Week 25 – MUSIC – The Biggest Bands
Two bands that receive the most unqualified votes for memorable local bands are the Original Washboard Band and the Risley High School Marching Band.
The Jug Band Hall of Fame (www.jughall.org) described the Original Washboard Band from Brunswick, St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island as “Nathan Jones, Gravelly voice, thimbles, frying pans and kazoo; Robert “Washboard” Ivory arranger, baritone and kazoo, Norman “Shorty” Feimster, tenor and left handed guitar, and Charles Ernest Jones, slap bass.” The band played for wealthy family parties for the Jekyll Island millionaires and the guests at The Cloister at Sea Island. Local African Americans recall most fondly when they played at the Sea island employees’ Christmas party. Their album Scrubbin’ & Pickin’) was recorded in 1958 on RCA and includes favorites like, “Mama Don’t Allow” “Going to Chicago Blues”, and “Who Threw the Whiskey Down the Well.” Listen to the album on youtube– I promise you will enjoy it!
Few local musical groups call up more enthusiastic memories than the Risley High School Marching Band. During the 1950s and 1960s most high school bands played the same songs in the same routine for football half time shows, but not Risley, and not Band Director Robert Griffin. ”We did a hell of a half time show” recalled Griffin. He orchestrated the newest pop songs so that the band had a new half time show every week. Griffin boasted that “grown men and women still talk about” the time he invited his friend popular American rhythm and blues performer Joe Tex to perform with the band at half time. At any Risley show, alumni reminisced, “You gonna see precision.., a design, a figure.” And always, “We outdid anything Glynn Academy even thought about.” Why? “We stepped, not marched.” The band performed at events around the coast — Georgia Teachers Conference or Savannah State College anniversary. If an event called for a band, Risley was there, and Griffin pointed out, “We didn’t miss a beat.” Alumni recall their favorite parades were in their hometown. Led by drum major and “the stepper of the town” Leon Days, nicknamed “Pretty Boy,” the trees trembled on Albany Street.’
The St. Simons African American Heritage Coalition welcomes your memories about the music and musicians who performed in Brunswick and the Golden Isles. Write harringtonschool@ssiheritagecoalition.org, or call 912-634-0330.