Swampland.com

Back Home in Spartanburg with Silver Travis

I first met The Silver Travis Band in 1980, and soon became their sound man and “road manager.”  The band include Mike Satterfield on drums, Joey Parrish on bass, Randall Calvert, an especially hot guitarist reminiscent of Toy himself, Bill Johnson on guitar and Steve Moore on vocals. The late Barry Moore, the singer’s big brother, was their original vocalist before I joined.

Right after I began hanging around the Silver Travis camp- they rehearsed in the same Spring Street warehouse that was used by the early Marshall Tucker Band- they asked Steve Harvey, who, like me,  was several years older, to join on guitar. The band began duplicating the three-guitar sound and double leads created by The Allman Brothers Band.

Shortly thereafter, Johnson departed, followed by Moore. The band auditioned singers, and ended up with Rick Cash, the powerhouse vocalist who was baby brother to area favorite Mike Cash.

With this lineup, the Silver Travis Band went into Creative Arts Studio (later Evans Brothers Studios) in Moore, then owned by members of the Tucker Band, and produced a 45 under the trained ear of friend and engineer Randy Merriman. The single was “Baby it’s True,” written by Harvey and Cash, with a B-side called “Web of Love,” written by Harvey and yours truly.  The record sold well at gigs, and was available all around the Upstate.

When the band Slewfoot, who had inherited the gig following the genesis of the Alabama legend out of a band called Wildcountry, wanted a couple of weeks off from their steady job at the famed Bowery in Myrtle Beach during  the summer of ‘82,  Silver Travis was given the opportunity to fill in. For me, it became quite the performance opportunity. Rick wanted time to talk to fans, and he would let me fill in, doing country songs that were requested.  I sang “Take Me Home Country Roads” five times in one night, and each time, the West Virginia college students tipped us $20. I remember doing Waylon Jennings’ “Just to Satisfy You,” “Family Tradition,” by Hank Williams. Jr., and similar outlaw stuff. Singing in front of those crowds was such a rush, I knew I would do it off and on for the rest of my life.

When guitarist Randall Calvert quit the band in order to spend more time with his wife, another set of auditions were held, and Harvey’s old friend Stuart Swanlund got the gig.  Stuart brought in a fresh new rock and roll feel to the band, and the sound morphed from southern rock to a more blues and funk based rock and roll. Swanlund, along with then wife Mandy, co-wrote many of the band’s songs, and the group began to tighten up very nicely. Then, on a last minute outing in the snow to Virginia, the band bus broke down, the money went away, and the band crumbled.

Calvert went on to play in several bands, including The Regulators with C.P. Owens. Harvey, Cash and Parrish formed a short-lived band called Broken Promise, which featured drummer Mark Burrell, a relative of MTB drummer Paul Riddle and a future Toy Caldwell Band member. Satterfield inherited the family heating and air conditioning business, and semi-retired the drum sticks. Swanlund later joined The Artimus Pyle Band, before settling in with Doug Gray and Jerry Eubanks in the Marshall Tucker Band lineup in 1985.

Then in 2005, the band reunited. For many of us, it was nothing less than a dream come true. Now the group has released their second, and finest yet album, Take The High Road. I went to dinner with bassist Joey Parrish and lead singer Rick Cash, and finally rolled tape on an interview with the singer that I have looked up to for nearly 29 years. Check it out here.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.
Buffalo
 

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