More In-Studio Chat with Laura Slade Wiggins, Jonathan Spencer, and Vaylor Trucks: Slightly Famous Somebodies E130

What happens when musicians stop trying to look cool and start trying to tell the truth? We continue our sit down with Slightly Famous Somebodies for a freewheeling ride through creativity, aging, and the weird influences that make a band sound like itself. The deeper we get, the clearer it becomes: authenticity is not a brand, it is a practice, and sometimes it shows up only after you have failed enough times to stop performing for approval.

We trade left field favorites and guilty loves that somehow make perfect sense once you hear the why. Then we go full music history mode with jam band love and a personal Allman Brothers Band thread. You will hear the backstory of the Brothers and Sisters cover photo and the band’s origin story. We wrap with AthFest plans and making live shows feel rare and special.

RootsRockRevival.com for tickets and details.

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Transcript

Welcome Back With The Guests

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hey, I'm Laura Slade Wiggins.

SPEAKER_06 0:01

And I'm Jonathan Spencer, and I'm Baylor Trucks.

SPEAKER_05 0:04

And we're the slightly famous somebodies, and you're listening to music in my shoes.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

He's got to feel it in it out there growing.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes Podcasting Worldwide. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 130. I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. On our last episode, we had slightly famous somebodies join us. Here's part two.

SPEAKER_10 0:51

For us, if anything, we're making more childlike and more authentic music because as we get older, we're able to drop those guards and those barriers that prevented us from being that's not cool. Or I don't want to fail.

SPEAKER_05 1:04

Or now we're like a mom, you're like, I'd have no, I don't care about my pride. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who cares really about your pride when you've been covered in baby poop?

SPEAKER_06 1:13

Every everyone's gone. The prejudgments are gone. Every musician goes through a period of maturity. Some people do it much younger than others, but everyone goes, every good musician goes through a period where they stop trying to impress and start serving the song. And when that happens, sometimes later in life for some than others, sometimes it never happens. Exactly. Humbling. You know, for me, I've stopped trying to impress you, right? I'm I'm I'm more interested in what's happening with the music right here, right now, and how can I make it better. You know, that's the way to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:47

Absolutely. And I'll say, like, I went to see Driving and Crying a a week ago, and I mean, I've seen them quite a few times, and they like sparkled. They were more in the pocket, more in the groove, like younger than I've ever seen Kevin just having a great time. And if he wasn't, don't ever tell me Kevin, because like it changed my life.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:09

I couldn't go backstage to tell him. They were like, no, he's very private. I'm like, that's true, but anyways, I'll catch him later. But it was just like, it was so cool to see people like having fun and not worrying about loving where they're at. If they look dumb doing it, like who cares about the people that are like they look dumb? I'm like, okay, well, we're like really loving life.

SPEAKER_10 2:32

We're loving looking dumb lately.

SPEAKER_05 2:33

We're yeah, those people should get a life. Yeah, quite looking at me. Quite looking at us. We're having fun.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Hey, Jimmy, I think I'm gonna start a band. I can't sing, but I'm gonna call it dumb looking somebodies.

SPEAKER_07 2:44

I'm coming to see it. Dumb looking nobodies? Yeah. I'll be out.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

Oh, that's a better name. I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_06 2:51

It's fabulous. That's very punk. Some dumb lumbaddies? That's very punk. It's very subgenius, actually.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_07 2:57

What's the name of the Church of the Subgenius guy? J.R. Bob Dobbs. J.R. Bob Dobbs. He's he's my avatar online. Praise Bob.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

Oh, really? I didn't know about this religion, but I'm questioning it.

SPEAKER_07 3:10

It's like a Devo Devo are devoted to it, you know, ostensibly. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 3:14

The world ends tomorrow, and you may die.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

That's every day. I agree. That's true. I have a friend that's very sick, it's not funny, but he's always like, I might die. And I'm like, you know what, we a lot of people have died since you're supposed to die. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_06 3:29

The premise of the Church of the Subgenius is that there was a there was a salesman named J.R. Bob Dobbs who made a deal with aliens from Planet X who intend to destroy the Earth. I believe him. And that everyone who sends Bob one dollar will, on the day of the rupture, where the aliens come to destroy the earth, uh, will be taken up, ruptured up into the pleasure saucers of the sex goddesses and live forever in eternal space.

SPEAKER_05 3:57

Never mind, never mind.

SPEAKER_07 4:00

And Bob's photo is like this 19th century.

SPEAKER_10 4:07

This is like Bob Dobb's only way of obtaining sex goddesses.

SPEAKER_05 4:11

But it just reminds me of Billy on the street, like, for a dollar, for a dollar. For a dollar. You can get on our rocket ship.

SPEAKER_07 4:17

So there was this ad, apparently, uh, back in, you know, whatever, the 60s, that all it was was a classified ad that said, last day to send in your dollar, and all these people sent in a dollar, like, I want to find out what this is about. It was just like, no, I'm just gonna keep the money.

SPEAKER_05 4:32

Y'all had a good, pretty good economy.

SPEAKER_07 4:35

They sued the person and uh they they couldn't get it back because they're like, I didn't promise you anything for a dollar. Yeah, the last day.

Surprise Influences And Guilty Loves

SPEAKER_05 4:44

That's good marketing, honestly. I have some respect for that.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

So we mentioned ABBA a little bit ago. So let's go with Valor. Who would what band or person artists would you like that we would not expect it to be? Ooh, the Shags. I have no idea who the Shags are.

