Transcription of Friday, July 11, 2008 Tuscaloosa's WTBC Morning Show featuring
Wilbur Walton Jr., Tiger Jack, Wally Price & the late Big Dave McDaniel with Special Guests, Rodney Justo, the late Buddy Buie ,the late Johnny Wyker and Debbie Hendrickson O'Toole(many of Debbie's comments were inadvertently not recorded)
LAUGHTER
Dave: Have mercy, Jack!
Tiger Jack: Oh!
Dave: Look! Watch your head now!
Tiger Jack: Bopped me right in the mouth.
LAUGHTER
Tiger Jack: I'm talking about the microphone. Let's clarify that!
MORE LAUGHTER
Dave: Hey, Jack, bend that thing the other way like this one here. Watch your head!
OH LORD GOD!
Tiger Jack: Small town radio.
Dave: I tell you.
Tiger Jack: Hey! YOU GOT THE RIGHT STRING BABY BUT THE WRONG YO-YO!
& that's Wilbur Walton & The James Gang on the Wally & Dave Show this morning. Tiger Jack sitting in~ We've got Wilbur Walton here with us reminiscing about the old days back in the 1960s. Rock 'n Roll around the State of Alabama and Southwest, Southeast & The James Gang was really into it back in those days & I want to talk about the James Gang but we're gonna wait just a minute because we have another special guest on the radio calling in- I guess Johnny...where are you? In the Shoals area? Wyker???????
Dave: Hey, John...
Oh, I think his cell phone's gone out, guys.
Tiger Jack: Well, he'll call back in a minute- then maybe- Trying to talk to Johnny Wyker who was the founding father of THE RUBBER BAND here in Tuscaloosa back in 1965 I believe. Went on to be a member of the group called SAIL CAT that had MOTORCYCLE MAMA & he's still in the music industry too. Wilbur, we're trying to get him. Have you got him back?
Dave: No, but we do have a nice lady from Dothan that's hanging on. Debby, good morning.
Tiger Jack: Debby from Dothan.
Bama Queen: Good morning!
Tiger Jack: How are you? You remember Wilbur & The James Gang I bet.
Bama Queen: Oh listen! I was 14 years old when I listened to Wilbur Walton Jr. at the Rec Center in Dothan singing Georgia Pines...singing Right String Baby But The Wrong Yo-Yo-WILBUR! DO IT!!!!
Wilbur: Well, I'm glad. My earphones are cutting on & off.
[ed. note: Bama Queen's audio was broadcast but it was lost from the tape]
Wilbur: Let me change earphones here.
Tiger Jack: Change your earphones out.
He can't hear.
Tiger Jack: Yeah, he's here.
Wilbur: He's across the...
Tiger Jack: The Bama Queen from Dothan, Alabama. O.K.
Wilbur: Yeah, Robert's sitting in there past that glass panel. Debbie, I didn't get to hear what you were talking about but I swear...
Tiger Jack: She says she remembers going to the Rec Center in Dothan, Alabama when she was 14 years old and listening to The James Gang.
Wilbur: Did you really?
Wilbur: Well, I'll sure do it then- He's standing right...
Wilbur: You know I haven't seen the whole thing yet. I've seen clips of it. I saw part of it last night up here. Robert showed me part of it. I want to see it.
Wilbur: Well, I'm glad you did.
Tiger Jack: Debbie, do you live in Tuscaloosa or are you in Dothan? Are you picking us up on the Internet or something?
Tiger Jack: O.K. We appreciate you calling in. We'll talk to you later, O.K.
Wilbur: Thank you so much for calling, Debbie.
Tiger Jack: Thanks for calling.
Wilbur: Thank you. Yes, bless you. I appreciate it.
Wilbur: I'm gonna try.
Tiger Jack: All right. Before we lose him again, let's get Wyker on here, O.K.
Johnny, how you doing, man? We keep losing you. Hope you can hang on for a few minutes. We got Wilbur Walton in the studio with us this morning.
Wilbur: Hey, Johnny.
Wyker: Yeah, I knew Wilbur back before he even started singing when he was a temp at Sigma Nu and he was friends with a buddy of mine named Jerry Sailor that later went on to sing with the Mark 5 up in Muscle Shoals and he died a few years ago. I talked to Wilbur about a year ago on the phone & he probably gets the same thing I get every time he runs into an old (ed. note: unintelligible) They say," Man, are you still alive? We thought you'd be the first to go." & I'm 63 & just got through raising and home schooling a 17 yr. old daughter and a 20 yr. old son and we've got an international net radio station on line. You can go to www.mfvr.com or .org ...that stands for Mighty Field of Vision Radio & we're actually trying to get a federal grant because you know now people don't have D.J.s like Tiger Jack that are heads up & hands on and that can break a local record. Like when we were freshmen in college in 1965, I got Johnny Townsend to sing with my band. He later went on to do SMOKE FROM A DISTANT FIRE & Tippy Armstrong came to play guitar with us and I found out in about two seconds I couldn't play guitar in the same band with Tippy & I had a choice of either getting thrown out of my own band or learning how to play saxophone within two weeks, on a trumpet within two weeks and so I blew till my lips bled. My...
