Archive for October, 2010

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s R&RHOF Drummer Artimus Pyle

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Artimus Pyle and Ronnie Van Zant - Lynyrd Skynyrd Dixie
By Mike Wright

The Great American Cooter Fest may be all about the turtle, but organizers this year drummed up something else to bring adults out of their shell.

Entertainment in the form of Southern rock music featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame drummer Artimus Pyle will jam downtown Inverness on Friday night and then continue on through Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

The Cooter Festival kicks off Friday night in downtown Inverness, then continues Saturday and Sunday.

The venue stretches from Liberty Park, home of cooter races, Cooter Idol finalists and games for children, to Wallace Brooks Park that, until this year, was left relatively unused in the previous six Cooter festivals.

“We wanted to better utilize that piece of real estate,” said Josh Wooten, president and chief operating officer of the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the festival with the city of Inverness.

Southern rock music, a beer garden and a separate site for teenage entertainment will expand the Cooter experience throughout the two city parks on Big Lake Henderson.

Wooten and assistant city manager Tom Dick said the idea of adding the musical entertainment was born during last year’s Cooter Fest, when rockers associated with Mitch Simmons’ business, Neon Leon’s Zydeco Steak House in Homosassa, played the front porch of an old house the city had recently bought as part of the Cason Funeral Home property.

Simmons asked Pyle, a founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, to return this year. He will play as part of Southern Rock’s Finest, compiled of former Southern bands such as Marshall Tucker, the Outlaws and the Allman Brothers Band.

Wooten said sponsors are paying for the band’s expenses. There is no admission fee for either the downtown Inverness block party Friday night or the weekend afternoon concerts in Wallace Brooks Park.

The city will debut its new stage that cost about $80,000, Dick said. It will be set up in Wallace Brooks Park for Southern Rock’s Finest and three other bands that will perform throughout the weekend.

“We didn’t really expect all that talent,” Wooten said.

Dick said the city expects the stage will pay for itself in five years because the city will not be renting stages for events. Plus, it will make the stage available for rent to other groups.

He said the city officials are excited about the expanded Cooter Fest.

“We just knew we had to take it to a second level this year,” Dick said.

Cooter Fest staples in Wallace Brooks — such as the barbecue contest Saturday and the Sunday morning triathlon — will still take place, he said.

Bands will take the stage from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

A beer garden and Neon Leon’s Steak House will also be available in Wallace Brooks.

“We wanted to segregate that part far from the kids in Liberty,” Wooten said.

An alcohol- and tobacco-free zone for teens is also planned on the former Cason funeral home property abutting the Withlacoochee State Trail. It will feature a dunking booth and Guitar Hero competitions.

–Meet Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame drummer Artimus Pyle, formerly of Lynyrd Skynyrd, at 7 p.m. Thursday at Neon Leon’s Zydeco Steak House, 10350 W. Yulee Dr., Homosassa.

– Cooter Festival: Special section tells all/ Inside

– For more on the Great American Cooter Fest, go to http://www.cooterfestival.com
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gene Odom and Ronnie Van Zant with Lynyrd Skynyrd band 1977 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Dixie
Lynyrd Skynyrd Rock Memorabilia will be on display

From Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Rolling Stones, and the author of several books about his time on the road, Gene Odom will be on hand with the largest traveling Lynyrd Skynyrd memorabilia exhibit including gold records, autographed guitars, stage apparel, rare photos and a R&R Hall of Fame trophy presented by Kid Rock. Also, a hat that was worn by Leon Wilkeson the night Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed.

Experience the chills one gets as the true magnitude of this tragedy is revealed when you view photos of Leon wearing this hat at autograph sessions only three days prior to the crash and then see the hat as it is now, after the crash, with holes and mud stains.