SPEAKER_06 5:03

The Shags uh Shag Marvin? What's that? No, Shags. Okay. Um the Shags are three uh school age girls from New Hampshire. Their father, name No, no, from back in the 60s. Their father is a guy named uh uh Jim Wigan, and he got a palm reading from his mom that said when he grew up, he was gonna have three daughters, and they were gonna go on to be the biggest girl group in the world. So when he grew up and had three daughters, he pulled them out of school, gave them instruments, locked them in the cellar, and said, You're and and you know, your job is to record and practice music now. Didn't give them lessons, they didn't have music in the house, they had no instructors, they just had a set of drums and two guitars, and he said, Go. This is like the clearly crazy people. Yes, and they were famous, guys. After a couple years, when he figured they'd had enough time, he brought them to a studio and they recorded an album called Philosophy of the World, which will change your life. It's a fit what years is the 50s? 1967, 66, something like that. So they truly didn't know how to play music, they just it's it's complete outside music.

SPEAKER_09 6:10

It's a total pharaoh outside Yes.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

So like Avantgarde beyond avant garde. The song the song to find is called My Pal Footfoot. My pal footfoot.

SPEAKER_09 6:18

Yes, and this is more out there than like 666 number of okay, yes. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 6:25

Oh bless your souls.

SPEAKER_10 6:26

The shags. Wow, the shags. All right, Jonathan. What mine's not that obscure. I've just been yeah, I'm like you know, I love Proc rock, but my my like brain doesn't my my my fingers don't do it as fast as my brain does it. So I've just been lately obsessed with the 70s band Renaissance, which is a Proc rock band that I think kind of just hit it all at once because it's a little bit musical theater, a little bit rock opera, a little bit classical, a little bit are big on the harmonies, and has uh uh women lead singer, front person, five octaves, craziness. So it's great. I just love every bit of it, it just goes all over the place. So it's it's as far as things you wouldn't expect if you hear Sausage Man, you wouldn't expect me to be into the band Renaissance.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

So there you go. Laura, what about you?

SPEAKER_05 7:12

Um, something I didn't expect to be into is like jewels from Miss Rachel. I don't know if y'all ever listened to that. The YouTube hit sensation, Miss Rachel. There's Danny Go, which everything is lava, and then there's Blippy, who has a great song, a little off key, about excavators. So I've really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_08 7:30

Judy Sills. All right, so I know what you know what minds.

SPEAKER_05 7:32

Judy Sill's not surprising though. Judy Sill is a goddess.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Judy Sill's a goddess.

SPEAKER_05 7:37

David Gavin did it wrong.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

He did do it wrong. That's the first person you mentioned that I know.

unknown 7:42

Hooray!

SPEAKER_03 7:43

But Blippy, come on now.

SPEAKER_05 7:45

But Blips. Clearly, there's not like a five-year-old in your life.

SPEAKER_10 7:49

We have a rock opera we're working on for 2027 that's kind of in development as we go, but it also involves sort of like Saturday cartoon, Saturday morning cartoon energy. So ask us in here, and I'll tell you what we come up with.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Jimmy, why don't you tell us your uh artist that we would not be Mr. Bad Bunny? Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny.

SPEAKER_10 8:12

Bad Bunny, okay.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

Good stuff. He gets into some stuff you don't think he's gonna give it to either. Like he's got some like attitude for no reason. I think we all like that here.

SPEAKER_07 8:21

Well, he incorporates a lot of traditional stuff, and he's really just blending genres and making it look easy.

SPEAKER_10 8:26

Very cool. I I was very surprised. I heard I heard Pitbull talking about prints in a very knowledgeable way the other day, and I was like, what?

SPEAKER_07 8:33

Oh my daughter worked with Pitbull and she said he was the biggest professional, the nicest guy.

SPEAKER_10 8:39

He was right on the money.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

He was just locally, we've got like I don't know why I just got into Arrested Development as well, but like some of the best different albums for Georgia artists.

SPEAKER_07 8:50

Speech and yeah, yeah. I used to work with Kamal, the bass player. Oh, okay. We worked at Turner Broadcasting together.

SPEAKER_05 8:56

Yeah, of just listening to everything. I was like, you and everybody got back together at the end, like adults.

SPEAKER_10 9:03

It was just their newest album, their 2015 record is.

SPEAKER_05 9:06

Oh, 20, sorry, the and it is 2025. I'm just saying for that hip-hop genre, I was like, speech and I need to know more names in the band than him because I'm a new fan. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 9:17

Well, he kind of leads the way, so you're you're good with the stuff.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

But I've just loved it. Mr. Wendell to Gold's Dysmorphia, which I feel like I have gold dysmorphia.

SPEAKER_10 9:26

Well, Laura and I've been dipping in a lot of that kind of like 90s, you know, kind of I don't want to say feel-good hip-hop, but it like had a good message, right? Like you had like brand new heavies, you had De La Sole, you had PM Dawn, you had Arrested Development, and like the labels would not let them be that.

SPEAKER_05 9:43

It's like there could be one like black uh in that, like in that, you know, that could be guitar guys and could be creative kind of in this own ethereal space. They were like, No, you need to be a gangster rap. And I'm like, shout out to Bone Thugs. But you know, we can I really wish they would have marketed more of this to me because that's just what I like.

Recovery Lyrics And Community Support

SPEAKER_10 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

Erica Mason is an Atlanta artist, she's doing like a like lived-in experience kind of thing in Atlanta that's supposed to be life-changing.

