One Magic Night at The Bowery with Alabama, Summer of 1975
The summer of 1975 was a good one for me. I turned 18 on June 24th. I had just finished eleventh grade, and I was ready for a great summer leading into my senior year. I remember buying a lot of great records that year, Marshall Tucker’s Searchin’ for a Rainbow, Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, Charlie Daniels’ Fire On The Mountain.
When my best friend Larry the Preacher’s son announced that a group of us were heading down to Myrtle Beach for a week, I was all in. I remember eating dogs at some 
drive in restaurant the day we got there, and pumping quarters into the juke box. Grand Funk had the non-characteristic but very melodic Top 40 hit “Bad Time (To Be In Love)” and Alice Cooper was in the Top Ten with “No More Mister Nice Guy.” Oh, and then there was Chicago’s “Just You and Me.” But the record I played four times in a row was The Marshall Tucker Band’s “This Ol’ Cowboy,” with Toy Caldwell’s jazzy guitar and scruffy vocal. The music rocked the patio where we sat in the summer sun, drinking Coke and munching Myrtle Beach hot dogs.
After a day in the pool and at the beach, we decided to hit the Grand Strand, and somehow ended up at the world famous beer joint, The Bowery. I remember seeing the poster outside the bar the touted the house band, a group called The Wild Country Show.
The bar was dark and smelled like draft beer and sweat. The audience was a sea of young people in Cheap Joe’s t-shirts, including at least one guy sporting an Marshall Tucker Band shirt. When we sat down and ordered a beer, I was immediately drawn to the band onstage. Three musicians sat up front of the stage on stools, with a drummer behind them. They were doing an amazing cover of Chicago’s “Color My World.” That band would soon become a household name. After a change of drummer and a name change to Alabama, the band would go on to become the biggest selling country music act ever.
Wildcountry performed some originals, and a whole slew of covers, like The Eagles “Best of My Love” and the ever popular “Mustang Sally.” They really got my attention when they closed the set with Toy Caldwell’s “Can’t You See.”
I spoke with Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry on break, and recall them being really down to earth boys. Funny thing, they were just the same in 1991 when I attended their June Jam in their home town of Fort Payne, Alabama on a press pass.
One thing I remember about that night was that this was the very first time I ever heard anyone ever yell “Free Bird.” Randy leaned into the mike and said, “We’ve got your “Free Bird,” at which point he, Teddy and Jeff all flipped off the audience. Pretty funny.
The band was so good, we went back to hear them again the next night. Five or six years later, Alabama would be country hit makers, and I would join my friends The Silver Travis Band for a week long run at The Bowery while house band Slewfoot went on the road. But that’s fodder for another blog.
Like so many others who saw Alabama at The Bowery and at one of their winter shows at Chief’s here in Greenville, I became a fan. I saw them live several times during the eighties and nineties, and they never let me down. Of course, I always managed to bore at least one audience member with my story about The Bowery. Thing is, I have two photos of them I took on my old 110 instamatic camera. When I run across them, I’ll scan and post them. They’re in one of my boxes of thousands of photos from past shows, so it may be a while. Meanwhile, I believe I’ll spin one of my old Alabama vinyl LP’s. It’s all good.
Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.
Buffalo
Comments
rebyll says...
I saw Alabama back around '88 or'89 at Reynolds Coliseum along with Charlie Daniels and Joe 'el Soniea (sic) "Tear Stained Letter". Remember that one?
copperhead says...
You know I love this one being from Mtyle Beach. I played at DUFFYS TAVERN above the Bowery we always went down and listened to them. Our Bass player got busted drinking moonshine they gave him. Here is one for you and ask Jeef Cook about it. Holloween night they played at the Holiday Inn Surfside and where I was Bartending. Jeff wore a Diaper for his costume that night. Now that was a sight. They were so broke at that time they traded me T shirts and a LP for Jack Daniels. Thank you for the great artical. They were and still are a great band. As you said also very good people.