Frank Tanton http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=769187
& I went to Jr. High & High School together. In '67,he was among the first white musicians to play blues in the clubs of BAPTIST BOTTOM (also described in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD).He'll be playing MOOSE KNUCKLES out on The Circle @ the same time as your gig. We'll probably go to Frank's gig after your show is over. Here's one of Frank's stories:
"What you may not know is, at the same time, I played regularly at the infamous Doc Greenfield’s Club Capri, in the Baptist Bottom. I played bass with “The Impacts” which featured Davie Coolie on keys, Wayne “Sugar” Johnson on Drums, David McNeal on guitar, and Lamar Spence on Lead Vocals. We were the only white band playing there. Local DJ, “Preston T” was our booking agent. I guess we were quite a novelty back then, being so young and light skinned, but we could really play well, and we covered all the popular “Soul” tunes… The folks treated us very well there, and really seemed to enjoy our show… This always surprised me since, at least once a month, the Club Capri would feature the real thing such as Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett. I also saw Ike & Tina Turner, and Joe Tex there. That place was happenin… Later on David Adkins and I played there with Billy King and the Rhythm Kings featuring Little Lois. Unfortunately we didn’t last long… David and I played a lot of BB King , Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, etc., and some number of people there, didn’t like the straight blues… Billy King once told me, “the black folk didn’t like straight ahead blues, because it reminded them of the bad old days”… In truth, I think it may have been just a little too weird for some of them to witness a couple of young smartass white kids burnin up the blues…"

After they built that MILLION DOLLAR GANGPLANK in Mobile, they had cruise ships come in. One of them filled up with people, went out into the Gulf & proceeded to sink. All the people ended up in a wad in the water with their life jackets on.This big shark told the little sharks,"Let's poke all of our dorsal fins out of the water & circle around them four times." After they did that, the big shark told the little sharks,"Now let's push our tail fins out of the water & swim around them four more times in an even tighter circle with both our dorsal fins & tail fins poking up out of the water." This little shark piped up,"Hey boss, why don't we just go swim in there & eat 'em all up?" The big shark replied,"OH, they're SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER after you've scare the S#$T out of them! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e0Gsn4khss

I looked up ZAYAS on Wikipedia & he's kinda portrayed as no worse than the rest of them but I'm re-reading Hudson Strode's THE PAGEANT OF CUBA & Strode uses an unattributed quote & MO' to describe how ZAYAS plundered~ "A foreign engineer, interested in comparative costs on bridge-repairing,took a list of seven bridges that the records showed had been recently repaired at a cost of $367,000. He found not only that the repairs had not been made, but that not one of the bridges had ever existed!"
As the stench of corruption rose to heaven, the decent Cubans-really remarkably long-patienced in supporting governmental abuses-were roused to protest. On April first, 1923, arraigning the government, the Cuban Committee of National and Civic Renovation met and the next day published a manifesto denouncing the evils.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Zayas_y_Alfonso

The smell of VICTORY wuz in the air uv OLD TUSKEELOOSSEE Sattiddee! I'll bet the ENTIRE CROWD @ THE DOWNTOWN PUB sang RAMMER JAMMER five times! Somebody wid some sense needs to video OUR FACES the moment THE INVINCIBLE SPIRIT OF THE CRIMSON TIDE winzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP neck yr. THIS TOWN NEEDS IT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TEgfv6JrmY

Roland, I plan on being in Dothan the THIRD SUNDAY IN FEBRUARY, Feb. 19, for a Sunday School Reunion @ Cloverdale Methodist. Any chance we could do another SOUTHEASTERN MUSICIANS REUNION that afternoon @ COWBOYS? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAaQh_XwLks&NR=1

Hard to believe that in less than a year this Wed., Nov. 8, 1972 issue of Barry Whitcomb's BOLL WEEVIL will be 40 yrs. old. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb-ltrimRG4

Thanks for taking the pictures of PINK FLOYD, JR., Tim!
Ya know, since you live next to the old temple, you might appreciate this more than most.
Tim, do you know what you get when you cross an Episcopalian with a Jehovah's Witness?

Answer: Somebody who wakes up every Saturday morning & goes out knocking on all the doors in the neighborhood & doesn't know why!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BHDB_cpPnY

Frank~
This is from Robert, Jacquetta's friend. We met on Tangier Island & Jacquetta tried to call you when we missed the boat.
Anywayzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
I'll be posting pictures of our romantic cruise back to Crisfield sooooooooon on one of my blogs called ZERO, NORTHWEST FLORIDA http://robertoreg.blogspot.com

I wanted to tell you that I'll be spending a lot of time in 2012 @ Jacquetta's place on Old Philadelphia Road in Aberdeen & I'm gonna need to keep busy. The company I work for here in Tuscaloosa, PAKE REALTY http://pakerealty.com recently acquired an enormous quantity of material for the manufacture of costume jewelry.

