Max Phillips and the Whiskey River Band

Max Phillips and the Whiskey River Band 

Around the year 1981 and 1982 some members of the Chisel Ridge Bluegrass Band felt as if places didn't want to pay Bluegrass Bands what they deserve. There was just a limited number of venues one could play. Everyone just wanted Bluegrass Bands to perform for free. Several of us joined up with Max Phillips and the Whiskey River Band. The members were Max Phillips on guitar, Keith White on guitar, myself on bass, David Sheek on drums, also Keith Murphy on drums, and Kip Snow on guitar. We also used a guy named Richard on sound and a guy named Ken on pedal steel which added a lot to the band. Max is a great Country guitarist and songwriter. We performed at a lot of different clubs and one in particular I remember was up Highway 90 north of Statesville called the Chateau Madrid. Another place we performed  at was called The Traffic Light in North Wilkesboro. It was owned by Wayne McNeil. It was kind of a fancy club with a dress code unlike the Chateau Madrid. We performed top 40 rock and country and also southern rock. After a long night of performing we frequented the Waffle House in Statesville to pacify our hungry appetites. At that time in the wee hours of the morning the only places that are open are the Waffle Houses and Coffee Houses and 24 hour restaurants like truck stops. 
                                 Left to Right: Keith Hall, Keith White, Max Phillips, David Sheek

                                    Our old Whiskey River Band T-shirts and Business Cards

Left to Right: Kip Snow, Keith White,Keith Murphy(back) Richard (front) Max Phillips, Keith Hall

The Second Chisel Ridge Band

The Second Chisel Ridge Band 

In the year 1977-1978 we organized the Second Chisel Ridge Bluegrass Band. The members were Keith White on acoustic guitar, Jeff Shore on mandolin, myself on electric bass, and Kip Snow on banjo. We entered  the WTQR Country Music Championships in 1980.
                             Left to Right: Jeff Shore and Kip Snow (front) Keith Hall and Keith White (back)

                                Left to Right: Kip Snow, Keith White, Jeff Shore, Keith Hall

                                  Left to Right: Jeff Shore, Keith Hall, Keith White, Kip Snow

and performed at Hanes Mall in Winston Salem North Carolina. We were the winners against several bands and got to perform many of the traveling road shows for the radio station and also at the Dixie Classic Fair. One of our regular places to perform was at SRO Country in Winston Salem. SRO stands for standing room only.  When we performed there we would take World Championship Clogger JC Wagoner who would clog on roller skates on the lighted dance floor. JC later went to  Maggie Valley in North Carolina to perform. Along with paying Chisel Ridge for the Thursday nights Bluegrass performance Wayne the owner paid JC to dance while the band would take its breaks. I remember we did a promo photo shoot with Ray Key who was a practicing photographer and also an Elkin policeman shooting a whole set of pictures to later called us and said there was no film in the camera so we had to come back and do it again. We also performed at an outdoor festival called Pete's August Jam over on the Wildlife Road in Elkin. Pete Davis was the host and organizer of the event. Another band performed with us called Rampage. They played rock while we did the Bluegrass portion. Jim Taylor who I perform with at the present time of this writing played in that band. It's amazing how fate comes around and brings people together. 

George Robert Hall (1896-1971) and Chatham Manufacturing Company

                                                       George Robert Hall with hat with the Chatham's
Fred Norman a prominent Elkin businessman told me that Chatham  's had many men employed with engineering degrees but none could compare to my grandfather. He said that Bob came to Chatham's and standardized all of the many different kinds of looms that they had so that all the loom fixers could work on them. My grandfather was in charge of the Weave Room and over the loom fixers. He also schooled and gave classes for the fixers. He just had a great mechanical mind for machinery. I remember him more in his retired life being able to create many things. He didn't go to the hardware store for things he just made his own. He could also take apart a lawnmower and put it back together. In his retired life he loved to hunt and fish. The Chatham's gave him special privileges to hunt and fish on their many properties. Many times he took me along. Before coming to Chatham's in 1934 he in his early years was a farmer from Patrick County Virginia and then moved to Draper Mills in Rockingham County in North Carolina. His father in law John Hopper (1859-1930) was a well known Draper Pioneer in textiles. When the Great Depression came he and his family relocated to Swannanoa North Carolina in Buncombe County just outside of Asheville and worked at Beacon Manufacturing Company until 1934. His brother in law George Hopper was working at Chatham's and was going to move back to Draper and he recommended my grandfather to Chatham's to take his place. When you go to the Beacon Manufacturing plant now it is just a big empty field. My grandfather worked for Chatham's until he retired. He also patented several of the shuttle type looms for Chatham's.

  
                                            George Robert Hall at head of table with the Chatham's at Luncheon

The Caboose Show and Dance Band, Tanglewood Steeple Chase

The Caboose Show and Dance Band, Tanglewood Steeple Chase 

Back in 1972 I was in a band called The Caboose Show and Dance Band. The band members were Kim Pardue lead vocals, Kathy Fleming lead vocals, Dick Steelman keyboard, myself on bass guitar, Robbie Hall on lead guitar, and Chris Shore on drums. We performed all over the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina and southern Virginia. We used a talent agency to book us called Crissman Talent Agency owned by Roy Crissman from East Bend NC. 
Left to Right: Dick Steelman, Chris Shore, Kim Pardue (front) Robbie Hall, Keith Hall (middle) Kathy Fleming (top) Roy Crissman standing.

