Buffalo Smith, Author & Recording Artist

ORDER TODAY!http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paulhornsby

40

Any advice to young rockers out there whoare considering a career in music?Forget it! Well, not exactly but you know thegame is played differently now than back in the‘50's when music of our type was being born. It ispolitical, back-biting, dog-eat-dog...well you getthe picture. It has been good to me, but I wouldlike young people to look more at the productionend of the business- staff musician, engineer,producer/arranger, etc. The road band side does-n't fit into the "home life" routine, raising fami-lies, etc. Income is not a predictable thing, unlessyou are Clapton, and I don't recommend thebusiness as a source of continuous income. Get adegree and then try it.

What’s your take on the music scene as wehead into the new century?I hope that good, raw, music will come back in it'ssimple form, but it looks like the electronic-nutsare devising new ways to make a guitar sound likesomething other than a guitar. It's a little scary tothink about.

Who are your favorite guitar slingers of alltime?Les Paul, Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, AlbertLee and Eric Johnson. Of course, I can't leave out

Chet Atkins, who is one-of-a-kind.

Favorite singers?I am an Elvis fan and don't deny it. Roy Orbisonwas awesome. But, don't forget the heavy-weights., Frank, Tony and Mel. What voices!

Tell us a little about what became of eachof the members of The Sparkletones.The Tones are all alive and well. Howard“Sparky” Childress, the youngest works at Mil-likin. Wayne Arthur ( bassist) is retired and playsin a gospel group called The Campground Boys.Jimmy Denton (Drums) owns Twin States AutoParts in Chesnee, S.C. and plays in a DixielandBand on the side. I teach guitar and bass full-timeat Smith Music. •

Joe Bennett died on Saturday, June 27, 2015 atthe age of 75. His death was caused by Parkin-son's disease and Lewy body dementia, stem-ming from exposure to Agent Orange whileserving in the U.S. Air Force during the VietnamWar.

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The Silver TravisBandSelf Titled(silvertravis.com)

The Silver TravisBand trace their be-ginnings back toSpartanburg, SC over35 years ago, and

over the past third of a century, the guys haverecorded one 45 rpm single and two albums,but with the release of their new self-titledalbum, the band steps up to the plate for thegrand slam, the finest recording of their ca-reer. The music is as fresh as a spring morn-ing in Carolina.

There’s just something special aboutthe music born in the Carolinas. Maybe it’sthe home-grown aspect. Grown from the fer-tile soil of the farms and mountains andfoothills of the south. After all, almost allgreat music can trace its roots back to thesouth, whether it be blues, country or South-ern rock. The Silver Travis Band was origi-nally born in the Upstate city of Spartanburg,South Carolina- the same town that gave usguitar hero Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland, rocka-billy rebels The Sparkletones and Southernrock pioneers the Marshall Tucker Band.They obviously drank from the same well.

Over the years, the Silver Travis Bandhas entertained countless fans, honing theirmusical spear to a fine edge and taking theirsongwriting to the next level over and overagain.

With this new album, the band hasreached their apex. This is a group of south-ern boys who work together like a well-oiledmachine. Think Dale Earnhardt’s #3 car if itplayed music.

The Silver Travis Band consists of Ran-

dall Calvert (formerly of Roebuck, SC, cur-rently of Columbus, NC) on lead guitar; JoeyParrish of Roebuck on bass; Mike Satterfieldof Roebuck, SC on drums; Carey Upton ofLandrum, SC on keyboards and vocals andDaniel Jackson of Landrum on guitar on vo-cals. Together, the guys went into Mill StreetSound Studios in Inman, SC and recordedtheir finest album ever with the help of pro-ducer/engineer Tim Lawter (long time bassistfor the aforementioned Marshall TuckerBand).

The music of the Silver TravisBand is at once familiar and still fresh. Sure,there are hints of influences that have washedover them individually and as a band, fromvarious southern rock and country bands toblues and classic rock artists- you may hear aToy Caldwell or Tommy Crain guitar lick oneminute and a Stevie Ray Vaughan note thenext, only to have an energy similar to that ofBruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne shinethrough on the next song.