SPEAKER_10 10:15

So our lyrics like on Walking Sweet, the one that's coming out on the record, yeah, it's a lot, a lot of just the or at least the part that the part that I put, the whole we stepped together and all that. This is like a direct, I mean it's not a lift, but I used to love this brand new Heavys album in the mid 90s called Brother Sister. And they had the lyrics stand up, be strong, go out there and hold on. It's to the real thing that matters because no one's gonna give it to you on a silver platter, you know, just all that whole like community get together, we can do this.

SPEAKER_05 10:40

I had no idea. But I we can it comes off the steeple people, which I will shout out Nuchi Space, because if you don't know where to tithe an offering people, you give it to Nucci Space. It's like an Athens music space that helps people, it's tax deductible, and it is like you can have any mental illness in the world. You can call them, say I don't have money, I don't know what to do, and they will get you help and they will not be like they're not judgy. It's so I've like used their services myself before, but um but it came from Steeple People, and that song was really about recovery, whether we wanted it to or not, because it's just about like a spell we're putting on people so that they just just take one step, just be the fool and take one step and see where it lands you.

SPEAKER_10 11:22

Laura said when she started writing it, she said, I'm gonna cast a spell, but it's gonna be a good spell.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

Yeah, I was trying to get a part in the movie he was casting, and that didn't work, but I did write a cool song.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

I was just about to write write a song called I Cast a Spell. Too late. It's too late. So I was in a public enemy video. Um they were playing live at NASA uh Coliseum, and I think it was 1988, maybe 89. Shut up. And I got an LA Raiders hat on, and I got a LA Raiders shirt on. And I'm in it, I I when I tell you, I think a second, but when this video came out, my friends, you know, we had uh VCRs and they would stop and they just went frame by frame by frame to see because we had seats really close. That was and they found it, and then I get a call later, you know, there's no cell phones, it was regular landlines, and I get a call. Hey, I heard you're in the public enemy video. You hanging out tonight? Uh I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about, you know. We went to this club, we hung at this club, it was called Spit, and it was alternative music, dance club, and it was called Spit. Let's go to Spit tonight. And I show up and it's like people like Hey, you you don't have to pay cover, you come on it because I wore the same hat that I wore in the video. That if you watch the video, you won't see me.

SPEAKER_05 12:50

You're about to be in our band, just so you know.

SPEAKER_07 12:55

But if you freeze frame it and you take a picture and then you go get the pictures developed and you bring it to the club, then you're a substance. But it's VHS to go shaky shake.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

But it was absolutely it was insane. I wore that hat, and people were like, it it went like wildfire through this whole place. And it wasn't just me, my buddy, you know, Chris Cassidy, who's friend of the show, you know him. Of course. Um, he was in the video. I forget who else. Uh you can't see us. I'm not, you know, I'm telling you, you can't, unless you do like Jimmy said. But no, no cover that night. Everybody's buying drinks. Can I wear your hat? No, you can't wear my hat. I mean, it's my hat, you know? Yeah. I had hair at the time, so I would have serious hat head. But it's funny, that's something that people wouldn't expect of me. But also, I absolutely love the carpenters. And I have loved the carpenters since I was a kid. I grew up in a house where music was played all the time. Great hard. You had dinner music, which was rock and roll. You had cleaning music on Saturdays, which was eight tracks, Anneil Diamond, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, Jethro Tall. That was, you know, what we listened to. I talked about this on the show once before. I had a cassette tape. It was the breakup tape. So, you know, a girl breaks up with you, you break up with a girl, and you listen to this cassette where you put these songs. For some stupid reason, you would put these songs that make you cry, they make you feel worse than you already felt, but you have to listen to Paul Simon 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

That's super important, you know.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

So listening to the Carpenters, you know, why can't we go on? Why do we go on hurting each other and just all these things?

SPEAKER_04 14:43

Everybody hurts.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

You know, everybody hurts. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

I don't know anything about that, but from now on, Jim, I'm gonna call you Jim, and I'm gonna call myself Jimmy Slade Bauge.

SPEAKER_05 14:55

No, Jim Slade Boj got 9,000 names. Yeah, you are Bojelet, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:08

So it's actually it's Bois Jolie. Um, but we say Beaujolais because it was always easier for people to pronounce.

SPEAKER_10 15:14

For the drinkers.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

So when I was young, I made my uh confirmation, and you had to pick a name that you got confirmed by. So my confirmed name is I picked uh Paul. And I went through this whole thing of why I picked Paul, and and I gotta be honest, I don't even remember who Paul was. I picked it because it was Paul McCartney's name. Okay, let's just get it. Let's just get to the bottom of it.

SPEAKER_05 15:43

We're talking about the first Paul McCartney, not this fake guy. Another replacement. I just get too much.

SPEAKER_10 15:50

Not the clone, not the other.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

He's real, we love him. I just have to. He died.

SPEAKER_10 15:54

Beaujolais. Beaujolais Nouveau could be your like keyboard band there. That's pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

So if you come to my kitchen, there are like things with Beaujolais Nouveau all over the kitchen. If you come to my house, you think that's how you spell my name.

SPEAKER_05 16:06

You have nine names. Now I feel better about the first question. Beautiful. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_10 16:11

Beaujolais Nouveau.

SPEAKER_08 16:13

I like it. Wow. It reminds Bumati, the zesty forever.