Tiger Jack: Wyker is the guy responsible for, I don't know if he's ever heard this story before, but he's the guy responsible for putting TIGER JACK on me. Wyker used to... I'm sure you don't remember this, but you used to call me in the middle of the night and get me to play records then you would tape 'em so that the band could learn 'em. Y'all were the Mag 7 then.
Wyker: Yeah.
Tiger Jack: And one night, I used to like to lift a few cool ones before I come in, you know what I'm saying, & this particular night there'd been a few too many & Wyker called up & said, "Boy, you're roaring like a TIGER tonight!" & that's kinda evolved into Tiger Jack later on so...
Wyker: I'd also like to say I'm glad to hear Buddy Buie's well and doing good. I've had a few surguries myself; a ligament transplant in my right shoulder a few years ago from a motorcycle wreck & days & I broke Sail Cat up & when Motorcycle Mama was about 18 in the charts & I was living in Hollywood & I said, "I got to get out of here before they find a way how to get my BMI songwriter's money." so I bought the rest of the guys a plane ticket back to Alabama and I drove my old Cadillac back and bought a houseboat and just lived on the river for about five years & I was actually born in Florence & raised down there most of my life & went to high school in Decatur & came to Alabama as a freshman where I met Eddie Hinton & started working with him in '98 but I'd like to comment on Buddy Buie. The first time I saw Buddy Buie he was probably managing the Webs and we were sharing a bill with them at THE OLD DUTCH & I don't even remember what the name of my band was but in Buddy Buie I saw a guy who had more desire and more ability and more natural talent than anybody I'd run into in my life up to that time. He wasn't really a guitar player but he could make enough chords & he wasn't really a singer but he could write the most beautiful songs & when he would rair back & play one for a room full of people, he didn't let his guitar playing & vocals stand in the way, I mean, if you had any imagination at all, you could hear the finished product & I also noticed that Buddy took care of the little details nobody else wanted to do, like booking the jobs & making sure the guitar player had his pick. You know, all that kind of stuff~ I'm probably the least talented musician in the world but through watching him & a young Dan Penn; they both had that same power when they'd play one of their own songs. I don't know if Buddy remembers but I went over to Atlanta one time about '65 or '66 & we had signed with Columbia Records & was lucky enough to get a hit in the Southeast called LET LOVE COME BETWEEN US & I stayed with Buddy for a while & ended up over at Robert Nix's house who was the drummer for most of those great bands that y'all been talkin' 'bout & he's also got a band now with Dan Toler called the Toler-Townsend Band.
Tiger Jack: Is Johnny on that?"
Wyker: Yeah, he's still in L.A.
Married to Jennifer Toffel. Dr. Jim Coleman put 'em together & I'm sure you've heard the news on that...
Tiger Jack: Yeah.
Wyker: Dr. Coleman died a couple of months ago of a fall in his apartment. Fell down the stairs and broke his neck but I think there was more to it than that but I'm not going to say anything about it until...
Tiger Jack: Get back to the old days! How did you & The James Gang...
You told me a story a little bit earlier on the phone about how y'all crossed.
Wyker: Right! When Buddy was talking about The James Gang broke up & just left Wilbur. You know, I mean, it's hard to compete with Roy Orbison, especially at that time or anytime but Wilbur called me up & said,"I gotta bunch of Christmas jobs booked on The James Gang & I don't have a band. I said,"Well, I gotta bunch of Rubber Band shows lined up but I don't have a singer and Wilbur said, "Tell you what, I'll give you," I think it was $200 a week or a gig, "if you'll get a band to back me up." So he said,"You can pay the other guys anything you want to & ,you know, make a little extra money on it," & I did but it wasn't about money back in those days but one night we'd play as The James Gang & Wilbur would sing but he'd normally fiddle around for about two hours trying to get the P.A. working as he was knocking 'em out pretty good back then & he'd wait until he got his buzz adjusted just right & we didn't know any songs- basically- I went back to playing bass and Lou Mullinex was on drums and let's see, Tippy played guitar a little bit & Ronnie Brown played a little guitar & I played bass and we would do these long jams, like, imagine FUNKY BROADWAY & not put lyrics on it & I remember one night Wilbur was still stalling, trying to get the mic working. It probably worked. He just wouldn't flip the switch on until about halfway through the show but we didn't care, I mean, I was standing there facing the amps seeing pictures coming flying out of the bass amp & all this stuff & we kept playing...We were playing at a place in Auburn called the Sow'z(unintelligible). At first the people started yelling, "Play something else! Play something else!" & we just ignored 'em & kept playing this one chord instrumental. About an hour later, I looked up & everybody in the place was dancing & moving & the beer bottles on the shelves were swaying with the music so we kept playing about another hour & by then everybody had foundthem. I like to call this area THE LAND OF A THOUSAND DANCES. I mean, kids don't know how to act now days. You go to a party back then & everybody was doing some kind of dance~ The Alligator,laying down on the floor ~The Monkey, The Dog, The Funky Chicken~ all this stuff, well, we played as The James Gang one night. The next night we'd show up as The Rubber Band & I'd hire Cort. This was before Sail Cat. He was barely out of high school or still in high school & that worked out all right until we showed up in Mobile three nights in a row. First as The Rubber Band, then came back as The James Gang & the next night change clothes & went in & the third night we started hear kids say," Hey, didn't we see them here last night?" and another go, "Yeah, last night & the night before!" & we were lucky to get out of that tour alive but I can say that, you know, I was a member of The Rubber Band & The James Gang~the final version of The James Gang~ at the same time!
