Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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At The Conc Lester By BOB CRAFT A REVIEW When I was in high school, long about five years ago, the PTA and the Student Government sponsored a concert to raise some money for one of their never-ending and often arcane projects. Since the students generally ate up most of the profits on candy and cookies sales and waxed less than en thusiastic about selling tickets to carnivals and the like, this seemed, a reasonable way to get some money. After all, the band they were getting was to be a name band. When the name of the band escaped, the students hooted and stayed away in droves, the president of the Student Govern ment became a laughing stock and the whole project turned into a large bitter omelet that the SCA and PTA had to eat. The band was Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys and at that time, we sixteen-year-olds were too sophisticated to be bothered with that stupid country music. If they had booked the 1910 Fruitgum Company or the American Breed the auditorium would have been packed, but our tastes were dictated by Top 40 radio programming and electric guitars were it and the banjo is such a hokey looking instrument. Five years have passed, Flatt is no longer with Scruggs and vice versa and the Foggy Mountain Boys have become the Nashville Grass. And the sophisticated sixteen-year-olds have discovered bluegrass and Shoot O FantasI ThTR nHgs \AREB'0 brt Flatt sho% found that they would like to plant some in their front yard. Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass showed up in Columbia just in time to see the worst recorded snowstorm in the city's history. Inside Township there were people milling around, mostly longhairs and wouldbe longhairs interspersed with neat men in grey suits and short hair who came became because they knew Lester from away back when and not from "Foggy Mountain Breakdown". The snack bar was doing a good pre-show business in 60 cent Old Milwaukees, people visited in the aisles. A nice pleasant at mosphere. Dare I say 'good vibes' Nah, why get pompous? Finally, after some waiting a guy comes out who looks like he could be a dirt farmer all dressed up or an uptight CPA. His name is Lester Gilroy, the road manager for the show. So he could be either. He says in a pleasant Southern voice that they have held up the show in consideration of those who came in late. After a little further ado, the band comes on. The Band in brown suits and brown riverboat gambler hats. Lester Flatt came on. I don't remember if he was smiling, but I don't think so. He didn't do a whole lot of smiling that evening. He had a case of the flu, he was caught in a snowstorm and had to be in Nash ville for the Grand Ole Opry the next night and he looked god awful tired. The show itself was slick and professional. He knew what the people wanted to hear and knew BUDGET Is Hav ut At The R E A L Factory WAFF .EON RUSSEU. IAFFIC n ock of As BAM THEI LP's $3.59 919 SUn,tE vs uses rE how to space them. The ancient country jokes were in there, the calling of the fiddle player stupid. One of the most fascinating things about the show I found was the manipulation of the redneck stereotype. The scene of a pleasant, easy-going country boy, who out of the blue and for seemingly no reason, becomes threatening, either verbally or physically. This almost killed the spirit of the show at one point. Some dude from the balcony yelled out a request. Suddenly, Johnny Johnson, the bass player, quickly stepped forward and yelled back, pointing a finger, "You let him play what he wants to play, it's his show." It effectively shut up the audience through the first set, even after the joke became apparent later on when one of the members of the band tried to stop Flatt from telling a joke and Johnson booming right in, "You tell that story if you want to, Lester. It's your show." They did the "Wabash Can nonball" and Flatt did a Roy Acuff imitation,"although I'm so hoarse, it'll probably sound more like Tex Ritter." From time to time onstage one of the guys would run into a guitar neck. There were-some many long necked instruments waving around, I didn't understand how they could keep from beating themselve to death with them. They sang the Martha White song and it was time for in termission. At intermission, the band came TAPES and I n BIG SAL] toy - PINK FLOi PINK Fl Atom Heare es Fresh Raspbe ,dneck ste out front and sold records and tapes and hobnobbed with crowd taking requests and the like. Others queued up for some more Old Mils outside at the concession stand. After intermission, Lester Gilroy was back and dog if he hadn't found another bluegrass group sitting, just sitting, in the audience. It was called the Southern Ex pedition and they happened to have their instruments with them. The group was two guys and a girl. The girl sang and played Fender bass. The two guys played banjo and acoustic guitar. They sang two songs. One called Rocky Top, an ode to the singer's hometown in which such homey pastimes as killing revenuers are indulged in. Also, John Denver's Country Roads. Flatt and the boys came back on and did some tunes, like "Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms", "Cabin on the Hill". Someone starts screaming requests again at the top of his lungs. This time there is no feedback, the band goes ahead and does it. The number is "Earl's Breakdown" by Earl Scruggs. "Wreck of the Old 97" is thrown in and people have started to crowd around the stage apron, but are not rushing it. They keep their distance, some of them look almost in awe as they creep up closer. They play "Folsom Prison Blues" and people start dancing on the sides. Then the screamer is back demanding "Salty Dog Rag." Singing along breaks out in the audience along with the clapping of LECORDS MAN% in m Can SI Am woman D HELEN REDDY 4K FL.OYD LEN MDDY i STEVE MILLER BA ES $4A9nth. o.98 hiilili ilillll rotype hands that has been going on all through the set. Lester makes a complicated introduction to the "Ballad of Jed Clampett" and dances to the last chorus. A roar breaks out from the audience, you'd have thought it was Jagger jumping up there. The house lights go on, the curtains close, but the audience will not take no for an answer, they want an encore. They get it. Flatfooting in the aisles one more time. The Flatfoot is probably the ugliest and least graceful dance ever devised by man, but at least its dancing. Organist Fox to perform A "Heavy Organ" Bach program and environmental light show will be presented by celebrated concert organist Virgil Fox, Wednesday, February 21, at 8:00 p.m., in Township Auditorium. Fox will perform Bach's greatest organ masterpieces on his specially designed 56 rank, 102-stop touring organ while the artists of "Revelation Lights" capture the musical mood in whirling images of light and color projected onto a huge screen. The first non-German ever allowed to perform on the historic Thomaskirche organ in Leipzig where Johann Sebastian Bach was once organist, Fox is currently editing the complete organ works of Bach with explicit registration for the first time. Smokestack Lightning I MIKE HARRISON M Heartbreaker FREE "gs ' Solid Air| JOHN MRTVN I