SPEAKER_10 16:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_07 16:20

It reminded me a little of the Ginnate. You remember that? Ginate. Ginate. Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_10 16:25

Or Nair don't work for the Forever.

unknown 16:29

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 16:31

I do like how it started, though, because we don't work for the Burners. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 16:36

Oh, the Nair, Nair commercial, right?

SPEAKER_10 16:40

There was another one with the wear. Show it, show it. There was a Sunday version where they went into French for five seconds, too.

SPEAKER_05 16:46

Yeah, whoever the writers of like duck tails was, those like theme songs. Mm-mm. They ate it up every time. It's a dark winged duck. Are y'all kidding me?

SPEAKER_10 16:55

Darkwing duck?

SPEAKER_05 16:56

Whoever that sex player was, I just hope they're sitting in their mansion like eating the most dangerous Cheetos I've ever had. Dangerous Cheetos. With Chester himself.

SPEAKER_06 17:09

This is why I don't talk much.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

And these are my dreams of what's gonna happen when I make it.

SPEAKER_10 17:15

Well, they cover themselves in early 80s Sun Tan Russian.

SPEAKER_07 17:19

Yes. Lair Juton, was that it? We we went to Mexico recently, and the Cheetos are even hotter in Mexico. They have ones that are not authorized for Americans to eat. They are baching.

SPEAKER_06 17:31

Muy caliente.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

Muy caliente. You know, I have a um a daughter, my daughter Mackenzie. She likes everything hot. So whether you put it in the microwave, and if you should cook it for five minutes, she'll do seven because she wants it like steaming hot.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

I see.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

Or if she gets some sort of hot sauce, you know, what's the hottest one? I want that. And she'll take it and she's making these faces and she's like, it's so hot, it's so hot. Oh, give me more. You know, like it's just crazy. Like that is not me. I I'm not gonna do that, you know, at all.

SPEAKER_05 18:07

I don't know what's happened to the women of our day, but yeah, I'm like, give me some talkies. I was like tutoring these kids, and they were like trying to act like I didn't know what was up. Because they thought that they were so much smarter, and I was like, I'll eat one of those talkies if you don't do your work. And then at first they were kind of spicy, and I was like, I'm gonna eat the rest of them. And I kept eating them because pain. I don't know. Aren't you crazy? Don't they say you're crazy if you like spicy? I never knew.

SPEAKER_10 18:31

It's it's not about the pain, it's about the reaction that your body gives back after it hits you. So she's a tough kid.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

I know one thing about McKenzie, I'm not playing with her. Yeah, not playing with McKenzie.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

She wanted to learn how to swim when she was a kid. She's like, Yeah, I'm just gonna jump in the pool. You know, so you had to watch her because she's like, that's how I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna jump in and I'm just gonna be like, woo, woo, woo, you know? Yeah, she's uh she's gonna teach myself to fly, dad.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

Well, that's a lyric. I was remembering a Judy Seal lyric and I forgot. I've been so afraid of falling that I forgot how to fly or something like that.

SPEAKER_10 19:07

Okay. We had Judy Seal Deep Dive this past weekend. Only two albums to deep dive. Yeah, there's that planetary alignment that's like halfway between Janice Joplin and Jody Mitchell, exactly. It should have been.

SPEAKER_05 19:18

One of the first. Yeah. Well, you know about her.

SPEAKER_10 19:20

You know better, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 19:23

Was it like early 70s? Yes. Early 70s were a time where some people just got lost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:28

Yeah, but this one's weird because she's super cute. She's one of the first on Geffen's label, and they're just like, she's a meth head. You listen to her music, and you're like, she's definitely not a meth head, okay? Like, there's definitely like maybe some hallucinogenics, but it's very hard. Like, I was asking Jonathan, why can't I cover this? And it's because she picks her tempos up. She's growing in knowledgeable places.

SPEAKER_10 19:52

So good.

SPEAKER_05 19:52

And sometimes it's like the PM Dawn thing. I see a band that the industry shelved, and so they just gave them a bad label. A bad label so they didn't have to take accountability for what they did. You know, like PM Dawn's not really a hip-hop band, they're kind of like an experimental like spiritual you know, like for sure.

SPEAKER_10 20:12

And Judy Silved uh got shelved by Geffen and labeled a method, and that's not at all what she was.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

So then they put that that documentary out about her, and I I don't know. I my the Apple algorithm is a spiritual place for me because it just showed up with the Jesus as a crossmaker. But I've just gotten like really interested in these bands and why. And I don't know if it's just because I felt like when I was in LA that like I was right there and I couldn't go any further because I was like not gonna play by their rules with this like power structure. You know, sometimes I had to be like, you know what, my daddy loved me, so I don't need to be famous. Fuck all you hoes. Sorry.

SPEAKER_07 20:54

Wow, that escalated quickly.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Wow, I thought we had Sharona on the show there for a second.

SPEAKER_07 21:01

We had Sharona on from the My Sharona song, and yeah, she wasn't afraid to drop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:09

Ah, well, I'm the one in South Atlanta. Anybody needs that agent. Genuine Georgia.

SPEAKER_07 21:15

Nice.

SPEAKER_05 21:17

I'm with Dwelly Agent. Anyways, you know what real estate agent is.

SPEAKER_10 21:22

If you if you want to buy a sell house from Laura, if you want to talk to me about real estate, this is definitely a great commercial.

SPEAKER_05 21:28

No.

Teen Gigs And Rooftop Trouble

SPEAKER_10 21:29

So anything we have it plugged? I feel like we should plug something else. We're doing anything else.