Many family members will be on hand with Gene Odom to share their stories and collectables. You may get autographs and pictures. Then meet and hear Artimus Pyle, on of only two surviving band plane crash survivors, as he re-creates the legendary music of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Lynyrd Skynyrd pause a moment from their relentless touring in 1977 for this vintage photo. http://lynyrdskynyrddixie.com/

Another Classic photo from the great Lynyrd Skynyrd Band in 1977. LynyrdSkynyrdDixie.com

Lynyrd Skynyrd with the classic stars and bars. The iconic symbol for Lynyrd Skynyrd and the south. LynyrdSkynyrdDixie.com

Tags: 1977, Allman Brothers, Allman Brothers Band, Beer Garden, Big Lake Henderson, Citrus County, Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, Citrus County Speedway, Cooter Festival Inverness Florida 2010, Dangerous Dan Toler, Florida, Free Bird, gene odom, Great American Cooter Fest, interview, inverness florida annual cooter festival, Josh Wooten, Leon Wilkeson Hat, Liberty Park, lynyrd skynyrd, Lynyrd Skynyrd "Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd Dixie, Lynyrd Skynyrd Documentary with Gene Odom, lynyrd skynyrd lyrics, Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash, Marshall Tucker Band, Mitch Simmons, Neon Leon's Zydeco SteakHouse, Outlaws, Phill Stokes, Pure Prairie League, rock and roll hall of fame, ronnie van zant, Southern Rock, Southern Rock Music, Steve Grisham, Tom Dick, Wallace Brooks Park
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Lynyrd Skynyrd – Road Is Home To Allen Collins Band

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Allen Collins Band – Here, There And Back Album Cover

Florida Times-Union Saturday May 21, 1983
Road Is Home To Allen Collins Band
By Claudia Perry
Times-Union Staff Writer

The Allen Collins Band is out from under wraps after a year of jamming, recording, and putting the pieces back together. Back in April of last year, guitarist Randall Hall and singer Jimmy Dougherty started jamming with the rest of the old Rossington-Collins Band. Dougherty and Hall had known drummer Derek Hess and guitarist Barry Lee Harwood from way back. Thus, the Allen Collins Band came to be.

“It’s like a family,” bass man Leon Wilkeson said. “Derek and Barry, (who joined the nucleus of Lynyrd Skynyrd to put together Rossington-Collins), and Randall and Jimmy are all home boys.”

Craig Reed and Larkin Collins, Allen’s father, take care of the band’s business affairs from the office at the band’s Westside rehearsal house in Jacksonville.

Monday, all the band members were there except Billy Powell, who was perpetually on his way. The place is sort of like a big boys clubhouse, with beer in one of the soda machines and road cases stacked against the wall of the practice room. When Harwood arrived, he brought some radishes from his garden. The rain brought a lot of talk of gardens and weather.

After many afternoons a bit more productive then Monday’s bull session at the rehearsal house, the band headed to Studio One in Doraville, Ga. to work on the album. It took three months on and off to record “Here, There and Back” which found it’s way into the stores this week.

You can hear some things on “Here, There and Back” that make you suspect these people might have a past you know a little about. The ballad “Chapter One” is very evocative of the band’s past, but it is not morose. The first song on the record, “Just Trouble”, is a funky tune of the sort you might associate with the late Lowell George and Little Feat. It’s probably the best evidence of the effect that new blood has had on the band.

“Hangin’ Judge” is getting a lot of airplay in Jacksonville and even in some far-flung Northern locales.

The band’s first live date is tonight in Virginia Beach, Va. They’re on the road doing a few dates before a lengthy tour that should end in January 1984. Will the Allen Collins Band ever stay off the road for long?

“I think it would take an act of God to keep us home,” Wilkeson said. “It may happen someday.”

“The road is home,” said guitarist Collins, while strumming his double cutaway Les Paul.

“Besides playing live is always better than an album,” Dougherty said.
“We’ve never been afraid to play,” Harwood said.

One thing the band agrees on is that the term “Southern rock” doesn’t really mean much. They don’t think that the Allen Collins Band is a Southern rock band. The music on “Here, There and Back” is solid rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s not the sort of triple-guitar, endless-wailing music you think of when you hear the words “Southern rock”.

“We have a tendency to underplay, not overplay,” Dougherty said.

“You spend some time working with people and the tunes just come along,” Harwood said. “The songs speak for themselves. There’s a story behind every one of them.”

The ups and downs of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rossington-Collins are fairly familiar to their fans. Some of the tragedies that have befallen both bands have really made the fans almost a part of a camaraderie. Does the Allen Collins Band feel a bit nervous about losing some of the ground those bands gained?

“There are no guarantees,” Wilkeson said. “We have the faith we can do it. No butterflies here.”

LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY