Hey y'all:
Checking back in wid dah gang after a much needed R&R on Lake Eufaula and on Dauphin Island.
I really do want to thank Gloria and Buddy Buie for an absolutely wonderful two days of hospitality at their beautiful home on the shores of Lake Eufaula.
Saturday was a gas as Buddy and I toured Cotton Hill, Ft. Gaines, Bluffton and Kolomoki
http://www.lostworlds.org/kolomoki_park.html.
Mo' MUCHAS go out to Buddy for driving his pickup and allowing me to get high as a Georgia Pine as I recovered millions of childhood memories.
Buddy Buie and Ernest Price in front of the house my Grandpa Belcher built by himself. Ernest is not only one of our former stovewood customers but he's the proud owner of my Grandpa and Grandma Belcher's house in Bluffton.
Buddy at the top of the bluff in Bluffton
The old swimming pool at the bottom of the bluff and the dressing room ruins
The bottom of the bluff at Bluffton
Meeting Ernest Price and hearing him talk about my Grandpa Belcher was tonic for my soul.
Bluffton was a PEAK EXPERIENCE!
Had another peak experience while visiting the Dauphin Island area.
I got more excited about visiting Bellingrath Gardens and cruising on Fowl River than I did about the bikinis!
I MUST BE GETTING OLD!
The Gardens are the perfect place for me to retire as a handy man.
Heaven On Earth populated with rich women in their late 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s...........
"The Bellingrath Grotto is a riverfront oasis with its waterfall and ever changing blooms." http://bellingrath.org/maps/ohome.asp
Really the cream of the crop of the blue hair crowd.
Hey, Buddy & Gloria, y'all gotta build a grotto like Mr. Bellingrath's at your house. Y'all can make KOZMIC WHITE NOISE MUSIC with your own grotto. Mr. Bellingrath supplied his grotto with water from an artesian well. Y'all could supply yours with a windmill and have the windmill pump the water straight out of the lake!
And HARD PAN. Hard Pan iron ore boulders like the ones we admired on Saturday in the cemeteries of Southwest Georgia are the main landscaping rocks used at Bellingrath.
The flagstones are unbelievable. It's like hundreds of thousands of perfect English flagstones hundreds of years old.
Mr. Bellingrath bought every f#ckin' flagstone in every Mobile sidewalk (they came over as ballast in the ships that picked up the cotton for Europe). Mr. Bellingrath got the City of Mobile to give all of them to him by promising to replace the flagstone sidewalks with concrete.
I got home to Tuscaloosa about an hour late this morning.
Had a late night at The Pelican Pub on the island chasing The Alba Sharks last night.
'Bout did me in this afternoon with this heat but being with Lisa and Sharron from the Boggy Bayou was super. I been chasing those Alba Shark kitty kats since the summer of '77 so the pursuit gave precious flashbacks of holding hands with a cute little oyster shucker in the old NEPTUNE over thirty years ago.
All the girls down on Dauphin Island went to school at Alba High in Bayou La Batre. Now they send all the kids all the way to Grand Bay to go to high school.
I also found portions of the original old Pensacola Road on my trip from Lake Eufaula to Dauphin Island. That was absolutely super driving the backroads along the Conecuh River Valley Ridge!
Best,
RR http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
http://robertoreg.blogspot.com
P.S.
& I now have permission to tell all of the inhabitants of Cuba, Alabama that Rockin' Rodney Justo (a.k.a. THE ROCKER, The Memory Cell) has suddenly recovered his ability to sing and has reorganized his old band,RODNEY & THE MYSTICS, down in Tampa Bay!!!!
http://www.teddwebb.com/showcase/where_are_they_now/rodney_justo.html
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANYONE SMOKE ANYTHING OUT OF CHRIS JONES' BAG!!! (FYI: it's the 40th Anniversary of Georgia Pines!)
From :
Chris Jones
Sent :
Saturday, July 15, 2006 3:49 AM
To :
Subject :
30th Anniversary
With 2007 being the 30th anniversary of probably my all time favorite recording (Georgia Pines), any chance of you getting some of the guys to share memories of its being recorded, etc? Thanks.
W. Chris Jones
Roswell, GA
HEY CHRIS, TELL YO' GAWJA BOY, ALLEN JACKSON, THAT HE NEEDS TO CUT GEORGIA PINES!!!
From :
Sent :
Thursday, July 13, 2006 5:18 AM
To :
robertoreg@hotmail.com
Subject :
RAMRODS / JAMES GANG
Robert,
Thanks for helping me get re-connected to Jon Adair. He sent me an email with his contact info. I gave him a call and we had a nice long phone visit. He has provided me with Johnny Mulkey's phone number. I will give him a call soon.
Johnny and I started playing guitar at the same time back in Huffman (B'Ham), AL. We found a couple of old flat top guitars in a coal bin in the basement of my grandfathers house. Johnny immediately pick up one that still had four strings, tightened them (didn't really know how to tune) and played Walk Don't Run. It came that natural to him. (He was about 12 at that time) The other guitar had 3 strings. I couldn't play cords, so I became the bass player.
After we got some gear, we started a garage band called The Lancers . (Johnny on lead, David Willis on rhythm, Rick Handy on Drums and me on bass) We were all instrumental. Mostly Ventures, Link Wray, etc. Played private parties, skating rinks, etc.
Johnny, Bubba Latham, Joe Lackey, Jon Adair and I were with Fred Guarino in the RAMRODS (predecessor to the more famous James Gang).
I just found out about Freddy passing. Such a shame. Since talking with Jon I've learned that Joe Lackey has also passed away. The old RAMRODS are getting thin on Xs.
I am going to provide Jon with some of my memories of those times. I also still have some reel to reel tapes of some of our music (Lancers and Ramrods). I will try to get them transferred to CDs. This could be an interesting view the typical 60s Garage Bands and of the early roots of Southern Rock n Roll.
Thanks again,
Jim
PS: I can't figure out how to post comments to your Blog. I'm Blog challanged.
PSS: My closest tie to Cuba is that I graduated from Livingston U. Chased a few skirts in and around Cuba and drank more than a few brews in Meridian.
MARTINIQUE NIGHTS
To :
robertoreg@hotmail.com
Subject :
Martinique Nights
Hey Bob,
Isn't the Internet amazing? I noticed a note from you on a Blog in Alabama about the Martinique. My name is Bill Thames and I played drums at the Martinique from 65-72, off and on in high school and college. My high school band was the "Soul Patrol" originally the "Consolidation" later, with Carl Persis singing, Ralph Bundy guitar, Mike Wilson bass, and Tim O'Brien on Keys. Does that ring a bell? Your name sounds very familiar, but I'm having a little trouble placing you.
I still see and hear from Ringo from the Martinique from time to time, but Bill Cook died two springs ago. I do a little writing for the Allman Brothers Website and a couple of music magazines. Old habits die hard. What ya been up to?
Bill Thames
__________________________________________________Facts are mere pretense to the story, and the storytellers are gods.
FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN!: Hey, Man
Host Mal Thursday brings you the latest installment of FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! (now available at http://www.floridarocksagain.garagepunk.com/), an eclectic mix of ’60s sounds from the Sunshine State. The first half of the program features songs with the word “Man” in the title, while the latter half features songs with “woman,” “lady,” or “girl” in the title. There are primitive garage classics from We The People, the Dark Horsemen, and Billy Sandlin & the Interns (thanks to BossHoss for that one), plus Florida-born legends Gram Parsons, Fred Neil, and Tampa Red, not to mention the first appearance in the series of the infamous Blowfly, performing “Hole Man.” Produced by MalThursday and JeffMiami in living monophonic sound.
