Georgia Week: Stevie and the Tombstones

The blog's been too quiet for too long, but Stinky and I have been working behind the scenes on Georgia Week. We discovered that we both lived in Atlanta around the same time, and share fond (if fuzzy) memories of local bands and musicians. One of our mutual favorites is The Tombstones, an Atlanta institution fronted by Stevie Tombstone, who still performs as Stevie T. (or did until the coronavirus put a stop to live music).

Back when I first started sparkin' with the woman who would become my wife, she introduced me to the 1988 mini-LP Preachin', Prayin', Guitar Playin' -- the Tombstones' only release during their lifetime. There's a posthumous CD called Twang From The Grave, a digital monument to the Tombstones. Stiv Bators was a Tombstones fan, and Stiv's version of "Nobody" appeared on his Last Race CD.

Georgia Week will feature artists new and old. It's a significant state in the history of popular music. Some of the first country music was recorded at Atlanta radio station WSB, including Georgia natives Fiddlin' John Carson and the Skillet Lickers. Rev. Thomas Dorsey pioneered gospel music after turning away from secular music (like another Georgia native, rock & roll founding father Little Richard). Ma Rainey, the Mother Of The Blues, began her career in Georgia. Ray Charles is widely considered the progenitor of soul music. Athens, GA played a central role in what is sometimes called college rock, and Atlanta is a mecca for hip hop. I could go on.

Georgia has been in the news frequently in the past few months, sometimes for  good reasons and other times not. I've lived more than half my life here, and have seen some musicians rise to international fame while others (often just as talented and deserving) have struggled to break out of the local scene. There will be some of both here in the next week or so.