If you ever think about doing a fund raiser, I can put you together a TON of GOD BLESS AMERICA & THE RED CROSS key chains, bracelets or whatever trinket you want to use to promote the Red Cross.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks for the responding to our cry of DISTRESS!

BEST,
Robert Register

I got your phone message when I got back to Crisfield but could not contact you all back. We do not take our cell phones on the boat as we have a marine radio. If one of the locals had called us on the marine radio we could have come back since we were only about two miles up the bay until 4:30PM.

Hope you all got back or found lodging.

Frank L. Miller, Jr.

Regional Executive

American Red Cross Chesapeake Region

Regional Executive Office

4800 Mount Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215

Email: fmiller@arc-cmc.org

Office: 410-624-2010
Fax: 410-624-2012

Website: www.redcross-cmd.org

Viewing these Silver Spring Flash Mob Robbery 7 ELEVEN security tapes on Youtube is a TRIP! ("WHERE TWINKIES?")
When Jacquetta & I visited JOE'S RECORD PARADISE in Silver Spring on 11-11-11 to pay our respects @ THE HOLY IMMACULATE SHRINE OF ROOT BOY SLIM, we saw some rilly SKETCHY dudes hanging out on the sidewalk after dark downtown for no particular reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4JZAJ7mK5I

NOW THAT I FINALLY FOUND OUT I plan on being in NUTPATCH Friday nite for the Eddie Kirkland tribute @ THE WIREGRASS MUSEUM OF ART with DEBBIE BOND, SHAR-BABY & RACHEL EDWARDS. Will somebody PLEASE git me a ticket(I'll git skraight wid ya as soon as I see ya)?!!!!!
Eddie told me he went to North Highlands & East Highlands Elementary Schools in Dothan when "I was able to go." Could somebody please find out where those schools were located before I show up in town on Friday? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCTIKT0AF-Y

from the '66 Corolla: TRACY JAMES PRIEST, JR.; (Freshman) ; Arcadia, California; Arts & Sciences; DELTA KAPPA EPSILON...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY&feature=related




TRACY PRIEST 1947-2011
After Kesey spoke at the University with Timothy Leary in the early 90s,
Kesey partied at Tracy Priest's house on Audubon. Babbs says that
Kesey had many fond memories of Tuscaloosa. Kesey actually played a video
of Neil Cassady at the party on Audubon. Babbs told me that Kesey had
a big BAMA bumper sticker on the front of his desk on the day he
died in 2001. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0bijVr4Y3E

Calvert Side of The Initial MASON-DIXON CROWNSTONE @ the Southwest Corner of Delaware.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqw-YDpJI2s

KOOPER'S in Peel's Point, Baltimore Harbor.


Al Kooper? http://alkooper.com

Jacquetta ~ THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
SHE
My One & Only SUGAR WOOGER Sweet Potato Pie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq13hgxlQj0

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZ4G251WR4

Gotz my frist FULL BODY SCAN in Baltimore airport Wednesday. MY HEAD set off the alarm & as BIG CHIEF inspected my HAYID this other cop said,"He messing with you." & then my cop said,"NO, LOOK!" & sho' nuff, my big ass ole water head set off two alarms. I told 'em,"It beeze dat wayze sometime!" Oh, they laughed & loved that but they didn't like it when I sed,"Man,I can't be delayed.I GOTTA GET TO ALABAMA so Me & CHEETAH can perform in OUR TARZAN MOVIE tomorrow morning!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4TbWr5QxGs

I've decided to be the NEXT CHUMP who writes ANOTHER BOOK about Coach Bryant. If any of y'all have any memories of COACH, please forward them to me & I'll attribute all you write to you in the book & I'll give you a discount on the finished product.