Still, given the multitude of in-fluences, the Silver Travis Band remains atrue original. There is simply not anotherband who sounds like them, anywhere on theplanet. Great guitars, twin leads, soaring key-boards, harmony vocals and an ultra-tightrhythm section add up to the freshest soundto grace the airwaves recently. Take my wordfor it, as one who has written about bands forover 30 years, this is the good stuff.

“Sweet Carolina,” penned byDaniel Jackson, is an awesome tribute totheir home state, and “Can’t Stand the Rain,”written by Carey Upton is a Top 40 hit wait-ing to happen. I remember this song in a dif-ferent version from many years ago, and wasthrilled the band chose to dust it off, kick itup a notch and record it.

CD’s, Vinyl & DownloadS

I was very happy that the band paidtribute to long time STB guitarist, the lateSteve Harvey by recording his song “LongGone,” rocking it out complete with a hornsection. Steve would be so proud. Calvert’s“Chain Gang” has been entertaining audi-ences for a few years now, and it sounds greaton record, with all the swagger of a LynyrdSkynyrd tune. Randall sounds as hot as everon lead guitar and even takes lead vocal du-ties on this one.

“Spirit in the Hills,” written by MarkBrinkman and arranged by Silver Travis hasall the lyrical quality the best Charlie Danielssong with a swampy rock vibe. I was taken bythat song the very first time I heard the bandplay it at Music On The Tracks in Landrum,SC. So good.

The album is a nonstop thrill ride be-ginning to end, with great tracks like Upton’s “Stop Running” and the horn backed “BabyBlue;” Calvert’s rocking “Waiting for MyRide” and “You Lie” and the beautiful “LoveFades Away;” and Daniel Jackson’s awesome“Lesson Learned.”

The boys from Spartanburg, SC reallyoutdid themselves on this one. I look for bigthings from these guys moving forward. Ex-pect no quarter.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Buddy GuyThe Blues is Aliveand Well(Silvertone/RCA)

In an age where trueguitar heroes seem tobe dying off at analarming rate, one truelegend continues to

record and tour, and amazingly continues tooutdo himself with each album. That man isBuddy Guy. The 81-year old-guitarist and

singer won a Grammy for his most recentalbum, Born to Play Guitar, in 2016, and thatsame year toured as opener for Jeff Beck, sell-ing out venues across the United States. Guyrecently had one of his most personal inter-views with David Letterman for Dave’s Net-flix series My Next Guest Needs NoIntroduction, and brought down the house atthe closing of B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grillin New York. On September 12, Buddy willreceive the Lifetime Achievement Award fromthe Americana Music Association inNashville.

For The Blues is Alive and Well, fre-quent producer and collaborator Tom Ham-bridge approached Guy with a set of songsthat he felt were perfect for Buddy to recordas a new album. Tom was right. Guy soundsjust as good today, if not better than he did inhis early career. His gritty guitar is at theforefront on songs like “Bad Day” and hotsolo on “Somebody Up There.”

Buddy brought along a few guests onthe new record, including James Bay, whojoins Guy on the soulful slow jam, “Blue NoMore,” and Rolling Stones front man MickJagger who sits in on the swaggering barroomrocker “You Did the Crime.” For “Cognac,”Guy is joined by the other Glimmer Twin,Keith Richards along with Jeff Beck. Some se-rious guitar playing going on!

Buddy pulls out all the stops on theSonny Boy Williamson song “Nine BelowZero,” and blazes across the strings on “A FewGood Years” and the funky “Whiskey forSale.” The blues is truly alive on “MilkingMuther for Ya,” a tune that clocks in at lessthan a minute to close out this fine album.

With 50 years in the business, 7Grammy Awards, 37 Blues Music awards,Kennedy Center Honors, NARM Chairman’sAward for Sustained Creative Achievement,Billboard Music Awards’ Century Award fordistinguished artistic development, Presiden-tial National Medal of Arts and induction intothe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues

