Save The Scene!
Rediscovering And Preserving The Musical Treasures Of Athens' Past
originally published January 10, 2007
In 1988, for some reason that I can't recall, I decided I needed a reel-to-reel tape deck. I broached the subject with my neighbor Terry Melton, and he suggested that one could probably be found at a pawn shop. The next day, Terry and I set off on an all-day adventure, visiting every pawn shop in town. Terry tuned a lot of odd-brand guitars and I inspected a lot of junk stereo equipment, and although we had a large time, we went home empty-handed.
About a week later, I was at work at Normal News and a man came into the store. "Are you Dan?" he asked. "Terry told me that you're looking for a tape deck."
An hour later, he was back in the store with a reel-to-reel. "I thought I might as well throw these in on the deal," he said, setting a bag of reel-to-reel tapes on the counter. I glanced at the tapes and tried to keep a poker face as I read some of the labels: Mad Dog Melton & the Laughing Disaster, Dixie Grease, Chili Dreams, Normaltown Flyers, Phil and the Blanks, Gatemouth Brown… this was a treasure trove of my favorite Athens musicians from the '70s. The kind of stuff that got overlooked once R.E.M. and The B-52's delivered something different to the rest of the world. "I used to work at the Last Resort," he said, mentioning the early downtown club. "Most of these were recorded down there."
"What do you want for it?" I asked, pretending I knew what I was doing examining the tape deck.
"I'll take $20," he said.
I took a deep breath and handed him a $20 bill. I wouldn't have batted an eye about giving him $100 for those tapes. When I got home, I couldn't get any sound out of the reel-to-reel, but I put the tapes in a box for safe keeping and considered it the best deal I ever made.
This past July, I was rocking out while fixing breakfast. The cassette tape that had my feet moving was a Mad Dog Melton & the Laughing Disaster tape that was a copy of a copy of a copy. It wasn't a very high-quality tape, but it was my only recording of the band. Halfway through the track "Room to Room," my kitchen boom box ate the tape.
I was heartbroken; I had no idea where I had even gotten the tape in the first place. The handwriting of the songs was mine, so I figured that I'd copied somebody else's tape, but I couldn't for the life of me remember whose. I called Terry and he didn't hesitate. "Brad Herring's got the tapes," he said. I've known Brad all my life. He was a townie before everybody knew being a townie was cool. He got dual citizenship as a Normaltownie when he moved to the now-demolished Prince Rondavel Apartments in the early '70s. It was during this time that he - along with Dr. Richard Lanier and Harold Kelley - started recording music shows at the Hedges.
Brad Herring
Brad Herring now operates a shop called Cosmic Debris in the shopping center at 50 Gaines School Rd., where he sells used records and the stereo equipment that plays them. Every day for the next couple of weeks, I kept telling myself that I would go talk to Brad "tomorrow," but I kept putting it off. Then on Aug. 9, 2006, Terry Melton died.
The night after Terry's funeral, I called Brad Herring. He told me that he'd picked up a reel-to-reel at a yard sale a little more than a year ago, and that he been working with some of the old tapes.
The next day, I drove out to Cosmic Debris and Brad gave me two CDs. One was of Dixie Grease's final show, and the other was a performance by Elmo Pruitt featuring Don Allgood, both recorded in 1975 at The Hedges. Terry Melton, Brian Burke, Don Allgood, Jay Smith, Greg Veale, Cal Hale, Clarence Young and Carl Vipperman: the old gang.
I listened to the two CDs over and over. They were special. Dixie Grease was Terry's last full-time band, and this was their last show. I was particularly pleased to hear something with Jay Smith playing guitar.
Brad put together the Elmo Pruitt CD featuring Don Allgood's vocals following Don's own death about seven months ago. Jay Smith and Carl Vipperman's guitar work defines Southern rock, with a heavy dosing of Don's R&B style over everything.
Several days later, after I already had these two discs memorized, I went back out to Brad's and handed him my bag of old tapes that I'd had for 18 years and gotten from that fateful exchange at Normal News. I'd never even heard them. He got excited looking at them; he'd originally recorded half of them, but like so many over the years, the original tapes had gotten away from him.
He handed me three CDs that he'd just finished working on the day before. It was Terry Melton & the Laughing Disaster's Can the Band Get Another Tray of Beer?, Volumes 1, 2 and 3. They came, for the most part, from some cassettes that Bill Thornton had brought by. They were recorded at the Hedges in 1973, and Brad figures they were made by Dr. Richard. The band included Terry, Randall Bramblett, Brian Burke, Davis Causey, Cleon Nalley and Moi Harris. Terry provided the rock and roll edge; Randall furnished great originals and Cleon kicked in with an occasional country change of pace. Their musical prowess had impressed me at the time, and I was only 22 years old. I raced home and cranked up the stereo. These are good recordings. It's three months after I first picked up the CDs, and I still can't hear enough of these three discs.
In the meantime, other recordings from old Athens have joined them. I visit Cosmic Debris at least once a week and Brad is still going full speed ahead, determined to preserve this music that he loves so much. There's Cat Music. There's another (and better) Dixie Grease. Elmo Pruitt with Eric Quinsey Tate. And also Metal Melton, a band fronted by Terry with Davis Causey doing some particularly wild guitar work. Another Laughing Disaster. Cleon Nalley's terrific solo recordings. Arch Pearson's "Rust and Cracked Glass." The river of music just keeps on flowing.
I guess the Athens music scene is something different to everyone. I've been an active listener for more than 40 years, and have enjoyed a lot of different types of music, but for me that early '70s scene will always be the best.
The Mustache and the Hedges. The Laughing Disaster, Dixie Grease, Elmo Pruitt, Moondance, Easy Roscoe, Labyrinth, the Acme Blues Band and Silent Partner. So much music that I thought was lost, so many stories that need to be remembered and told.
My friend Terry Melton never did any studio recording, but I now have seven excellent CDs featuring him in my collection, with more on the way. Terry would love it.
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