While I was up in Maryland, a little bird told me that during Dr. Witt's LSU Game Day Party, somebody WE KNOW was looking for a place to take a leak & stumbled upon a couple doing THE NASTY in A SLAVE CABIN behind the President's Mansion.(use your imagination...Yeah, YOU RITE!) Not only that, the couple returned to the SLAVE CABIN after they were caught, & GOT CAUGHT AGIN!!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HiZfbpLcA4

Visited the parking lot in Laurel where Governor Wallace was shot ON MONDAY,MAY 15, 1972. The exact spot is inside the branch of THE BANK OF AMERICA. I didn't know that when Jacquetta took me to the parking lot last Friday but I sure hope there's some kind of marker around that bank. If they ain't, they needs to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLQ527ngP4I

Coach Bryant's career as Maryland's head coach from Wikipedia:

In 1945, 32-year old Bryant met Washington Redskins owner George Marshall at a cocktail party hosted by the Chicago Tribune, and said he had turned down offers for assistant coaching positions at Alabama and Georgia Tech. Bryant told Marshall that he was intent on becoming a head coach. Marshall put him in contact with Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd, the president and former football coach of the University of Maryland.^[5]

After meeting with Byrd the next day, Bryant received the job as head coach of the Maryland Terrapins. In his only season at Maryland, Bryant led the team to a 6–2–1 record. However, Bryant and Byrd came into conflict. In the most prominent incident, while Bryant was on vacation, Byrd reinstated a player who had been suspended by Bryant for a violation of team rules. After the 1945 season, Bryant left Maryland to take over as head coach at the University of Kentucky.^[6]

Flying into Baltimore Sattiddee afternoon to check out Jacquetta's new digs in Aberdeen. Would RILLY 'preciate any suggestions about THE BEST PLACE TO WATCH A BAMA GAME in the Aberdeen-Havre de Grace area. I'll be back in B'ham @ 8:40 P.M. , Tues. Nov. 15. We have 3 goals: #1: Take the ferry to Cape May, N.J.; #2: Take a boat to Tangier Island in the Chesapeake; #3: Going to JOE'S RECORD PARADISE in Silver Spring & various museums & libraries in D.C.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dw10HAj5-s&feature=related

"A few minutes ago, I had a hard time getting through the lobby because of all the people. After today, that won't be happening." Paul Bear Bryant (1913-1983)
http://www.myspace.com/paulbearbryant

I'm pretty sure the keyboard player is Chuck Leavell. Joe Rudd (front), Tippy Armstrong (back),www.myspace.com/tippyarmstrong
and Charlie Hayward (bass) on the Quad in Oct 68, taken with a Polaroid camera. Charlie has been the bass player with the Charlie Daniels Band, forever (25 yrs maybe). This picture is also somewhere on the Tippy MySpace site.




CHUCK LEAVELL, MIKE DUKE & JOHNNY TOWNSEND



photo courtesy of Johnny Townsend http://www.johntown.com/home.html
& Jennifer Toffel http://jennifertoffel.com/

left to right: Chuck Leavell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Leavell
Jimmy Nall
Lou Mullinex http://robertoreg.blogspot.com/2007_06_24_archive.html
Alex Taylor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Taylor_(musician)
Charlie Hayward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hayward

REMEMBRANCE...

The Misfitz, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

In my early days of playing guitar and keyboard, growing up and living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I found myself in my first band we called The Misfitz.

The first lineup was Jonathan McAlister on bass and vocals, Rodney Etheridge on guitar, Bill Johnson on drums, and me on guitar, keys and vocals. There was another band in town called The Gents that was a couple of years older than us. They had Jim Coleman on guitar, Court Pickett on bass and lead vocals, Jimmy Romaine on rhythm guitar, and Lou Mullenix on drums.
They were a really good band I admired. I sort of looked up to the Gents and wanted The Misfitz to be as good or better, so there was a friendly competition going on.

The Gents played the YMCA every Saturday night for the high school kids, and the Misfitz played every Friday for a slightly younger crowd, the junior high kids. We also would get other little gigs here and there. As time went on we even played some fraternity parties at the University of Alabama.

Eventually the Misfitz became pretty popular, and when the new television station (WCFT, I believe) opened up shop in Tuscaloosa we were approached to do a Saturday morning show that was modeled after American Bandstand, creatively called Tuscaloosa Bandstand. By then, our rhythm guitar player, Rodney Etheridge, had been replaced by a great musician, Ronnie Brown. Ronnie added a lot of spark to the Misfitz, taking the band to another level. The host of the show was a well-known local DJ named Tiger Jack Garrett. We were riding high, playing the Y every Friday night and doing the Saturday morning TV show.

We were also listening to lots of other bands that either lived in Tuscaloosa or that would float through town and play the local armory, Ft. Brandon. Gary and The Top 10, the Rubber Band, the K-Otics, the 5 Men-Its, and the Allman Joys were just a few of the many bands that played there.