Tiger Jack: Well listen Wyker, you know how commercial radio is, we gotta take a break so we're gonna let you go.
Wyker: I'd like to invite everybody to go to our website and get the whole story. I gotta bunch a songs I wrote, uh, stories I wrote called CAT TALES ~ T-A-L-E-S ~ but it's mfvr.com & music on there you can download. Tell you about a lot we are doing today & I'd like to encourage everybody to buy a copy of the beach music book, HEY BABY.
Tiger Jack: Yeah, we've talked about that a lot.
Wyker: 18 pound book! I mean you won't believe it! It'll break somebody's back when you hand it to 'em. I mean, they could have just made a coffee table out of it!
Tiger Jack: Well, all right, we appreciate you calling in Johnny. We gotta go take a break.
Wyker: Get some of the old guys together like Wilbur & Buddy & whoever else is still alive and put on a damn show and show 'em us old Boomers can still rock!
Tiger Jack: I hear you, buddy. Thanks for calling in.
Wyker: I love you. I love you, man, for what you've done for the music business.
Tiger Jack: Thank you, sir! We'll talk to you later. JOHNNY WYKER!!!!
formally of The Rubber Band, calling in to talk with us. We got Wilbur here in the chair with us & we're gonna be talkin' more about the music of the 1960s & The James Gang coming up here in a second but first, let's take a break...
musical intro: BABY, TAKE ME BACK by Wilbur Walton Jr. & The James Gang
Big Dave McDaniel: Welcome back to The Morning Show!
We're having a great time talking about all the great days. Hey
It's all here & we want to thank the great folks at Hull & Associates for sponsoring this segment of the show. Anytime you need
HULL and ASSOCIATES!
Buddy Buie: Tiger Jack.
Tiger Jack: Yes, sir.
Wilbur Walton Jr. : That was me.
Tiger: That was Wilbur.
Buie: I know it was Wilbur but I was gonna ask you...
I didn't get to spend a lot of time with you when I was in Tuscaloosa working on the Bear Bryant deal,
Tiger: Right.
Buie: but I wanted you to know you're still a legend in my mind and everything and it's great to see one
Tiger: That makes two of us, me and you, we both think that.
I don't know if anybody else does or not.
LAUGHTER
Buie: Most guys that are legends in small town radio are just subjects of conversation over a drink or coffee but this one rocks right on! Congratulations!
Tiger: I don't know how long that's gonna continue. I'm getting so old that it's hard to rock like we used to but anyway there's a GREAT affiliation- the reason you're on here today-
because Wilbur's here- y'all kinda got it together back in the early 1960s.
Buddy got Wilbur started with the James Gang.
Wilbur: Buddy had it together way before I did. Buddy was managing and writing and there was a group called The Webs & Buddy was managing them. There was Bobby Goldsboro & John Rainey Adkins & Amos Tindall, Dave Robinson...
Was there a piano player, Buddy?
Buddy Buie: No, uh, I don't remember.
Wilbur: Anyway, they were over there rehearsing and they let me set in and sing. I didn't know nothing about it but Buddy...
Buie: But you had already been singing at the fraternity parties, hadn't you?
Wilbur: No! I was already out of high school. I hadn't sung anywhere. I didn't know a key from a...
You don't remember this but I remember a little bit about music.
I don't remember much about other things and I'm happy about that!
LAUGHTER
What were we talking about just then?
Buie: We were talking about...
MORE LAUGHTER
Tiger: Talking bands.
Wilbur: Oh, the band.
Tiger: Yeah.
Buie: Yeah, how you first got together and I said...
I was telling you that I thought that you had sung at the fraternity parties.
