Bruce Evans, Lead Singer and Guitarist , Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

Bruce Evans The Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

When I met Bruce he was performing with a band called "Bruce Evans and Gold Fever". They had a real good band and were very active at the clubs. One weekend their bass player Rick Whitley had to be out and Bruce ask me to come and fill in, in which I did. Things went real well that night and not long afterward he gave me a call and said he was organizing a new band called The Shotgun Band. We got together to practice and the rest was history. 

Some things that I learned from Bruce's past was that he attended North Surry High School and played in a well known local band in the 1960's from Mt Airy North Carolina called The Nomads. They had written some original tunes which were charted on Billboard Magazine. We later rerecorded on a  45 record at Star Recording in Millers Creek the song "Fields of Peppermint". The Nomads performed a lot of the places that our band The Caboose did but I believed we were at our peak 3-5 years after The Nomads. Bruce performed all of his life up until his very end. When I met Bruce he was working for Lowe's Hardware as a lawnmower mechanic. Bruce new a lot about engines. Later in his career he left Lowe's and began investing in rental real estate, sold insurance for the National Association for the Self Employed, and was also a Gideon. He also went back to college and finished getting his college degree where he lacked only a few courses. I visited his house one day and there was his daughter sitting on the fender of her car climbed down in the engine compartment putting on a water pump and Bruce was instructing her how. He taught his girls how to be mechanics and musicians. Bruce knew how to make money. He was very ambitious. He kept us booked solid throughout the whole tenure The Shotgun Band was together. Bruce had a fantastic voice and vocal range for lead singing whether it be rock or country music. He used the same old guitar that he had from the sixties which was a 1965 Fender Mustang all throughout the years we were together. Bruce was always good with a joke. If you told him one he had five he could tell back to you. Bruce could tell you a lot of stories from back in the day The Nomads. There is a lot to say about our fearless leader but we may end here and break it down in several post.

Origin of the Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

Origin of The Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

There will be several blog post on this topic because it was the longest running band that I performed in. 
We organized The Shotgun Band as a result from a split in the Whiskey River Band and the Gold Fever Band. The original members were Bruce Evans from the Gold Fever Band on guitar, Mike Beeson on multiple instruments from Bruce's old band The Nomads  which originated from Mt Airy NC from the 1960's. Mike played guitar, fiddle, keyboard , and pedal steel with Shotgun. There was myself on bass and Keith Murphy on drums both from the Whiskey River Band. I feel the reason Bruce ask me to play bass with him was when he was with Bruce Evans and Gold Fever his bass player Rick Whitley was sick or away one weekend so he ask me if I would fill in one weekend and that's where we began our friendship. Later Bruce left Gold Fever and started The Shotgun Band. 

A lot of times there were leaders in the Bands and they were called for instance Bruce Evans and Gold Fever or Max Phillips and Whiskey River and many others titled their bands in like manner. Looking back in time the band members always felt why put them out front and that the other members were just as important as its leader but from hindsight it was a good thing. You could change members without losing the bands identity, however we were just called The Shotgun Band. Another thing to note is that Max Phillips had also performed together with Bruce in the past. We changed members during the time The Shotgun Band was together but we continued with the same name. 
When we first organized and began practicing Bruce said we were already booked and that our first gig was in two weeks. I thought the time was too short because we didn't have enough songs but we somehow got through it and the good thing about Bruce was that he kept us booked continually for the next 16 years. I made a lot of money in The Shotgun Band in so much we had to file taxes every year and keep up with our expenses. We kept up with mileage, expenses, and depreciation of our equipment. 
We started performing at the small clubs and dances when we first began such as the North Wilkesboro Moose Lodge and Willies Tavern in Roaring River NC. One thing I remember was that there was a lot of drama between the couples at the Moose Lodge. We also performed in 1984 at Richard Petty the race car drivers home at Level Cross North Carolina when Jim Martin was running to be the Governor of North Carolina. Keith Murphy left the Band a little while after that and we picked up Keith Hamlin on drums whose uncle owned The Bible Book Store, a large music store in North Wilkesboro NC. Keith Hamlin worked there part time. With this current band we performed the next six years together. This will conclude this post.

             Left to Right: Keith Hall, Bruce Evans, Richard Petty, Mike Beeson and Keith Murphy

                         Left to Right: Keith Hall, Bruce Evans, Mike Beeson and Keith Murphy