Hall of Fame, just to name a few accomplish-ments, Buddy Guy has proven himself timeand timne again as an amazing talent thatages like the finest wine. Pour yourself a glassof The Blues is Alive and Well, and drink himin.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Blackberry SmokeThe SouthernGround Sessions(3 Legged Records)Never a band to rest

on their laurels, Black-berry Smoke releases anew acoustic EP on

October 26th. The Southern Ground Sessionsfeatures acoustic versions of five of the songsfrom their latest LP, Find a Light, along witha nice cover of Tom Petty’s “You Got Lucky,featuring Amanda Shires, who is also featuredon “Let Me Down Easy.” Fans have alreadyheard “Mother Mountain” featuring OliverWood, and the EP also houses stripped ver-sions of “Run Away From It All,” “MedicateMy Mind.” and my personal favorite, “BestSeat in the House.” I for one love the acousticside of Blackberry Smoke just as much as thecranked-up electric side, and this EP is a truegift from one of the hottest young bandsworking today. Get you some.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

The Louvin BrothersLove and Wealth: TheLost Recordings(Modern Harmonic)

The legendary coun-try duo the Louvin Broth-ers dominated the chartsduring their hey day

(1956-1963), and now never before released

demo recordings from their earliest sessionswill be released as Love and Wealth: The LostRecordings on September 28th.

The two-cd set is packed with 29recordings as well as one spoken word piece,and the set includes expensive liner notes bywriter Colin Escott and photos of the broth-ers. The Louvin Brothers truly are legends,having been cited as an influence by the likesof Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, the Byrds, Emmy-lou Harris and Gram Parsons, among others.Many great bluegrass acts modeled their har-monies after those of the Louvins. includingthe Osbourne Brothers and the Country Gen-tlemen.

The songs in this astounding set wereoriginally cut as songwriting demos at CapitolRecords, but they are fully worked up ver-sions of the songs recorded in the 1950’s andfiled away for the next six decades. The songshere can hold their on beside any of the tunesin the Louvin catalog. It truly is like findingburied treasure.

Ira and Charlie were regular perform-ers on the Grand Ol Opry, and they were in-ducted into the Country Music Hall of Famein 2001. Love and Wealth features some ofthe Louvin’s finest tunes, including “Take theRing from Your Finger,” “Are You MissingMe,” “Streamlined Heartbreaker,” “Preachthe Gospel,” “Born Again,” “You’ll Forget,”and “I’ll Never Go Back.” Love and Wealth isnothing less than an essential piece of countrymusic history. Good stuff.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Savoy BrownYou Should HaveBeen There(Panache Records)

Savoy Brown’s latestalbum, You Should HaveBeen There! is a colossaldose of live electric blues.

Originally recorded in February of 2003 atThe Yale in Vancouver, this album featuresfront-man Kim Simmonds joined by guitaristDavid Malachowski, bassist Gerry Sorrentino,and drummer Dennis Cotton. Loaded withlots of extended jams, this delightful six-packof songs gives a solid hours’ worth of listen-ing.

The record opens with some serioushard-driving blues with “When it Rains” offthe 2003 Strange Dreams album. Simmondsthen dovetails “Where Has Your HeartGone?” in quite nicely for an exquisite elevenand a half minutes of intoxicating slow jamand guitar play. From one of my favoriteSavoy Brown albums, 1970’s Looking In, wehear the funky blues of “Poor Girl” whichspins the tale of a young woman who’s fledthe country life to be surrounded by thebright lights of the big city which chews herup and eventually spits her out. I love howSimmonds lets loose on guitar with this one.It’s an absolutely searing performance. YouShould Have Been There! closes with theominous 1972 “Hellbound Train” whichboasts an amazing guitar solo from Mala-chowski.

The energy of this performance cer-tainly transcends through to the recording.You should have been there. I should havebeen there. We all should have been there.

-Phillip Smith

The DozensTest(www.thedozensband.com)The Dozens have a greatsound and their latest EPdisplays all of their influ-ences from Memphis, Mus-

cle Shoals and Macon. Alabama nativeShelley Butler belts out the vocal on the setopener “Tidal Wave,” backed by poundingdrums from her husband Steven Butler andthumping bass from Brent Irvin. It’s almost

hypnotic. Toss in the guitars of Travis Poseyand Chip Dews and the organ and piano ofDanny Hocter and you get an original gumboof sound that sometimes seems a bit reminis-cent of the Allman Brothers (the end sectionof “Tidal Wave,” and often has the funk of aLittle Feat (“Chase Me”) or the beauty of a top40 pop song (“Took a Walk”). The B3 is at theforefront of “Battle Scars,” one of my favoritetracks from the record. Of course all seventracks are outstanding and feature some ex-cellent guitar work, slide, keys and drums.“The End” is another infectious groove beforethe band closes things out with “Some Kind ofVoodoo,” beginning with Shelley singingacappella before adding Dobro. Highly rec-ommended.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Brother DegeFarmer’s Almanac(Psyouthern Records)