There was also a Battle of the Bands that went on there at one point. We entered and won second place for our age group, I honestly can't remember who won first. It was a long time ago. In any case, there was all this musical activity going on in ole' T-town.

All of us musicians were having a blast playing and doing our thing, listening to other bands, listening to records, learning our instruments, experimenting with arrangements, and such. It was a wonderful place and a wonderful time for all of us, and was a sort of breeding ground for musicians.

Occasionaly, we would go out of town and play in other cities- mostly college towns like Oxford and Jackson, Mississippi; Auburn, Alabama; Nashville, Tennessee, and such. We also played in Birmingham quite a lot, and even went to places in New Orleans,
down in Florida. It was sort of Chittlin' Circuit.

Eventually some of us began to intermingle and play with each other. When the Misfitz broke up, I wound up playing with some of these musicians. I played with Paul Hornsby of the 5 Men-Its (and who had gone to California and played with the Hour Glass, a precursor of the Allman Brothers Band) in a band called the South Camp, and later with Lou Mullenix and Court Pickett of the Gents in a band called Sundown after we had moved to Macon, Georgia. There were really some great musicians who came out of Tuscaloosa.


SouthCamp: August '69
courtesy of Bruce Hopper
far left,with only head partially showing, Chuck Leavell
Paul Hornsby on keyboards
Bill "Squirmy" Stewart on drums
Glenn Butts on guitar
Frank Friedman on bass

"Wow the Southcamp photo that was second is very similar to the one I took that afternoon in August of 1969. Same angle. There was a lot of jammin going on that afternoon. was Townsend the source for that picture? He is mistaken about Mullinex playing. My picture has Squirmy on drums (same shirt as in your pic, but you can see Bill's receding hairline in my pic, definitely not Lou. My pic also includes Hornsby and half of Chuck's head. Glen Butts is standing where Charlie is and Frank is playing bass. In your pic, Frank's bassman is on the ground but in by pic it is on the stage. I think that a lot of people played that day on the quad. The neat thing is that there is only a two receptacle plug that came out of the ground next to that big Oak Tree. All the power came from there. You had to be careful about how many amps were plugged in or someone would have to go and replace a fuse in the ROTC building."
BRUCE HOPPER

Some went on to make a career of it- myself, Paul Hornsby, Ronnie Brown, Eddie Hinton, Lou Mullenix, Glen Butts, Charlie Hayward and others. Those were heady days and man, did we have fun!

Chuck Leavell

TUSK Entertainment supplement to the Friday, November 20 issue of the Tuscaloosa News http://tuscaloosanews.com




Ronnie Brown & Chuck Leavell

the last four images are courtesy Friday, November 20 issue of the Tuscaloosa News http://tuscaloosanews.com

image courtesy of http://heybabydays.com
THE MISFITZ:
L-R: Chuck Leavell, Jonathon McAllister, Bill Johnson, and Rodney Etheridge


http://www.chuckleavell.com

J~

Boy, you make me feel SO GOOD, BABY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y168CNQyO7g

I'm still posting cool stuff on Facebook.
Had a good talk with Lee this morning.
We on target!

Love ya!

best,
r

As all who witnessed the Louisiana-Monroe game can attest, BAMA tends TO FORGET in Bryant-Denny. There are so many DISTRACTIONS (i.e.: visions of paradise w/MISS BABY Sattiddee nite). http://daybeardied.com/

A buddy of mine asked me if had a picture of THE JUNGLE CLUB & I told him I'd never EVEN SEEN a picture of THE JUNGLE CLUB. http://books.google.com/books?id=lYVTV12lIkkC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=%22DADDY,+what+do+people+do+in+the+jungle+club%22+tuscaloosa&source=bl&ots=Oc63KfjRaZ&sig=is45vjTnZ3ac-ocR9p-EwHkYISY&hl=en&ei=EwCxTufNJYvNtgeMhKSeAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22DADDY%2C%20what%20do%20people%20do%20in%20the%20jungle%20club%22%20tuscaloosa&f=false


Wow! I didn't know ROSE & GEORGE C. were such good buddies!
http://books.google.com/books?id=XJWtbRNdoqgC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%22elton+stephens%22+%22george+wallace%22&source=bl&ots=N0cHgnhmm-&sig=TZes3UPGvF4_5bDxd0OZUEvlFc8&hl=en&ei=BAixToqLMMabtwe--4GqAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22elton%20stephens%22%20%22george%20wallace%22&f=false