Wilbur: Oh yeah! I wanna tell you the first place I think of I ever sang.
You and Goldsboro were going to Birmingham to do some kind of...
I think y'all were going to make some demos and I took the car & y'all let me sang a song I wrote called EMPTINESS.
Buie: Do you know what...
Wilbur: Do you remember that?
Buie: I do remember it now I believe.
Wilbur: I remember it because I took the car. I'd never sung.
LAUGHTER
That was great that y'all let me do it. I wish I had turned out better.
MORE LAUGHTER
Buie: At every Sigma Nu party at the University of Alabama though later on,
you were part of the entertainment and after you got a band, we put everything together.
You were probably one of the most sought after fraternity bands in town.
Wilbur: Well, I like that kind of music.
Tiger: Well, Wilbur's a lot like me. He doesn't remember everything- just the high points.
I guarantee you they played a lot around here at the University.
I guarantee you I remember that much.
We were fortunate enough to have 'em once or twice maybe at the Ft. Brandon Armory when we were doing our little sock hops at the armory back in those days. You know it's too bad you can't do things like that now days.
Wilbur: I was wondering about that.
Tiger: They just don't work.
Wilbur: Where do people play?
Tiger: I don't know. They don't. They don't play any venues like that. Mostly around here they play at bars, night spots.
Wilbur: There used to be, like you say, sock hops, like at armories.
They'd have 'em at different places and people would come.
It didn't cost an arm and a leg to get in either.
Tiger: I think we charged like two bucks a head and three for a couple, something like that.
'Course I guess that was pretty good money in 1965. It's pretty cheap now.
Buie: And best I remember we paid something like...
When I rented the Dothan Recreation Center where I did my first promoting, if I remember correctly, I paid $75 to rent the building and the chairs.
They had all the chairs I wanted. I just had to put 'em out and put 'em up.
Tiger: And put 'em down...
I think we paid about a hundred bucks for this one here when we first started but, you know, everything changes and that's one of 'em.
That kind of entertainment for kids just doesn't happen anymore.
Wilbur: No.
Tiger: I don't know where it went or why it went.
Wilbur: Well there are more places- more things for 'em to do.
Tiger: Most of 'em stay home and play computer games, I guess.
Wilbur: That seems to be the way of it now.
Tiger: Yeah, but I don't know. Like you say everything changes.
Buie: There was Ft. Brandon and then the Oporto in Birmingham.
Tiger: Oporto was in Birmingham. Dave Roddy did that.
Big Dave: Yeah, that was right next to Lawson Field.
I remember that. As a kid I went to those sock hops.
As a kid in Birmingham, I sure did.
Tiger: Wilbur and I were talking about Roddy a little while ago trying to figure out what he was up to. I hadn't...
Buie: Didn't he have some health problems?
Tiger: Well, that's what Register was saying. I don't know. I've not been in touch with him.
Wilbur: Robert Register! Yeah!
Before I forget it. Robert set this ...
arranged this for me to be here today and I want to thank Robert Register for doing that and Wally, Dave and Jack for letting me be here.
Buie: Hey, Robert Register...
Tiger: You got a big fan in Register.
Wilbur: HE'S WEIRD.
BREAK
Intro music: GEORGIA PINES by the James Gang
Wally: We're gonna turn this hour over to the Tiger Jack Show.
Tiger, you gonna work tomorrow or you gonna take the day off?
Tiger Jack: I'll probably have to work, you know, you gotta have every buck you can have!
Wally: That's right. That's right. All the movie passes you can eat.
Tiger: Yeah, all the movie passes we can...
This things gonna hit me in the mouth!
Wally: It is!
That's right. That's right. You're not used to working in Studio B.
Tiger: No.
Wally: You're usually in Studio A over there. The mics are a little different over here, Tiger Jack.
Tiger: They are but we're gonna have some fun here for a little while.
We're gonna have a rock 'n roll reunion!
Wally: I hear ya!
Tiger: 'Cause we've got a legendary rock 'n roll singer from the mid 1960s here in the studio with us and we're gonna have another one calling in here on the telephone in a little bit I hope.
Wally: That's great!
Tiger: We're gonna to get Wyker back here on the line. We've got Wilbur Walton with us this morning, lead singer of THE JAMES GANG from Dothan, Alabama back in the mid-1960s.
THE JAMES GANG had some big hits around the Southeast.
If you grew up in the Southeast back in those days then you remember the great song GEORGIA PINES that Dave just played for us.
RIGHT STRANG BABY BUT THE WRONG YO-YO!!!!
You could rock 'n roll a little bit back in those days Wilbur!
Get that microphone up there where you can...
Wilbur: Yeah, we did that the other day and people still enjoy it.
Tiger: That was a good song. But GEORGIA PINES was just really a big, big hit in Tuscaloosa back in...
