Vote! Southern Rock Hall of Fame 2020

 

SOUTHERN ROCK HALL OF FAME VOTE 2020 SOUTHERN ROCK HALL OF FAME 

Hi gang. It’s time to add to our inductees into the Southern Rock Hall of Fame and we need YOUR

VOTE! Please follow the simple rules to make your votes count! Randomly selected voters who

follow all of the rules will be eligible to win one of several very cool PRIZES.

To Vote.

1. Choose from our list of 2020 nominees. Type out your choices clearly.

2. Be sure to take note of who and what albums are already inducted from the past two years.

Once they are in, they are in. They no longer need your vote.

3. Be sure we have your REAL name and your email address. Each reader can vote only once.

Duplicate voting will disqualify.

4. ONLY VOTES received at our email address will count, not Facebook posts, Twitter, etc. Send

your votes to mailto:kudzoomag@yahoo.com In the subject line write “Vote.”

Thanks for voting!

SOUTHERN ROCK HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES THUS FAR

BANDS

The Allman Brothers Band (2018)

Lynyrd Skynyrd (2018)

The Outlaws (2018)

The Marshall Tucker Band (2018)

The Charlie Daniels Band (2018)

38 Special (2019)

Wet Willie (2019)

Molly Hatchet (2019)

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS

Otis Redding (2018)

Elvis Presley (2018)

Charlie Daniels (2018)

Stevie Ray Vaughan (2018)

Toy Caldwell (2019)

Tom Petty (2019)

SIDEMEN

Duane Allman (2018)

The Swampers (Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section)

(2018)

The Honkettes (Lynyrd Skynyrd; JoJo Billingsley,

Cassie Gaines, Leslie Hawkins) (2018)

Memphis Horns (2019)

Pete Carr (2019)

INDUSTRY

Tom Dowd (2018)

Phil Walden (2018)

Bill Graham (2018)

Paul Hornsby (2019)

Frank Fenter (2019)

Jimmy Johnson (2019)

RECORDINGS

(2018)

At Fillmore East - Allman Brothers Band

Pronounced - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Where We All Belong Marshall Tucker Band

Laid Back - Gregg Allman

Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek & the

Dominos

The Outlaws - (Debut)

Strikes - Blackfoot

Brothers & Sisters - the Allman Brothers Band

Second Helping - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Molly Hatchet- (Debut)

(2019)

One More from the Road – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Fire On the Mountain – Charlie Daniels Band

5’ll Getcha Ten – Cowboy

NOMINEEES 2020 (BELOW)

BANDS (Vote for Four) 

Sea Level 

Blackberry Smoke 

Blackfoot 

Gov’t Mule 

Doc Holiday 

Skinny Molly 

Black Oak Arkansas 

Point Blank 

Winters Brothers Band 

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS (Vote for Four) 

Bonnie Bramlett

Duane Allman 

Ronnie Van Zant 

Danny Joe Brown 

Tommy Caldwell 

Hughie Thomasson 

Chuck Leavell 

Gregg Allman 

Charlie Starr 

SIDEMEN (Vote for Three) 

Barry Lee Harwood 

Eddie Hinton 

Spooner Oldham 

Paul Hornsby 

The Williettes 

The Black Bettys 

Bobby Whitlock 

INDUSTRY (Vote for Three) 

Rick Hall 

Jerry Wexler 

Col. Tom Parker 

Willie Perkins 

Alan Walden 

Pat Armstrong 

RECORDINGS (Vote for Three) 

Eat a Peach – Allman Brothers Band 

Marshall Tucker Band – (Debut) 

Dose – Gov’t Mule 

Hurry Sundown –Outlaws 

Murmur-REM 

Rock Your Socks Off-Bobby Whitlock 

Dog Eat Dog-Chris Hicks 

Idlewild South – Allman Brothers 

Eye of the Storm-Outlaws 

Leave a Scar Live-Blackberry Smoke 

Flirtin with Disaster 

SIAGO- Blackfoot 

Let it Flow-Elvin Bishop 

Saddle Tramp-Charlie Daniels Band 

Black Oak Arkansas (Self titled) 

You must vote in every category and the required number of votes in order to be counted.

Our Video Interviews Channel Has Launched!

 

Greetings from Spartanburg, South Carolina! 

I hope you guys have seen our new You Tube Channel, “Ambassador of Southern Rock.” We are posting video interviews and there will be much more content forthcoming! PLEASE check it out and PLEASE hit the SUBSCRIBE button so you will know whenever we post something cool and new! 

Below are direct links to our most recent interviews! Thanks for reading/watching/listening! 