Farmer’s Almanac, thefourth full-length album fromLouisiana native, Brother

Dege Legg, is somewhat of a masterpiece. Itseleven original tracks are slathered with at-tention-grabbing slide guitar, and razor-sharplyrics. Backing Brother Dege is The Brethren,comprised of Kent Beatty on bass, and drum-mers Greg Travasos and Doug Belote.

A surge of excitement traversesthrough “Country Come to Town”. Dege’smagnificent finger picking shines whileTravasos provides a steady heartbeat-likepulse. Layers of instrumentation provide anenhanced sense of depth in “The Shake-down”. The country blues slide and backdropof dual drums makes this an amazing listen.

The stories Legg tells with his songs arefantastic. Outlaw blues ballad “BastardsBlues” is tension-filled and swampy. Guestdrummers Hawley Joe Gary (Spank the Mon-key) and Eric Heigle (The Lost Bayou Ram-

blers) join drummer Doug Belote to help cre-ate the ominous atmosphere the song residesin. Tightly woven prose and a beautiful hyp-notic rhythm keep “The Moon & the Scare-crow” gingerly afloat as it softly builds to itsclimatic peak.

The album is book-ended by a pair ofPink Floyd-esque instrumentals, “Partial tothe Bitters” and “Partial to the Bitters Pt. 2”.The later, a bit more infused with twang,sounds just as brilliant, nonetheless.Farmer’s Almanac receives my highest possi-ble recommendation. It’s that great.

-Phillip Smith(www.phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com)

Geoff AtkinsonSovereign Town(Landslide)

Australian singer/songwriter/guitaristGeoff Atkinson consistently releases great al-bums, and his new one is no exception. Theconcept album was inspired by Australia’sgold rush of 1850 in the state of Victoria.Adding authenticity to the project, Geoffrecorded the album in the mining town ofBallarat, Victoria.

The acoustic collection is like a rockopera - or better yet, an Americana opera.The songs speak of leaving home to seek for-tune and love and looks at the downside ofdigging for gold.

Eleven of the tracks were written byGeoff, with a single cover, Ben Harper’s“Walk Away.” The lyrics are literary and fasci-nating, set against beautiful melodies andsparse instrumentation. Taking a cue fromNeil Young and Bruce Springsteen, Atkinsondelivers his most moody and personal albumto date. Totally original, intelligent songwrit-ing.

Atkinson may be a new name to some,but he is far from being a “new artist.” Hisguitar work was cited by Guitar Playermaga-zine who named him one of the “Top Ten

Hottest New Guitarists,” as well as beinglisted among the “100 Guitarists You ShouldKnow.” For 18 years he has been an instructorat Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch. In therecent past, Geoff has appeared onstage withsuch diverse artists as the Allman Brothers,George Porter, Jr., Hot Tuna, the WoodBrothers, Randall Bramblett, Col. BruceHampton, John Mayer, Delbert McClintonand many others.

Sovereign Town is Atkinson at his bestand most intelligent. Simply a work of art.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Folk Soul RevivalSelf Titled(Folk Soul Revival)This self-titled release isactually the fourth albumfrom Folk Soul Revival, butit was my first exposure to

their music and I must say, I liked it- a lot.This record gave me the same feeling I experi-enced years ago when I heard Jason and theScorchers for the first time, or that time whenDwight Yoakam released Hillbilly Deluxe. It’sa brilliant blend of country, old time and rockand roll that just makes me smile.

Folk Soul Revival are true originals,having shared stages with the likes of Dr.Ralph Stanley, Old Crow Medicine Show,Jason Isbell, Eric Church and others, and thesongs are all very good. The harmonies andslow country sound of “Dance with Me” standin start contrast with the cow punk of “OtherSide,” and outlaw country of “Buck Up” andpure Americana of “Horrible Girl,” but alltwelve tracks are great, including the finalcut, an apt cover of Lowell George’s “Willin.”Excellent.