                   Left to Right: Keith Hall, Chris Shore, Kathy Fleming, Dick Steelman, Robbie Hall

As a young teenager the Steeple Chase was a new venue for us. Mostly wealthy people were attending the event to watch the horses jump over the hedges. We have heard of tailgate parties today but in 1972 they had tailgate parties. All of the attendees were driving station wagon vehicles and would let down the back tailgate.I have never saw such a bar on each one of those. So many bottles of various liquors to mix any kind of drink you wanted. Today they would sip on wine. They also had food and folding chairs and it was such a partying event. You have to keep in mind that we were 16 and 17 years old from Yadkin County a dry county. We grew up in a rural conservative area where nothing like this went on. After a year we ventured out and realized that parties went in all of the time while the parents were gone in the cities and small towns. We performed a while the Motown songs of that era and also did a promo photo shoot at the old Caboose at Tanglewood Park. We didn't feel like we were anything special at the time and enjoyed performing and were paid by Roy and the people must have thought we deserved the pay that we received.

The New Grass Express Bluegrass Band

Left to right: Gary Martin, Keith Hall, Gordon Myers, Steve Brown

The New Grass Express Bluegrass Band

At the end of 1973 and 1974 I moved from Morganton NC back home with my parents and attended Wilkes Community College to study Electronics. It was in the mid 1970's we organized the New Grass Express Bluegrass Band. It consisted of Keith White acoustic guitar, Steve Brown dobro, myself on bass guitar, Gordon Myers on banjo, and Gary Martin on guitar. Bluegrass music was gaining popularity in the 1970's by young people where everyone was just like we were transitioning from the folk rock genre. You had Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival and the Country Gentlemen rearranging a lot of tunes written by Bob Dylan and other folk hits. Bluegrass music had a new genre in that period called New Grass which is where we got our name. Let's not leave out the Osborne Brothers and even some of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs later leaving and organizing the Earl Scruggs Revue. It was a new time of creativity. We were all in the midst of it. Being lesser known we opened shows for the  Country Gentlemen at Lake Norman Music Hall a large venue for Bluegrass on Highway 150 outside of Mooresville North Carolina. We later opened a show with the Seldom Scene in Statesville. We entered the Sunbonnet Festival talent contest in 1978 that the Yadkin Arts Council was sponsoring and competed against many types of talent and were the winners. The winners performed on WXII TV station and also at Carowinds Amusement Park in Charlotte NC. It has always been frowned upon to have an electric bass in the traditional bluegrass bands but The Osborne Brothers were innovators changing the ways of tradition. I have always stayed faithful to my electric bass in all genres of music.

The First Chisel Ridge Band

THE FIRST CHISEL RIDGE BAND

 We used the name Chisel Ridge in several of the bands that I performed in.. I am unsure who came up with the name but we all agreed upon it. I feel like Chris Transou maybe could have thought of it. He had a brilliant creative mind when it came to words, jokes and sayings. In this band we performed mostly 1970's folk songs such as Crosby,Stills, Nash and Young and also some original songs that David Tenery had written.. We performed mostly in the years 1972 and 1973. I recall two of the times that we first performed. One was in the old Pleasant Hill Church Activity Center and the other was at East Wilkes High School after a ballgame. People brought quilts and blankets and sat on the gym floor unlike the sock hop dances we had played for in earlier bands but like a Woodstock venue. We were in the old East Wilkes gym and auditorium combination. Performing in this band  was Chris Transou on Banjo, David Tenery on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, Kim Pardue on pedal steel and acoustic guitar and vocals, myself on bass guitar and vocals, and Paula Dagenhart  on drums and also David Pruitt from Elkin on drums. Also at that time Kim, David and myself were in the Pleasant Hill Youth Choir and the group called The Revelations at the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Elkin North Carolina. David Tenery's dad was the pastor at the church. Kim's dad had a weekend house which was only a half a mile from his other house and both were in Jonesville North Carolina. We would practice there on weekends sometimes into the early morning hours. One night the Jonesville police came at 4 am and said that neighbors in the area were complaining about the loud music and they told us to do one more song for them and then we had to quit. They were real nice about it. In 1973 we regrouped the Band with David Tenery, myself, Ricky Swaim and Mickey Swaim. Ricky and Mickey were brothers from Elkin but were attending Gardner Webb College where we would practice. David and Kim graduated in 1972 and myself in 1973. Kim and I went to Starmount High School while David went to Elkin High School. On our New York City trip when we performed at The Bitter End Rock Club it was David, myself, Rob Conrad and Paula Dagenhart. Rob played electric guitar. Kim's dad had a weekend house which was only a half a mile from his other house and both were in Jonesville North Carolina. We would practice there on weekends sometimes into the early morning hours. One night the Jonesville police came at 4 am and said that neighbors in the area were complaining about the loud music and they told us to do one more song for them and then we had to quit. They were real nice about it. In 1973 I graduated from Starmount High School and pack up my clothes and left home to move in with David Tenery and his parents in Morganton North Carolina where we continued to play until 1974. In looking back at all of this we were serious about our music and wanted to make it in the industry at this young age. We had a real good folk and country sound not as country is today but something similar to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Sound. We had acoustic guitars, bass, drums, conga, pedal steel, banjo, mandolin and fiddle instrumentation for this genre. At this time was when I bought my 1972 Fender Precision Fretless bass, first of its kind and a Hofner A shape mandolin.
                                            My 1972 Fender Precision Fretless Bass