 Main Channel Page https://tinyurl.com/ASR-tube 

 Roger Earl (Foghat) https://tinyurl.com/ASR-RogerEarl 

 Freddie Salem (The Outlaws) https://tinyurl.com/ASR-FreddieSalem 

 The Boxmasters (Billy Bob Thornton/JD Andrew) https://tinyurl.com/ASR-Boxmasters 

 Chris Kelley of Tennessee Champagne

 Mad Dogs and Englishmen Photographer Linda Wolf http://tinyurl.com/ASR-LindaWolf 

 Billy Crain (The Outlaws/Henry Paul Band/Beau Weevils) http://tinyurl.com/ASR-BillyCrain 

 Bob Burns (Lynyrd Skynyrd) KUDZOO KLASSICS Audio Interview https://tinyurl.com/ASR-BobBurns

 Keith “Jughead” Johnson, Original Molly Hatchet Road Manager https://tinyurl.com/ASR-Jughead

Thank you! 

New Issue of KUDZOO Magazine

 

The Holiday issue of KUDZOO Magazine launches today! Hi Gang. As always, thank you for reading KUDZOO. Also, thank you to all who listen to our weekly radio Podcast, The KUDZOO Radio Hour (also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more) and watch our new Ambassador of Southern Rock You Tube channel. (Please subscribe to our You Tube channel. 

With this issue, we are pleased to present our interview with Duane Betts talking about the Allman Betts Band and their latest LP, Bless Your Heart. We also present a new interview with a classic Southern Rock guitarist, Billy Crain and an all new interview with Boxmasters guys JD Andrew and Billy Bob Thornton. We talk about the history of the band and their new album Light Rays. Additionally, we dig way back in the archives to present an interview I conducted with singer Maria McKee, solo artist and founding member of the cow punk band Lone Justice. Craig Eason explores a great unreleased Doc Holiday LP, and the Couch Potato column looks at creative wastes of time on TV. 

All of the regular columns return, and we are happy to welcome a new and “tasty” column, “Country Cooking” with Areeda Stampley (wife of country music legend Joe Stampley). Real Southern pecan pie! Yum! There are the usual reviews of CDs and books, and another selection from “Buffalo’s Book Club.” (A Kinky one!) Sadly, we salute some real music superstars we lost over the past couple of months. We list or “20 for 20,” KUDZOO’s best 20 albums of the year. And please VOTE for the 2020 class of the Southern Rock Hall of Fame (page 76). We hope you enjoy the magazine. 

And we wish you “Happy Holidays,” “Merry Christmas;” “Happy Hanukah;” “Happy Kwanza;” “Happy Festivus.” Happy New Year and God Bless America. 

Best Fishes, Buffalo 

Read it Here https://tinyurl.com/kudzoomag40

I Want to Be Moe Like Charlie

Last night I had an epiphany.
Full transparency, I have, like many others, been having quite a rough time of it during 2020. Medical issues aside, the onslaught of bad news had wiped my ever-present smile completely from my face during a year that began with me having the audacity to post “I have a 2020 vision for success! This is going to be my year!” In the words of the late Little Richard, “Shut up!”

The year started off great. I was happy as a clam to attend the great Capricorn Studios relaunch in Macon in December. That seems like a lifetime ago. Same with the book signing I did here in Spartanburg with my friend Paul T. Riddle in January. Then came Covid-19. At first it seemed like a bad dream, but it was, and is real. Add to that the insanity of the world, the unbelievable racial profiling and outright murder of African Americans. Watching Lovecraft Country last night and seeing the way the black folks were treated by white police in the mid-1950’s really shook me to the core. The reason being, it is still happening, 65 years later. On the HBO series, three African Americans encounter some creepy horror movie monsters, but their encounters with Southern white folks are scarier than any monster.

So the killings, the violent protests that followed, along with the loss of jobs, closing of businesses, closing of movie theaters, an end to live concerts and fan attended sporting events – all of that began to wear me down. Badly. Add to that the loss of so many great entertainers and several close friends, it became a weight I wasn’t sure I could shoulder. Depression. Anxiety. Fear. They all came a calling.

After my friend Joe Greene died a couple of weeks ago out of the blue, I started obsessing about my own mortality. I was lying awake at night worrying about death. Yes, I was raised a Christian, and yes, I believe. Still, there was an innate fear that worked its way into my mind every night.
Last night I had a dream. I was talking to my parents, both of whom have been dead for many years, just sitting and talking, and in the dream, I told them that I was full of fear, dread and anxiety, but that I had somehow experienced an epiphany. The fear had washed away and I had come to realize that 63 is by no means a death sentence. Neither are health issues. We all have to die, but there’s absolutely no reason to fear death.

I came to the conclusion that I want to be more like my friend the late Charlie Daniels. Charlie stood up for what he believed in. He did everything in his power to help those in need, and he did his best to spread love and to share his faith to anyone who would listen. Charlie set quite a shining example of a life well lived.

For the rest of my life, whether I live to be 100 or if I burn out like a light bulb tonight, I am going to live every day as if it’s my last. I am going to practice love, more than ever before. I am going to strive to be slower to anger. I’m going to mind my own business. I am going to do better at practicing tolerance for human beings of different races, creeds, religions, political affiliations, or sexual orientation. I am going to walk five days a week. I am going to write every day. I am going to play guitar four days a week. I am going to get out of the house more, socially distance, with a mask, but I getting out of the Buffalo Hut. I am going to call friends. E-mail and texting just isn’t the same. I am going to hand write more letters and read even more books. I am going to strive to be more Christ-like, and be the best man I possibly can. Just like Charlie.