-Michael Buffalo Smith

SOUND & VISION: DVDsThe Live from Billy Bob’s Texas CD andDVD Collection(Smith Music Group)

Billy Bob’s Texas isno doubt one of thebiggest, best and mostloved honky tonks inAmerica, and over theyears, they have hosteda who’s who of greatcountry and Americanabands. Smith MusicGroup has been issuinggreat concerts fromBilly Bob’s on CD and

DVD for many years now, and we felt they de-served a tip of the Stetson for all of their out-standing work.

Among the releases is a 2015 release ofThe Charlie Daniels Band. The DVD in-cludes a nice backstage interview with Char-lie, and the filmmakers capture the rawenergy that is Charlie Daniels on a 14-song setthat kicks off with a rocking “Southern Boy,”a song he recorded in duet with Travis Tritt.Here, guitarist Bruce Brown does a fine job ofsinging Tritt’s parts. Next is long time setopener “Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye,” which isfollowed by a cut from Charlie’s Off the Gridtribute to Bob Dylan album, “Tangled Up inBlue.” Of course, the hits are played at virtu-ally every show, including here - “The Legendof Wooley Swamp,” “In America” and “TheSouth’s Gonna Do it Again” -all sounding justas fresh as they did the first time you heardthem. One song I’ve always loved is “El Tore-ador,” and it’s great seeing/hearing it livehere. Charlie speaks his mind (as always) on“(What This World Needs is) a Few MoreRednecks,” and the instrumental “Black Ice”rocks with an Allman Brothers feel. Charlie

pays tribute to Johnny Cash with “FolsomPrison Blues” and tosses in another Dylantune, “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.” Danielsgoes acoustic and sings straight from theheart on “How Great Thou Art,” and the bandcloses their show with their biggest hit, “TheDevil Went Down to Georgia.” This outstand-ing concert is also available as a CD.

Back in 2002, Smith Music deliveredDavid Allan Coe’s live show, an outstand-ing concert that kicks off with the acoustic“Ain’t That the Way Love’s Supposed to Be,” aduet with Kimberly Hastings, followed by“Talkin’ to the Blues.” Two great songs, fol-lowed by a third “Son of the South.” Next is asong Coe wrote with Kid Rock, “‘59 Cadillac‘57 Chevrolet,” followed by the hauntingacoustic solo of “Heaven Only Knows.” David

teams up with Kim-berly again to pay trib-ute to WaylonJennings with “StormsNever Last,” The restof the show is an in-credible blend of coun-try and Southern rockthat includes “Wreck-

less,” “Nothin to Lose,” “If That Ain’t Coun-try,” “The Ride,” and “You Never Even CalledMe By My Name.” For the encore, Coe re-turns to the stage pimped out to do his rapsong “Free My Mind.” Awesome. Get the DVDand the CD!

Another winner came in 2014 withBilly Joe Shaver’s set from Billy Bob’s. It’sa whopping 20 songs on the DVD (there aretwo bonus studio tracks on the CD version.)Shaver is in top form on his classic songs“Heart of Texas,” “Georgia On a Fast Train,”“Honky Tonk Heroes,” “Old Chunk of Coal,”“Live Forever,” “Old Five and Dimers,” “Tryand Try Again” and “You Can’t Beat Jesus

Christ.” Billy Joe’s relatively newer song“Wacko from Waco” takes a humorous look atthe incident where he ended up shooting a

guy in a bar. In 2004 Willie

Nelson Live at BillyBob’s was released. It’savailable as a DVD or asa CD with free bonusDVD! The Willie NelsonFamily Band is red hot,dishing out 20 hits backto back, including“Whiskey River,” “GoodHearted Woman,”

“Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Crazy,” “TheNight Life,” “Me & Paul,” “Blue Eyes Cryin inthe Rain,” “Blue Skies,” “Angel Flyin too Closeto the Ground,” and “On the Road Again.”Willie also treats the audience to some greatcovers including the instrumental “Under theDouble Eagle,” Kristofferson’s “Help MeMake it Through the Night” and “Me andBobby McGee,” Haggard’s “Workin Man’sBlues” and the classic “Georgia On My Mind.”It’s an outstanding show both on DVD andCD.

