Untitled 1

In mid February 1964, I saw Ringo Starr playing drums with the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and knew I wanted to be a drummer in a rock band. I played in a few garage bands around the area. My first band practiced in Carrollton and I rode to Carrollton with Roger and Dennis Jones since I was too young to drive to Pitts Furniture Store on the western outskirts of town where after closing time, guitars and amplifiers were placed where sectional sofas and recliners were during business hours. The lead singer was named Jimmy and we had to let him be the lead singer because his daddy owned the place where we practiced. His voice was a cross between Mick Jagger and a the caterwauling of a female feline seeking a mate. I was about 14 years old and it was an experience I will never forget. I think we played before people perhaps twice, and never got a paying gig. We played a lot of instumentals by the Ventures as I recall. I think it was so our lead singer wouldn't sing-if you could call it that. When I was in the 10th grade I got to play with the only band I ever was in that actually made a record. They made the recording before I joined them and I remember taking the single around to radio stations up in the northern part of the state as the band went up to Unicoi State Park to see a folk music festival. I think the only airplay I ever heard was on a AM station in Cumming. It was a thrill. The song was called "Girl From Sanconnetaway" and was written by the leader of the band, Harl Baggett who fronted the "Freewheelers" that took the groups' name from a Bob Dylan album. The tune was cut at the old Precision Studios in Smyrna. Harl and his brother Jimmy were two of the most versatile musicians I've ever known. Harl had a fire engine red Gibson electric guitar but could play the banjo, mandolin, harmonica, or anything with strings on it. My mother was impressed with Harl's musicianship and commented "That Baggett boy could play a barbed wire fence." The band also had David Parker playing bass and Jerry "Jake" McGuire on rhythm guitar. Jake taught me how to drive a straight shift. He had a 64 Chevrolet Impala with 3 on the column and I think I may have stripped out second gear during one of his instructional sessions. I remember that we played a variety of music. The Baggetts boys along with Rod Lipham turned me on to the contemporary folk music of the day. The music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Doc Watson became a part of the music I listened to because of first hearing it from my band mates. The music had an honesty and purity that I have always liked. A few days ago I saw Harl's nephew and he told me that Harl, Jimmy, DeWayne and Jesse Baggett had teamed up with Beth, Seth, Henry, and Jonathan Duke to record a project at Phil Coley's studio in Bowdon. "Georgia Tracks" by the Duke Baggett Band is sweet, simple, and honest music. Beth Duke has the voice of an angel. Harl still has his magic fingers playing musical instruments with the 5-string banjo being his main instrument. Jimmy Baggett has added the fiddle to his string music skills. The compact disc has several songs composed by Harl that have a local flavor to them. "Little Bowdon Dugan", "The Old Rock Chimney", "Back to Buncombe" and "Homesick for Georgia" give you a musical visual of our part of the world. The band also does a great version of Towns Van Zant's "The Ballad of Pancho and Lefty", the Carter Family's "Keep On The Sunny Side", and the great Bluegrass and Gospel classic "Life's Railway to Heaven". I think the fifteen dollar investment in the music of "Georgia Tracks" by the Duke Baggett Band is the best money I've spent in a long time for music. I really think that with some promotional muscle behind it, it could possibly be a critical and commercial success. I am most impressed with it and after 36 years in radio I am pretty skeptical and listen with a critical ear. Producer of the project Phil Coley and I worked together in radio in the early 70s at WWCC in Bremen. Phil had a great local back back then called the "Sewer System". Phil taught me basic radio production. For the past 3 decades he has been a record producer out of his Bowdon studios. Phil stated "the beautiful and simple sound of a person singing and playing a song they wrote is the basic core value of all music". He said that in his 30 years of producing, the Duke Baggett Band "Georgia Tracks" was his favorite project because of the purity and honesty of the music. I got an email from my cousin Beth Meunier Warner who is the representative for the class of 1969 of Tallapoosa High School for the large class reunion going on during Tallapoosa's 150 year anniversary Labor Day weekend. The reunion will be Saturday, September 4th. Beth is looking to locate classmates. You can contact her at 770 748 5234 or by email at calao@yahoo.com. Snail mail can be sent to 504 College Drive, Cedartown, GA 30125.

Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and a member of the faculty at Kennesaw State University in the Department of Communication. Comments are welcome at P.O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, GA 30176 or email at rhubarbjones@aol.com or rhubarb.jones@yahoo.com