The Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)
The Middle Years.
Midway during the life of the Shotgun Band we had a major change in members. We lost Keith Hamlin on drums and picked up Clayton Handy Jr from McGrady NC and lost Mike Beeson and we picked up Mike Reeves on Keyboard from Wilkesboro NC. Bruce Evans and myself continued along with these two members. One thing about Junior he sang and played drums which Keith Hamlin didn't sing. It was an interesting mixture. We performed a lot of the same songs but lost a lot of the Alabama tunes which Mike Beeson did a great job on baritone vocals.
With this band we entered the Marlboro Country Music Championships in Greensboro NC and won over a lot of bands and placed third in the competition.
The next change of members was when Mike Reeves left us and we went down to a three piece band. This didn't stop Bruce we continued to perform. It was Clayton, myself and Bruce. I always wanted a fourth man but Bruce and Clayton wanted just three because the money was more. With three members we were forced to perform a lot more rock tunes. It was harder on me without the fourth man where I had to overplay to fill in the holes. On the end of life of The Shotgun Band we lost Clayton and Keith Hamlin came back to play until we disbanded.
The Shotgun Band never practiced except at the beginning the first two weeks of organization and if we learned any new material we would run over it before a show and polish it up each time we performed it. We did get together a few years later and performed at Jacks Drive In, in North Wilkesboro NC and used Charles Dockery from Dobson NC
Oddly enough Clayton Handy and Mike Reeves are Pastors of churches, Bruce was a Gideon before he passed away and I perform in a Gospel Group and teach Sunday School.
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