Also in 2004, Smith issued T. Gra-ham Brown’s live set, with the country hitmaker delivering his best work including “ITell it Like it Used to Be,” “Wine Into Water,”“Hell and High Water,” and “Darlene,” andTG turns in a great version of Donnie Fritts’“Memphis Women and Fried Chicken.”

Time jumping to 2017, Shooter Jen-nings was captured live in another outstand-ing show that includes live rockin’ versions ofhis “Electric Rodeo,” “Steady at the Wheel,”“4th of July,” and many more - 18 songs totalfrom Waylon’s son.

With so many great concerts availableand many more to come, I must recommendthat you check out Smith Music Group andwhen in Texas, by all means visit Billy Bob’sTexas! -Michael Buffalo Smith

The US Festival(MVD)

Back in 1982, Appleco-founder Steve Woz-niak decided to stage thebiggest all-star rock con-cert ever and do it right.Woz spared no expense,and a spent millions justto turn a piece of land

into a beautiful natural amphitheater. Fromthe outset, Steve was dropping money leftand right to make the show the biggest andbest and it worked, and he brought in theundisputed king of concert promoters, BillGraham to help make it all run smoothly.

Not only was the venue perfect, but thecross-section of popular bands covered every-thing in the current rock and roll lexicon atthe time. This Blu Ray disc is packed with in-terviews and rare performances that tell thestory of the US Festival.

The B-52’s braved the 100 degree heatto bring one of the best sets of day one to thestage, entertaining the “ocean of people.”Crowd estimates ranged from 250,000 toover 300,000. The Athens, Georgia band isfeatured in a full performance of “StrobeLight.”

Also representing the new wave andpunk scene were New York’s finest, the Ra-mones, along with Gang of Four and TalkingHeads. The Police closed out day one with anintense set.

The 3-day festival rocked with DaveEdmunds, Pat Benatar, Eddie Money, TomPetty & the Heartbreakers, Santana, the Cars,the Grateful Dead, Jerry Jeff Walker, JimmyBuffett and more including a stellar festivalclosing show from Fleetwood Mac.

This documentary is highly entertain-ing and educational, and just plain fun. Now Ijust want all of the performances on DVD!Good times!

-Michael Buffalo Smith

Michael Buffalo Smith ismakin’ it back to macon

buffalo’s first album since 2005 produced bylegendary capricorn producer Paul Hornsby.With special guests Tommy Talton, billy bob thornton & e.g.kight - with towson engsberg, billy eli, joey parrish, greg

yeary and daniel jackson. available from cdbaby, amazon, itunes and everywhere good music is sold.

for updates follow buffalo on facebook, twitter and instagram.

www.michaelbuffalo.net

Doug Gray of the Marshall Tucker Band sings during the band’sconcert at Straton Mt., Vermont on June 30.

(Photo by Tom Bell)

FREE BIRDS- Carey Upton and Randall Calvert of the Silver TravisBand joined members of Project X to back up Artimus Pyle on “Free

Bird” during the Southern Stars Rising festival at Plum Hollow inCampobello, SC on September 1. (Photo by Joey Parrish)

Joey Parrish of the Silver Travis Band hung outwith Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Artimus Pyle

during the Southern Stars Rising festival at PlumHollow in Campobello, SC on 

September 1. (Photo by Angie Upton)

BB Borden of the Marshall Tucker Band drums inVermont on June 30.

(Photo by Tom Bell)

MY BACK PAGES

THE SOUTHERN THANG

RAWK MEETS COUNTRY & WESTERN- The hilarious (and awesome) Unknown Hinson got togetherwith Ed King a few years ago to stage a “battle” which found Hinson firing a pistol into the air onstage. The

friends concocted a scenario worthy of its own reality TV show, and can be seen on YouTube. (Photo Courtesy Ed King)

Tom Coerver

“Tom Coerver is the whole package. He’s a dynamite guitar player, anamazing B-3 player, a great Louisiana blues-rock vocalist and songwriter. Ihave followed him since his very first album release, and have enjoyedevery one since. He is a multi-talented musician and producer, and deserves to be heard by the world.” - Michael Buffalo Smith

ALL OF TOM’S MUSIC IS AVAILABLE ATCDBABY.COM

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