SPEAKER_05 21:32

One of the coolest shows I ever played for two songs was on top of the Waffle House in Oconee County. And the cops came and they were a buzzkill and made us get down.

SPEAKER_06 21:41

And did you get down?

SPEAKER_05 21:42

Yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_06 21:44

We've all come here to get down. Did you get up to get down? We attempted to get up to get down.

SPEAKER_05 21:49

We attempted to continue playing snakes on a plane and pretend we didn't hear them, but eventually we realized that we should probably hear them. They were like, Are y'all on drugs? And we're like, No, we're in high school. We're just

SPEAKER_06 22:00

No, we're in a Waffle House.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

We thought it was a good idea to put our base amps up here. And they told us we could, the like cooks, but I was like, my dad's a defense attorney in Athens. I was like, we cannot tell them that the cooks said this was okay. They will definitely get fired. So we were like, no, we just did that. And they were like, why? And we're like, children make poor choices sometimes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_07 22:23

So let's rewind. You said bass amps. So this is two bass players?

SPEAKER_05 22:28

No, no. Sorry. We put the bass amp up there. We put the keyboard. We put the guitar amp. It feels like bass amps when you have like drums going up and then you get to play two songs. We got Where's My Mind? The We got to do Wannabe by Spice Girls. And then we were halfway through Snakes on a Plane, and he was like, Get down? Because he was like kind of mad, but also confused as to why this was happening to him. You know? Like, what they thought there was like a party back there, and there was like it's just kids on the roof of the waffle house. That's good when finally the cops are like, that's enough, but they could have given us like a couple more songs, you know.

SPEAKER_10 23:03

They could have given especially young kids on top of the waffle house. You're not really.

SPEAKER_05 23:06

Yeah, Baxter Cons Legend of Zelda. It was a good lineup. They didn't even like the cards. We had like 30 high school students out there, like, probably ready to get some scattered smile afterwards. I think we're really cool.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

You too doing where the streets have no name.

SPEAKER_07 23:21

So my band played this uh this party. You played Waffle House too, and you learned to fight very similar. So we played at this party, uh, senior year of high school called Creechomania, which was this guy named I think Jason Creech, and he'd have this party every year. And I don't know if his parents were out of town or whatever, but he had a pool and kegs and this huge party. And my band was playing, and the cops showed up. And so we happened to be playing Dream On by Aerosmith. And I'm at kind of that part where it's like before it kicks back in at the end. And the cop, everybody's one by one stopping playing, and I'm not gonna stop. And the cop is trying to shut my amp off, can't figure out which buttons to which buttons gonna do and finally, finally he does. You know, the sound of an amp shutting down, it kind of keeps going for a second, browns out. Yeah, and and somewhere I've got a VHS of that. My brother had a video campus.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

No, there's just something about like being a kid and like getting right up to that line where you're gonna get arrested and then like not, yeah, but you know, when you're like that close, they're real not happy with you at the moment, but they know this is not the paperwork for them tonight.

Jam Bands And Long Song Love

SPEAKER_08 24:30

The taste of deviance never gets older, it just gets a little bit safer.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

So, you know, the Grateful Dead, you know, after Jerry was gone, all these different incarnations, and you know, with the last being Dead and Company, and O'Teal played. You know, I saw Dead and Company countless times. Um in 2023, because it was the final tour. I went to Atlanta, New York, Boston. Boston was the best show by far. Fenway Park, it was it was great. But I love O'Teal. I didn't know much about him. I learned about him once I started listening to him in Dead and Company. Yeah. And he is he's just such a fantastic player. He's a monster, no doubt. It just just really good. I love Jeff Trementi, the piano player. I think he brings something to a song that is just unfreaking believable. Yeah, big ears on that guy, yes. Yeah. So, well, I just find it funny how Jimmy, as a younger person, didn't you know, thought it was cool to write a I Hate the Grateful Dead song, and then he's playing Grateful Dead song.

SPEAKER_05 25:37

I think that's super cool, Jimmy. Thank you. I look up to that a lot.

SPEAKER_07 25:40

It was a fun song.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

Because I like to keep them on their toes. That's right.

SPEAKER_07 25:43

I Hate the Grateful Dead. No, but the song that we played is uh Friend of the Devil.

SPEAKER_10 25:48

Well, American American Beauty and Working Man's Dead are different albums. I do like those two specifically. I don't hate the others, but those two are very it's almost like a different band. Anyway, I digress.

SPEAKER_07 25:56

And we did I I Know You Rider, which isn't a Grateful Dead song, but it's a song they did a lot.

SPEAKER_06 26:01

Yeah, they did it a lot. Yes.

SPEAKER_10 26:03

I should say that like half of our lineup for uh Athfest is in the biggest, one of the biggest Grateful Dead cover bands in the Southeast called Cosmic Charlie. Our drummer Caden Stanley, who's a principal member of our band, is in Cosmic Charlie. Shelly Lotus, who sings uh background and sings the siren vocal vamp in Tugboat, the woa woa-woo woos. She is in Cosmic Charlie. And Walt Austin, who plays on four of our five songs on the album, is the keyboard player in Cosmic Charlie. So we got half of Cosmic Charlie at At Fest. Cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

There you go. Isn't that great? Might have to do a Grateful Dead song.

SPEAKER_10 26:37

So we can only well, we won't, but you know.

SPEAKER_05 26:40

With those, you just gotta watch my attention span.

SPEAKER_06 26:42

Yeah, just keep just keep your ears open. I'll I'll start Bertha. I do love Bertha, doesn't it quite?