-Michael Buffalo Smith
  August 26, 2020

New Video Interview with Billy Crain

Hi y'all! Please visit my new AMBASSADOR OF SOUTHERN ROCK You Tube channel for upcoming interviews and much more including the brand new conversation with Outlaws/Henry Paul Band guitar master Billy Crain! And PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to the channel to be notified of ALL new posts!

View it HERE!

Say it Ain’t So, Joe

When I was editor of EDGE Magazine in Greenville, SC back in 1991, it was some of the most exciting times of my entire life. My friend James Irwin and I started the free bi-weekly alternative entertainment tabloid that very year, along with help from Charlie Bergman and David Morris. I am sad to say that all three of these great guys would fall victim to the awful HIV demon and leave this life, never to be forgotten by those of us who knew them.

We had joined forced with a few like-minded Greevillians (we were from Tryon, NC at the time, except for Charlie, who hailed from my home town of Spartanburg). Among the many great Greenville folks working with us were the often-hilarious Julie Wickliffe Moss and her husband David (who bought EDGE our first computer!), Mickie Ansel, John Wicklife, Bethany Williams, the late sweetheart Gail Gray, Phillip “Two Beers” Knighten, Gary “X” Arajou, the incredible Millicent Howell (sales director) and many others. Another very important piece of the EDGE puzzle came a bit later when the extremely talented (and impossibly athletic) David Windhorst joined the fray.

Of course, there was one person we hired as a sales rep that caught my eye in a huge way, one Jill McLane Greene. Jill was a dynamo in the sales department and I truly believe she was the reason EDGE kept going for several years until it was sold to Creative Loafing. What a smile. What a southern accent! What beautiful blue eyes. Of course, I immediately fell in love. She told me that she was going through a divorce from her husband Joe, the father of her two tiny children, Benjamin and Hannah.

We began seeing one another. The road was a bit rocky at first, as these things can be during a divorce when one partner “moves on.” But all of that is, as they say, water under the bridge. Before long, Jill and I were running into Joe at all of Ben’s football, baseball and basketball games and at Hannah’s dance recitals and chorus concerts. I started getting to know Joe and found him to be a sweet, loving father and a good man, often very funny, like his father, Papa Greene, who I was also blessed to know before his passing a few years ago. In fact, I grew to loving the entire Greene family of Travelers Rest, SC.

During the years I was dating Jill, 1992-96, and after we married on March 31, 1996, I often spoke to Joe when he would come over to get the kids every other weekend and on Wednesday nights. Believe it or not, he gave me some great advice on life with his ex-wife. A few “pointers,” as it were that actually helped my relationship. Now tell me that isn’t a real man’s man?!

At Jill’s memorial after she passed, I was a bit uneasy. She and I had separated, but I never stopped loving her. Not for a minute. In fact, I held out for hope of a reunion. She and I had started emailing back and forth. She didn’t want me to tell anyone, because she had been dating another man, and she didn’t want anyone getting upset. I truly believe that had she lived, our stars would have re-aligned, and the Moonwoman would once again join with the Buffalo. But that’s another story for another time.

Back to the beautiful memorial service. As I said, I felt uneasy. That is, until Joe and his wife Sandy came in. During the service, I sat with Joe and the Greene family. They welcomed me like one of their own. I will never, ever forget that. Good folks, them Greenes. Joe and I both laughed at some of the slideshow images that were projected on the big screen. Images of his life with Jill and the kids, images of my life with Jill and the kids, a few of her with the new boyfriend. My heart was breaking, but seeing my former nephews Zak and Gabe, and other family members and friends made me feel so much love, and I loved seeing the outpouring of love for Jill. Again, I would not have been able to hold it together had it not been for Joe Greene that night. He was my touch stone. The kids were way too upset. Joe was the calm in the storm.

In later years, I would see Joe at birthday parties for the grand kids, and he was always the same Joe. Funny and kind. I truly realize just how blessed I have been in many ways. One huge blessing was my wife’s ex-husband becoming my friend. How many guys have that blessing?

When my Daughter in Law Austin tested me a few nights ago that “Papa Joe” had died, all I could do was weep like a 63-year old baby. That wonderful smile and kind spirit had moved on to be with his Dad and family and friends in Heaven. I could just see him fishing in the clouds with Papa Greene. Our loss is Heaven’s gain.

New Issue of KUDZOO Published!

An all new issue of KUDZOO magazine has been published! I hope y'all will read it and let us hear from you!

Issue 38 of KUDZOO features an exclusive interview with guitar slinger JACK PEARSON; An interview with former Atlantic Records and Capricorn Records Promotion Man DICK WOOLEY; Allman Brothers Author SCOTT FREEMAN; An archived interview with BONNIE BRAMLETT; Exploring Unreleased albums by the Allman Brothers and Sea Level; Timely articles on both Covid 19 Masks and Racism; Reviews of music, books, DVDs and much more! 

GET IT HERE