Happy New Year : Farewell to 2007

Happy New Year to all of our readers, and once again, allow me to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support of GRITZ and our mother ship, SWAMPLAND.COM.

We come to the end of our first year as a part of SWAMPLAND, and things are looking better than ever in the land of GRITZ. Look for some unbelievable goodies in 2008. Please bookmark us and come back daily for new material, and by all means, leave all the comments you want.

2007 was quite a year. Point Blank reunited for a tour and a stellar live album, something their fans have dreamed of for years. GRITZ attended a wonderful benefit for The Big House Foundation down in Macon, with live music by Chris Hicks, Paul Hornsby and The Randall Bramblett Band. We also paid a visit to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and went into the studio as The Marshall Tucker Band recorded their latest epic, The Next Adventure. I was even invited to play guitar on a track. Oh, and then there was the Volunteer Jam Tour, kicking off here in Greenville with The Charlie Daniels Band, The Marshall Tucker Band and The Outlaws.

We had the BB KIng health scare early in the year, but the King bounced back with style and class, and Hank Williams, Jr. joined Lynyrd Skynyrd for a Rowdy Frynds Tour that brought out the inner redneck in everyone. The Dixie Chicks continued to be shunned by country radio, but they still swept the Grammy Awards, taking home armloads of statues. Merlefest returned to North Carolina, bigger and better than ever before.

I traveled all over the South, making many trips to Nashville, to Macon, to Athens, Myrtle Beach and Florida, having large fun.

The annual Winters Brothers Summer Jam in June was better than ever, with Tommy Crain and The Crosstown Allstars, Mike Causey of Stillwater and Eddie Stone of Doc Holliday, among others, and we attended two benefit shows to help raise money for Scott Boyer’s medical expenses, one in Florence and one in Birmingham, Alabama two weeks later. Both shows were huge, with performances by everyone from Bonnie Bramlett to The Capricorn Rhythm Section, Gregg Allman, Paul Thorn, Donnie Fritts, and many more.

We traveled down to Macon for a benefit for Sid Yoakim, long time Charlie Daniels Band employee and friend, and had a high old time performing alongside Donnie Winters, as well as The Winters Brothers Band, Tommy Crain & The Crosstown Allstars and others. We attended the Tommy Talton Band gig in Macon for Bragg Jam, and were invited to play a few of my songs on acoustic accompanied by Tommy Talton himself. Later in the year we would see this excellent band once again at The Melting Point in Athens, Georgia.

While The Allman brothers Band ruled at this year’s Farm Aid in New York, we headed down to Myrtle Beach’s House of Blues to hang out with Billy Bob Thornton and his band The Boxmasters.

Toward year’s end, we staged a Jam 4 George, an awesome tribute to my friend George McCorkle in his home town of Spartanburg, SC, and took a road trip with a friend to Gadsden, Alabama to see Rockin’ Camel Records CEO Carl Weaver and meet Akabar, the sweetheart camel that acts as his mascot. We went back to Decatur, Alabama to observe the reunion of all of the original members of former Capricorn Records band Cowboy as they began recording on an all new album, and in December, Scott Greene and I made our annual trek to Tampa, Florida for another fabulous four-day Angelus Benefit.

Sadly, we lost a lot of friends and musical legends again in ‘07. George McCorkle, 60, co-founder of and guitarist for the Marshall Tucker Band, died of cancer;  Hughie Thomasson, 55, pioneering southern rock guitarist and member of the Outlaws band died of an apparent heart attack; Rodney Davis, 54, former member of Sailcat, passed away; Terry O'Neil "Topper" Price, 54, well known and respected harp player and singer, died in Alabama. Earlier in the year he had performed at both benefits for Scott Boyer; Uncle John Turner, 62, drummer for Johnny Winter And, died from complications related to hepatitis C; Doyle Holly, 70, former member of Buck Owens’ Buckaroos as well as a solo artist died of cancer ; Pete “Sneaky Pete” Kleinow, 72, steel guitarist and original member of the Flying Burrito Brothers died following a battle with Alzheimer's; Boots Randolph, 80, pop recording artist ("Yakety Sax," "Hey, Mr. Sax Man") and former Nashville A-team saxophone sideman left us; we lost Del Reeves, 73, Grand Ole Opry star, impressionist and recording artist ("Girl on the Billboard," "The Belles of Southern Bell"); Hank Thompson, 82, songwriter, bandleader, member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and singer of the 1952 hit "The Wild Side of Life," died of lung cancer; Porter Wagoner, 80, singer, songwriter, producer, television personality, member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame and career-making mentor to Dolly Parton, died of lung cancer, Lee Hazlewood, 78, record producer and songwriter best known for writing Nancy Sinatra's 1996 hit, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin', died of renal cancer; John Hughey, 73, former steel guitarist for Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers, died in Nashville; Jim Porter, 79, steel guitarist and one of the earliest members of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys band, died in Hoover, Ala; Stuart Collins of Athens, Ga, 46, road manager for Randall Bramblett and long time fixture in the Southern music scene, died of a heart attack; Former Charlie Daniels Band crewman Jackie Williams, 50. died after a single car accident; Scooter Herring, 67, former employee of The Allman Brothers Band died in Macon; Mama Hill, 94, co-owner of the world famous H&H Restaurant in Macon died of natural causes; 2007 was also the year that we lost a good friend and former staff member at GRITZ, Joann Pierce; the world will certainly be a lesser place with the loss of these great talents and spirits.

Here’s wishing you an outstanding 2008, filled with peace and love and all the good Southern music you can handle. We’ll be seeing you online and at the shows.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.
Buffalo

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