Wilbur: That's the only song I did that I really like myself to tell you the truth.
LAUGHTER
I liked the Yo-Yo song back then but Piano Red did it so good that it kinda made me look puny.
[NAW! NAW! LAUGHTER]
Do you remember Piano Red?
Tiger: I remember.
Wilbur: DR. FEELGOOD!
Tiger: Yeah, Perryman
Big Dave: Oh my goodness!!!!
Wilbur: Perryman.
Tiger: Perryman was his last name wasn't it?
Wilbur: He played up here a lot.
Sometime he'd bring a band.
Sometime it's just be him & a piano.
Tiger: Yeah~ Well you played up here some too. You played for us out at the Ft. Brandon Armory.
Wilbur: I saw a picture of it & like I told ya, I hope we did well.
Tiger: You did well. Y'all were popular. I know you had to have played out at The University for some fraternity parties.
You got Wyker there on the phone there?
Big Dave: No~ actually~
LIVE FROM DOTHAN, ALABAMA!
BUDDY BUIE'S On The Phone!
Tiger: Buddy Buie~ O.K.!
Buddy Buie: Hey guys.
Tiger: How you doing, Buddy?
Buddy: ROLLLL TIDE! How's everybody getting along?
Tiger: We like the "Roll Tide" part of it.
We've got your old buddy Wilbur here in the studio with us this morning &...
Buddy: Well, that's great!
It's a wonder Tuscaloosa even still exists after his years as a Sigma Nu.
LAUGHTER
Wilbur: Buddy, I met some real nice people but my college career was kinda "erstwhile".
Tiger: Mine & yours both. I think what he's saying is that he didn't last very long.
Wilbur: Naw, I didn't last very long. I don't know how Buddy did in his particular school either.
Buddy: Aw yeah, let's don't bring up sore subjects, O.K.
Tiger: Buddy, how you feeling? I understand you had a car wreck or something.
Buddy: Yeah, had a dadblame...
My first car accident.
Everybody always claims I'm a terrible driver but my comeback is,
"Well, nobody's ever been killed in one of my wrecks!"
& THIS TIME, I almost lied.
I was riding with my dog.
I take my dog out in the country in the afternoon.
Ride with her and somehow or and other,
I don't even know how it happened.
I looked back to see to check on her
& when I looked forward, I was off the road and what happened next;
I didn't know it but I hit a sign.
A road sign that said
CURVE UP AHEAD!
Wally: Uh-oh!
Buddy: Anyway, I stayed in the hospital about a week and I'm gonna be in rehab for about three weeks.
So they got get me patched up together.
Hey, I just think about how fortunate I am.
So many people don't sur...
don't live talk about these things.
Wilbur: Let me ask you something.
It's not life threatening.
This particular thing
but it's gonna take you five or six months to get over it~
THAT RIGHT?
Buddy: That's right.
Buie: Register is by far the most active and the most influential of anyone for the music from that era in our part of the country. Robert has taken a great interest. Got a great blog and he has been just really great to all us old timers.
Tiger: Well, somebody's got to.
Tiger Jack: Buddy, let's talk about the formation of the JAMES GANG and how you got all them together.
Buddy Buie: There was a group up here called the Ramrods.
Wilbur Walton Jr. : From Birmingham.
Buie: Yeah, from Birmingham. Wilbur, you met the Ramrods first, didn't you?
Wilbur: No, I don't think so.
Buie: I remember... as a matter of fact...
Wilbur: We all knew each other because in Dothan at that time were more musicians then than might be in the whole county now. I don't know.
Tiger Jack: Well, there were some good ones come through there for sure.
Wilbur: I don't know why that is. Robert was telling me last night that he knows why but I'll let him
Buie: You had Fred Guarino. You had Bubba Latham.
Wilbur: From Birmingham. They were from Birmingham.
Buie: Yeah, I gotta tell ya, Fred passed away a couple of years ago & it was really strange the way that happened.
Tiger Jack: Let's get this straight. Were we eatin' bar-b-que & drinkin' beer at the funeral?
LAUGHTER
Buie: That's what I'm fixin' to tell ya!
Wilbur: What's that stuff you're on down there?
Buie: Well, you're gonna have to forgive me. I'm on medication. Y'all gonna have to forgive me if I say something. Oxycotin is what's really talkin'!
Wilbur: I KNEW IT!
Buie: But we were at Jimmy's party. I hadn't seen any of the guys and I just couldn't believe how good Fred looked.
Wilbur: He sure did. Oh, you're talkin' about Robert Dean's...
Buie: Yeah.
Wilbur: Oh, in Dothan.
Buie: In Dothan and next thing I know somebody called me and said,"Did you know Fred Guarino died?" I said,"Lord no, I didn't know that."
It was some kind of sudden illness.