SPEAKER_05 26:47

I'm just gonna watch my attention span with Grateful Dead because I'll be like, I think we've just been going da-da-da. That's my millennial take. Well, there's like a 17-minute Almond Brothers band song that I was listening to on repeat for a little while.

SPEAKER_06 27:05

It was like whipping post or something. They've got several, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 27:09

Mount jam's a whole side, is the 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_05 27:11

You know, ours is only like eight and a half minutes, so that's right.

SPEAKER_10 27:14

Well, our record is 10 in a well, we got walking sweet and then hidden track. Yeah, we got a couple that are pushing ten. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:20

Because we kind of cut me out, because I mean the the jams are just like because I've never been like jam person, but when they go places, then and it's kind of like a new vocalist kind of took over. It gets really like I I like the sensory things of that.

SPEAKER_10 27:37

And now we got Natalie Joe Smith in the band for this uh for Athes as well. So we have an extra I say colorist, but she's just uh our flute player, and um um she's she she works at uh the university in the music department as well. The choir can't remember her exact title, and I don't want to butcher it, but she's up there. But yeah, her so she and Valer uh get to get to be kind of the icing on the top for this gig. Um, and that that's just so cool that we we haven't gotten to play live with a flute yet.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

So I think the icing on the cake is when I'm the dance interpreter uh for you of how I feel the music's going and dancing. You guys haven't seen Jim dance.

SPEAKER_05 28:15

I think that we need a representative such as yourself to lead the dance of people like guys. No, like this is okay. This is that's right.

SPEAKER_06 28:23

Always room for performative dance.

SPEAKER_05 28:25

Expression.

SPEAKER_06 28:26

Can we put you in the go-go cage? Yeah, I would do that. You gotta work for that money now. I I would do that.

SPEAKER_10 28:32

40 watt go-go cage. I feel like there may, I may come on, yo. Come on, yo. Come on, Bob. I'm trying to go all the way back in my 40-watt timeline, and I feel like I've seen a go-go dance box up there. So maybe it was like Mike Watt or something.

SPEAKER_07 28:45

I have a small python. There was a place called the Rockfish Palace back in the 80s that had a go-go cage.

SPEAKER_10 28:51

Okay, okay, but that's predates my time. But there, it was something weird. It was like a Perry Farrell or Mike Watt, and they brought a go-go cage and somebody go-go. They were like, wait, the 40-watt ceiling's only 10 feet tall. It's gonna be really difficult.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

I've been listening to Mike Watt a lot lately. Ball hogger tugboat's great. That's great. So that is like a slightly famous somebody's, except they're all really famous, and they're everybody's on that album. Everybody's on their album. Everybody's on their album.

SPEAKER_05 29:18

They're like hiding from the fame. They're like, please just let us have some fun here for they pretty much. That's exactly what don't tell me what to do for a second. Exactly.

Eat A Peach Cover Backstory

SPEAKER_03 29:25

Yeah, but I the album is it, I think the album is a really good album. Have you ever listened to that one, Valor? I have not. No. You know what? There's so many different people on there. So take a look at it, listen to it, see who's playing. It's a pretty good album. So speaking of albums, I know that you don't like to bring it all up, but I'm gonna ask the question. My question is I have a daughter named Jessica. Yeah. And so I love the song Jessica, but once she was born, that became like, oh, I gotta play this song, you know, I gotta play my music. I don't want to just play these nursery rhyme things to them. I also played the 1996 Summer Olympics CD that came out.

SPEAKER_05 30:04

I was really lucky you grew up. She grew up when she did, because it the internet has ruined those chances for me. I believe it's blippy, Ms.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Rachel, and I'm gonna have to check that out. So Jessica, and I think that everybody in the world, whether you know it or not, knows Rambling Man. All right? Yeah. So yes, you're on the cover of the album. Correct. Was the picture taken for the album, or was the picture just taken, and then they're like, hey, why don't we put this on the album cover?

SPEAKER_06 30:36

I was actually just on the phone today with Flornoy Holmes. Oh, yeah, he's my neighbor. He lives across the street. Okay, yeah. So if you don't know Flornoy, it's a small world, ladies and gentlemen. Flornoy was one of the artists who did the artwork for the Eat a Peach album. Oh. So the the big mural on the gatefold uh was him and another artist taking turns and creating this big psychedelic mural. I've I'm talking to him for doing some artwork for an upcoming project for me. Um and he said that he had a great idea for the next album. But he said, no, we've got this idea of we're just gonna take a picture of all the family. Uh and the reason why they had decided to do that is October of 72. So I was two and a half years old. And apparently we were over uh at the you know, so there's the farm, right? Everyone had property out on the farm. There was it was, you know, dad had a plot, Dickie had a plot, um, you know, we had our house out in Juliet. Uh but we would go to the farm all the time. That's where all our friends were and everything. So we were at the farm. I was feeling sick. My mom gave me some cough medicine. This is a story. I mean, I'm too, I don't remember any of it. That was the good and so I went out to pout.

SPEAKER_04 31:55

That was just whiskey. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:57

So I I you know, I went out to pout because I was I had to take this gross tasting medicine. So I'm I'm out there with the stick, poking the stick on the ground because I and that they took the picture then. So it wasn't staged for the album cover, it's just a picture that was taken that they liked. They put Brittany, uh, who was Barry Oakley's daughter, in the same position, took her picture, and then there's the big gatefold in the middle with everyone. So, yeah, so I I'm not entirely clear on the order of operations there, but I know that that was not staged for the album. So stick face.

