After about four or five years, all things begin to grow a little old, and though we were still packed most of the time, the buzz was not quite the same. And then, George Hughley called me one day and said "I hear you've got a studio now". I told him I did and he said he had a backer that would pay for us to do an album together. He and I had roomed together when we were on the road a few years earlier. We found that we could write together and had written several songs. Nothing ever came of them though since we were really only together about 2 years or so. He wanted to do those songs. So his backer paid us to do our music under George's name but none the less, it was our music. While we were doing this I asked him if he wanted to come by Crab 'n' Claw and sit in. It had dawned on me that this might be the shot in the arm I needed to perk things up again. Did it ever. George, my boss saw it and immediately hired George to come sing with me just as I figured he would.
Since I played all the instruments, and he did the singing with me singing harmony, we could do things that most bands could not. I could follow anything he did and he knew every song known to man from the 50's and 60's which was perfect for the crowd we were entertaining. Every night was a different adventure. For example, one night he looked over and he said "give me this beat" and he sort of hummed a rhythm to me in a language only he and I knew. So I started playing the old I - vi - IV - V - I progression to the rhythm he implied and then he started singing - "Do you remember this song, yea - Do you remember this song." He would repeat that again and then just randomly go into a song from the 50's or 60's while putting that little phrase between each song. It was different every night. It got longer and longer until we could just play it til we realized we had gone on long enough, but 30 minutes of it was easy. There were all kinds of little things like that we came up with. But then along about 1993, George, our boss, came in one night, he was a big golfer, and did a lot of promoting on the golf course since we were close to the course and had a lot of the players as regulars at the piano bar, and told us he had sold the Crab 'n' Claw and it would end soon. All things must pass. And it did. But what an experience. I learned many things there and found my wife and a house and built a studio among other things.
Since I played all the instruments, and he did the singing with me singing harmony, we could do things that most bands could not. I could follow anything he did and he knew every song known to man from the 50's and 60's which was perfect for the crowd we were entertaining. Every night was a different adventure. For example, one night he looked over and he said "give me this beat" and he sort of hummed a rhythm to me in a language only he and I knew. So I started playing the old I - vi - IV - V - I progression to the rhythm he implied and then he started singing - "Do you remember this song, yea - Do you remember this song." He would repeat that again and then just randomly go into a song from the 50's or 60's while putting that little phrase between each song. It was different every night. It got longer and longer until we could just play it til we realized we had gone on long enough, but 30 minutes of it was easy. There were all kinds of little things like that we came up with. But then along about 1993, George, our boss, came in one night, he was a big golfer, and did a lot of promoting on the golf course since we were close to the course and had a lot of the players as regulars at the piano bar, and told us he had sold the Crab 'n' Claw and it would end soon. All things must pass. And it did. But what an experience. I learned many things there and found my wife and a house and built a studio among other things.
After drifting about from one place to another for about 6 months, through a mutual friend I was introduced to Dirk Howell, another solo artist from Athens. He was sort of a beach music guy and knew the ropes in Athens. Our friend thought that we'd make a good team, and it turned out we did. We landed a gig at the Ramada Inn's Frog Pond Lounge there in Athens which we played for about 3 years. He did most of the front work and again I could back up anything he wanted to throw at me. One night he just looked at me and laughed. And I asked him what was so funny, and he just shook his head and said, "I don't see how you do it!". We enjoyed playing together. But then we got a two weeks notice. Holiday Inn Express had bought the Ramada and there would be no club.