I don't remember.
Jack, you were asking about how we got together. It was a combination of a couple of bands that ended up...
Wilbur: The Webs and The Ramrods. You put 'em together.
Buie: The Webs and the Ramrods- there you go.
Wilbur: You took me and
Buie: Yep.
Wilbur: You took those three guys and us two guys and sent us to Florida.
Buie: Yep.
Wilbur:
Buie: Yep.
Tiger Jack: Is this the same time frame as Goldsboro was with the Webs.
Wilbur: That was right after Goldsboro left. See he gotta hit called FUNNY LITTLE CLOWN.
Tiger Jack: FUNNY LITTLE CLOWN, yeah.
Buie: Bobby & us...
When Bobby left to go on the road, it left a vacuum there and Wilbur filled that vacuum as a singer and then the band evolved into a different musical direction by putting the two together- The Ramrods & The Webs.
Tiger Jack: & The Webs became the Candymen somewhere along the line.
Buie: Somewhere along the line, The Webs became The Candymen. We all...
I left Dothan and Bobby left Dothan and we went to work for Roy Orbison. All the band left. Wilbur, of course, being the singer; I don't think Orbison wanted someone to take his place. Wilbur didn't go.
Wilbur: Yeah, I can see me doing PRETTY WOMAN.
Tiger Jack: So Wilbur went on the road with THE JAMES GANG.
Buie: Yeah.
Tiger Jack: & THE CANDYMEN, THE WEBS, got Justo I guess.
Wilbur: They became The Candymen and The Candymen became THE
Tiger Jack: Right.
Buie: Yep, yep. There was an evolution there.
Tiger Jack: & all this more or less came out of Dothan, Alabama.
Wilbur: All of it started in Dothan: Buddy Buie & Bobby Goldsboro & John Rainey.
Tiger Jack: & THAT'S MUSICAL
Wilbur: Well, it's the way it happened.
Buie: Dothan, Alabama was where it came... Yeah, Dothan. It all came out of Dothan.
Yeah, it did. Yeah.
Wally: Y'all never did clarify. Was the beer and the bar-b-que at the funeral?
Wilbur: IT WAS IN DOTHAN! WE HAD A REUNION!
LAUGHTER
Wally: I thought they had beer and bar-b-que at the funeral.
Tiger Jack: That's the funeral I want to have and you can leave off the bar-b-que too!
LAUGHTER
Wilbur: I tell you. That wouldn't be bad.
Buie: A sock hop funeral.
Wilbur: Yeah, have a funeral, bar-b-que and beer.
Wally: And when we bury Buddy, we gonna add some oxycotin to it!
Dave: LORD HAVE MERCY!
LAUGHTER
We need all the help we can get, don't we?
How much time we got left in this segment?
Big Dave: You guys can go to the bottom of the hour. You're clear 'till then.
Tiger: Oh well, we got plenty of time.
Tiger Jack: We've got just a few minutes remaining with Wilbur Walton this morning. Let's take a quick phone call from Rodney, I believe. Is that correct, Dave?
Rodney: That's right.
Tiger Jack: All right, Rodney, what's on your mind?
Rodney: Well, I just wanted to call and say that through the magic of the Internet, I'm listening to Wilbur talk and how happy I am to hear that he's back singing again & Wilbur's always had a tremendous fan base and he's just the sweetest guy you could possibly know...
Dave: Rodney ~ Is this Rodney Justo?
Rodney: Yeah. Yeah.
Wilbur: I didn't recognize your voice!
Tiger Jack: Rodney Justo was with the Candymen and later with the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Wilbur: That's right.
Rodney: The voice comes and goes, Lips. Some days I think it's pretty good, then I go, "What the heck am I thinking?!!!!"
Wilbur: I heard you were singing with the Atlanta Rhythm Section for a while.
Rodney: Yeah, it was just a temporary thing. I was filling in for Andy who had surgery & they asked me if I'd come in and fill in so I learned 15 or 16 songs in three days and worked about 5 or 6
Tiger Jack: We had Buddy Buie on a little earlier in the hour....
(ed. note: Here feedback cuts out all of Rodney's audio on the tape although his words were broadcast & went out over the Internet)
Tiger Jack: Where are you, Rodney? Atlanta? Tampa?
Tiger Jack: That's great. You played for us out here at the armory here in Tuscaloosa several times with The Candymen. Remember it well. Been a long time but I still remember the good parts.
(ed. note: Rodney comments on Ft. Brandon Armory)
Tiger Jack: Yeah, it was. It got so hot they blew it up!
Wilbur: You know that answers a question for me. I saw a picture of The James Gang in the armory there and all the shirts were wet.
Looked like they were tie-dyed!
And it's sweat!
Tiger Jack: It was hot. There's no doubt about that.
Wilbur: I just recognized that. Rodney, there's no need to quit singing.
Wilbur: We were just talking about that. Rodney, that's one reason I did this CD. I like these four songs on this new CD which is the reason I'm up here but I wanted to sing and I didn't have anywhere to sing.
Tiger Jack: Wilbur, we're running out of time. Rodney, we appreciate you calling in. It's great to hear from you again. I know Wilbur is excited to hear your voice.
Wilbur: I am, buddy!
Tiger Jack: Thanks for calling in. We appreciate it.
Here. Thanks a lot.
Tiger Jack: Wilbur, tell us about the CD. Where can they get this MR. REDBUD featuring Wilbur Walton Jr. and David Adkins?
Where can they buy this?
Wilbur: It's at CD Baby http://cdbaby.com/cd/wilburwaltonjr
& I think you can download it on CD Baby.
If you'll read, I can't see... it's on Playground Records, is it .com?
Wally: Playground Recording Studio dot com
http://playgroundrecordingstudio.com
Tiger Jack: Playground Recording Studio dot com.
You can get it right there!
Wilbur: The name of it is MR. REDBUD.
Tiger Jack: MR. REDBUD.
What's your favorite cut on there, Wilbur?
Wilbur: MR. REDBUD!!!!
Tiger Jack: MR. REDBUD.
LAUGHTER
Tiger Jack: I hear ya! We appreciate you being here today, Wilbur. We've had a great time.
Wilbur: Thank you so much.
Tiger Jack: Wilbur Walton of the James Gang!
We appreciate him being in here & we'll do it again sometime.
Big Dave McDaniel: We will, guys! Thanks a lot.
The Morning Show returns at 6 A.M. Monday here on WTBC
A Tuscaloosa News review of Wilbur Walton, Jr.'s CD, MR. REDBUD:
Walton back after almost 40 years
By Ben Windham
Tusk WriterMay 23, 2008
WILBUR WALTON JR.
'Mr. Redbud' (EP)
(Playground
Greg Haynes' mighty book, 'The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music,' is the last word on the rock and blue-eyed soul bands that ruled the Deep South in the 1960s. One of the best of these groups, The James Gang, hailed from Dothan.
The band had a regional hit called 'Georgia Pines' in 1965. It was — and still is — a great recording, deftly written and beautifully sung. Almost anyone who grew up in the South during the mid-60s is likely to remember it:
The trees grow tall
Where I come from
Their leaves are thin and fine ...
Vocalist Wilbur Walton Jr. was one of the main reasons for its success. His expressive baritone seemed to capture every nuance of the lyric about lost love, small-town life and the Southern countryside.
Walton, who has been missing in action for almost four decades, is back, and that's a cause for celebration. And also some reminiscing.
As a singer, he seemed in that rarefied league with Roy Orbison, someone who could convey deep emotion over a wide vocal range in the compressed context of a pop song.
The Orbison
The original singer for The Webs was a kid named Bobby Goldsboro. Losing his band to Orbison, he went out on his own and eventually charted some sappy but lucrative hits like 'Honey' and 'Watching Scotty Grow.'
Buie, meanwhile, was casting around for another band to manage. He took Walton and bassist Jimmy Dean from a re-formed version of The Webs and added three members of The Ramrods from Birmingham: drummer Fred Guarino, keyboardist Bubba Latham and lead guitarist Johnny Mulkey. They became The James Gang.
A caveat: This James Gang has no relation to the band of the same name that included Joe Walsh, a
'Georgia Pines' sold well and so did a second recording, 'The Right String Baby but the Wrong Yo-Yo,' written by Atlanta's Willie Perryman, a.k.a. Piano Red.
The group never was able to break nationally, however, and it disbanded in 1967. Still, Walton hung onto the name and continued to take bookings.
Tuscaloosa's Johnny Wyker, who led the fabled Rubber Band, found himself in the same situation. He tells a funny story about agreeing to form a dummy band with Walton. Depending on bookings, some nights they would play as The Rubber Band, and some nights they'd be The James Gang.
As long as the engagements were far apart, the plan worked pretty well, Wyker writes on his Web site. But one holiday season found them booked back-to-back at the same club, first as The James Gang and then as The Rubber Band.
Somehow, they managed to get out of it but 'I'm sure there was some fast talkin' involved and some fast cars too,' Wyker writes.
Walton was going through a bad time, he writes. Some nights he would be too juiced to sing. He'd claim that the P.A. system was broken and tell the band to play some instrumentals until he got his act together.
Walton has been off the scene for a long, long time. This month, however, he emerged with his first recording in 37 years, a four-track extended play CD titled 'Mr. Rosebud.' And if it's not exactly 'Georgia Pines,' it's surprisingly good.