SPEAKER_05 32:28

That is so southern, too, to take a picture of your kid that's like, I'm serious, I'm trying to have my own voice, and they're like, That's so cute. And take a picture of it on the album.

SPEAKER_09 32:37

But you're thinking gross.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

But good job, I'm glad they did. Yeah.

Realizing A Parent Was Famous

SPEAKER_03 32:40

I have one more question for Baylor. Okay. When did you realize that your dad was into something that was this big famous thing?

SPEAKER_06 32:49

Well, here's this here's the thing about that. Like I said, I was born in 1970, graduated high school in 1988. The Almond Brothers broke up in 1982, and they didn't get back together until 1989. And if you remember what the 80s was like, nobody gave a shit about the Allman Brothers. That's true. So all of the years, it would have been real nice for me to tell someone, hey, you know, hey, my dad's a rock star, I can get you backstage. Wouldn't that be cool? Nothing. Nothing. You know. Uh there were a few perks, like my sister got to see and go backstage at a Bon Jovi show because we knew the promoter. But mostly no one cared. My first inkling that what he did was important or was important once upon a time. Holy moly.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

Uh, is um ladies and gentlemen, we had some geese flying over.

SPEAKER_06 33:45

There was a Guinness Book of Worlds record that I picked up, and I I used to love looking at all the records and everything. And one of the the record in that for the largest crowd was the 1973 Watkins Glenn Summer Jam, which was a concert held by The Grateful Dead, the band, and the Allman Brothers. And I was like, oh, so Dad is, you know, at the time dad was living at a modest house in Tallahassee and, you know, working at a stereo shop. He wasn't a big rock star, but you know, looking at this at this book, you know, he was responsible, at least partially, for one of the largest well-attended concerts in history. It wasn't beaten until the Us Festival in '82. So um yeah, that was my first inkling that what he did was was kind of huge. And then, of course, you know, I I graduate high school, they get back together, they start touring again, and then things are nice.

SPEAKER_03 34:40

So yeah. I know they used to do the residency at uh the Beacon Theater.

SPEAKER_06 34:46

Yes, I've I've been there several times. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:48

And people loved it, you know. New York loved the Almond Brothers band. Yes. Um I remember when I was a kid, my my uncle had a uh circular poster that had Almond Brothers on it. And I think it might have said eat a peach or something. I don't remember exactly, but I remember every time I'd go to my grandmother's house and go to his room, I'd see it and I'd be like, Man, that's a cool poster. Cool. I like that.

SPEAKER_07 35:11

So you guys have any gigs before the Athfest gig?

SPEAKER_10 35:15

Really, we kind of like this whole like sort of studio band, right, for the most part. And I like the idea of like making every gig super special and kind of rare. Um, you know, I'm not saying we wouldn't do more, but I mean, if somebody threw a bunch of money in our laps to do 3 p.m. at some big ass festival, we will be there. Send your dollar in now. Send your dollar in. Shaky Knees, 420, whenever you are, somebody's boat. I don't know. You want us? We'll be there. Um for sure. But uh, but I like that, and we're like, we're really the At Fest gig just kind of came up, and Laura and I are fully immersed in like all the exciting planning that we're doing for that, and all that. We like to have, I'm not gonna give it all away, but we have little little tricks. We like we just like to make every gig special, and this one's gonna be special for sure. We're already talking costumes and silliness and little little stage moves we can do. And we're always doing practical jokes on stage and stuff, so we're already in all that and just making it special. Um I don't know if my Sailor Moon costume is gonna be here in time. Now, Valer, on the other hand, he is a busy man. I would love to know just for my own personal sake, yeah, so I can keep track and I can make sure I come see you when I have a chance. Yeah, tell us your gigs before Athfest, because you have a number of them.

SPEAKER_06 36:25

Actually, not not before Athfest. Oh, are this the only other thing that I have going on before Athfest is I'm gonna be recording an album with my sister at Muscle Shoals at Fame Studios. The only Muscle Shoals and Fame.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

That's good news for everybody.

SPEAKER_07 36:37

Now, speaking of Muscle Shoals and Fame, I saw the documentary Muscle Shoals, and and they kind of whiffed on the Allman brothers, right?

Muscle Shoals And Dwayne's Hustle

SPEAKER_06 36:45

Well, yes and no. Um the the way the story goes is 1967, my father's in a band called The Bitter End, IND. Uh Dwayne and Greg Allman are in a band called The Allman Joys. The Almond Joys kind of dissolve and reform into kind of this psychedelic rock band called Um The Hourglass. Hourglass gets picked up by Liberty Records and they end up moving to Los Angeles. While they're in Los Angeles, the their promoters basically told them, Look, um, you guys are gonna be the biggest, latest, hottest, but in order for us to build demand, we don't want you playing live. We want we want the to build a mystique around you guys. Dwayne Allman hated that. Absolutely hated that. He's been, I mean, his whole thing is I'm gonna go, you know, you give me a taco and a place to stand, I'm there, you know. I'm gonna go play. Um they used to play in Piedmont Park for free all the time. So he ended up basically saying, Look, screw you, I'm leaving. And he decided he was gonna try and be a studio musician. And you know, where all of the music that he enjoyed the most was coming from was from the Atlantic stuff coming out of Muscle Shoals. So he just basically pitched a tent in the fame studio's parking lot and said, I'm not leaving till you hire me. Wow and uh, you know, Rick Hall signed him, and he ended up working with, you know, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, uh Boss Gags, uh the the duck and the bear, uh you know, 21.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

It's so good.