It was recorded at Valpariso, Fla.'s, famed Playground Studios, which produced soul, garage, psychedelic and Southern rock for 20 years beginning in the late 1960s. Recently reopened and revitalized, with an anthology titled 'Soul Resurrection, Vol. 1' devoted to some of the awesome talent that passed through there, Playground has gained a whole new audience.
Walton's EP isn't quite as retro as you might expect. A couple of the cuts, 'Lonely Song' and 'You'll Smile Again,' are soul-country, in the same vein as 'Georgia Pines' (though possibly a little less rocky). But the other two tracks, 'Johnny' and 'Mr. Rosebud,' are like something off a Steely Dan album.
The lyrics are elliptical; unlike 'You'll Smile Again,' when Walton seems to be singing reminders to himself ('The years and the wine/Sure took their toll/The feet that were once steady/Now aren't so bold ...'), the two Steely-ish songs are impressionist,
'Johnny,' in fact, almost sounds like a studio jam, with stream-of-consciousness lyrics:
A vapor
Vanishing vapor … a vapor
A trip
Johnny on a trip ... a trip
Johnny at his worst … hey hey hey
But it's surprisingly effective. The backup, which includes Walton's old band mate Jimmy Dean on bass, David Adkins on piano and guitars and John Seals or Warren Meigs on drums, is tight and hard, with more than a passing resemblance to the Steely Dan studio band that cut the 'Katy Lied' album.
The title cut is somewhat more focused lyrically but it's still open and suggestive:
It's been so long since I've seen you
I think perhaps you're not coming
Or have been detained at the coast
As for me things are going quite smooth
There are other fields you know
I've got a friend on an island ...
Physically, Walton changed quite a bit since the James Gang days. Gone are the slick hair and the tailored, collarless leather suit. He wears a patch over his right eye these days. His hair is longish and unkempt. He looks gaunt and weathered.
But Walton still can sing. His voice has gotten deeper and darker over time. If some of its supple power is gone, he remains a master of nuance and inflection.
People who are curious may get a good look at Walton in a recent concert in Dothan with a group calling itself 'The Strange Gang,' (featuring Buie, no less) on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YpVtW4cKvo ).
If you want to get deeper into Walton's new incarnation, however, I recommend the new EP. It may be hard to find in stores, but it's available on the Internet. It's probably destined to rank as one of the Southern musical comebacks of the year.
Here's the text on CD Baby
Wilbur Walton Jr
Mr Redbud
© 2008 2008 (796873059640)
CD price: $12.97
CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.
His 1st release in 37 years. sounding Southern Steely Dan-ish, Rock Country-ish, gospel-ish. WW JR still has the unique, one of a kind, immediately distinguishable vocal. One of The Greats.
In October, 1964, songwriter/record producer Buddy Buie, who was manager of Roy Orbison's backup band The Candymen (originally known as The Webs, which included Bobby Goldsboro as singer) put together a group which he named The James Gang. The band was made up of Wilbur Walton, Jr. and Jimmy Dean from a second version of The Webs that Buddy managed, and Fred Guarino, Bubba Lathem, and Johnny Mulkey, from another of his groups, The Ramrods of Birmingham.
That winter, the group released a couple of songs on United Artists' Ascot label which did well in several markets, hitting big in Birmingham and around the South. A session followed at Fred Foster Studio in Nashville, where the group recorded a Buddy Buie/John Rainey Adkins song, "Georgia Pines". The song did well in the south, the midwest, and several western markets.
"The Right String Baby But The Wrong Yo-Yo", written by William "Piano Red" Perryman, became another regional hit for the group. Other hits included the Northern Soul fave “24 Hours of Loneliness”.
The James Gang signed with the Bill Lowery Agency in Atlanta, which was already booking many other southern acts, including Billy Joe Royal, Joe South, Tommy Roe, The Candymen, The Tams, and The Roemans. Wilbur and the James Gang also toured with and backed up artists John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed, The New Beats, The Everly Brothers and Many more.
The exact number of 45 releases fro the James Gang is unknown but there are at least 25 documented. Wilbur Walton Jr. and The James Gang are prominently featured in Greg Haynes’ book entitled “The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music”.
Wilbur Walton Jr. has taken the stage for the first time in 35 years with the James Gang featuring David Adkins. On his new Playground Records release “Mr. Redbud” he presents 4 NEW songs that give the listener a small glimpse the “Strange Gang” existence. Wilbur’s undeniably unique and immediately identifiable baritone voice along with the lyrically expressionistic Alabama rock guitar and classic southern piano of David Adkins define this record. It’s timeless! Wilbur was a undeniable Rock Star in 1963 as he is NOW in 2008
David Adkins and his legendary brother, guitarist John Rainey Adkins were members of the first Playground Rhythm Section and played on countless records and recordings in music of all genres.
Just 3 words…… WILBUR IS BACK!