SPEAKER_06 38:17

Just King Curtis, so many, just you know, all any he was one of the swampers for 1968, 1969. Uh and um and that got to uh a point where you know he he met J-Mo, uh who was the the one of the session drummers and who was also playing with Sam and Dave. Oh and so the two of them got along very well. And then Dwayne was making a big enough splash that uh the record, you know, uh Atlantic Records basically said, We want you to be America's answer to the British guitar gods. Because all the guitar gods were coming out of the UK, the Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton and you know, even even Jimi Hendrix who was born in the US, the the experience is a UK band. So he was gonna so they they wanted to have have him front a trio. And the original trio was gonna be him and J-Mo on drums, wow, and this guy Barry Oakley, who was playing in a band in uh Sarasota. Um when the jams for that and the sessions for that started, more people started coming. Uh Barry Oakley was the bass player, brought the the guitarist from his band, Dickie Betts. Um J-Mo was living with my father at the time, so he brought Butch along, and then the last piece of the puzzle was um, you know, my baby brother is still out in Los Angeles and says, Greg, you need to get over here and join this band. Um, so that's how the Allman Brothers came to be, is it started off as a power trio fronted by Dwayne. I did not know the power trio story.

SPEAKER_09 39:54

So who you got on your Muscle Shawl's fame record with your sister? Um or her record that you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_06 40:00

Yeah, I I don't I don't know that I can say too much about it. Uh though I will say that one of the Swampers has agreed to do a couple of our songs.

SPEAKER_09 40:09

So you got a couple cuts, at least a couple dogs, right? Yeah, you got a you got a you got a godfather? Uh yes. You got a godfather right there. All right, I know. I know. Um but um And you're not covering Blueberry Hill.

Roots Rock Revival And Future Shows

SPEAKER_06 40:22

No. Um so yeah, so that's what I'm doing, and then and then there's the Athfest thing, and then after that, there's Roots Rock Revival, which is the New York, and when that's July? Yep. And then after that, I'm doing some shows in New Jersey uh uh with with my sister.

SPEAKER_09 40:38

Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 40:39

It's the last week in July.

SPEAKER_09 40:40

So last week, and and and this year it's what? It's it's you, Melody and July. And we're going to New Jersey.

SPEAKER_06 40:45

It's well, it's you know, the the the main host, as always, is O'Teal Burbridge, Luther and Cody Dickinson. And it's it's me and Melody and my drummer, Eric Sanders, the the guy from from Far Rockaway, uh, who has played with everyone at Colonel New York. He's yeah, he's he's he's an alum of Colonel Bruce Hampton as well. Um, but this year we've got a couple of members of Ziggy Marley's band's gonna be there. Um Nikki Glasby is our drummer. Of course. Oh great.

SPEAKER_10 41:13

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06 41:14

So you gotta oh, it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 41:15

I can't wait to I've actually never seen you and Luther together, and I'm dying to see that.

SPEAKER_06 41:20

I love Luther and uh three members of the the of the P Funk universe.

SPEAKER_10 41:25

I think we're gonna go enough to New York in July.

SPEAKER_06 41:28

So RootsRockRevival.com for tickets and details.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Unfortunately, that's the end of this episode of Music in My Shoes. And I feel like my shoes have been filled with all kinds of knowledge today. My feet feel heavy, not because of pain or fear, but from just knowing so much more than what I knew when I walked into the room today. Jimmy, what do you think?

SPEAKER_07 41:51

I loved it. This has been so much fun. Thank you guys. Thanks so much for having us.

SPEAKER_03 41:55

Yeah, we're gonna have to have you back on because there's just so much more we can talk about. It's like you don't want to stay in one thing too long. You want to go through all these different things, and I I just had a blast. It was just so much fun.

SPEAKER_10 42:10

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Yo, no, no, thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_10 42:13

I appreciate but come back and explore the sound of Soylent Green.

SPEAKER_07 42:17

That's so funny. We were just talking about Soilant Green last night, my family and I. Yeah. They ended up making a product called Soylent. Yes, they did.

SPEAKER_05 42:27

Yeah, that's the good thing with millennials, we're like Cheetos. Cheetos! Soilent green. I've been told it was a lot, but I don't I keep forgetting because it's not quite as yummy as the kind of like hurting cats, isn't it?

SPEAKER_06 42:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:41

Bye.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

I would like to thank the slightly famous somebody who came. Jonathan Spencer, Laura Slade Wiggins, Valor Trunks, joining us today in studio.

SPEAKER_10 42:52

I can't say enough. Thank y'all so much for having us. And I just want you to know this person to my left, Valor, and this person to my right, Laura Slade Wiggins. I love these two people so much. And they have made my universe in 2026. Thank y'all so much for being right here.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Have they made you slightly more famous? You know, heck no.

SPEAKER_08 43:10

They've made me more than slightly a better human being. I'll take that first.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

You know what? I like that. I like that. I'd also like to thank show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios, Jimmy Guthrie.

SPEAKER_10 43:22

I wasn't sure if he existed until I got here. I was like, is Jimmy a real thing when you imagination?

Thanks Contact Info And Signoff

SPEAKER_03 43:27

This is it. So the studio is located right here in Atlanta, Georgia, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. You can reach us at music in my shoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages. And this is Jim Boj, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. I definitely did for sure. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing. Thank you, Jim and Jimmy. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Thank you. When the last thing fans go out at night, they go to JB for a hot dog.