Don White & Southern Freedom

Desire To Evolve

(Sadly, I have no audio nor pictures to aid in the chronicling of this low-point chapter in my musical development.)

As many musicians have experienced over the years, there comes a time when you just feel like your current musical landscape needs a change.

And after nearly 2 years of playing almost every weekend with the Starlites, that was exactly the situation I found myself in. So, with my newfound bass chops (really unspectacular as they were) in hand, I went poking around music store bulletin boards and came across a gentleman by the name of Don White who was looking for a bass player for his "Johnny Cash Revival" show.

Don had a band aptly named Don White & Southern Freedom. And when I say a "band", I mean that he had a drummer and a little bit of PA gear. No other musicians. Barely a place to live and no car.

So that sounded just perfect for me!

Short Lived

This was my first gig playing only bass guitar. With Laverne, I'd split the night half on trumpet and half on bass. But now I was able to focus all my energies on my new instrument - which was actually pretty difficult in a 3 piece band, playing songs I'd never heard before. (I always thought country music was 3-chord simple, so I was not prepared for the weird-ass changes in a lot of the Cash catalog.)

Don did a drop dead impression of Johnny Cash and put on a great show. But this band was set up for failure from the beginning so I wasn't there very long.

Although Don did provide the band's PA system, his lack of transportation ended up being a way bigger hassle than I had originally imagined. I basically had to pick him up and take him everywhere; to get groceries, run errands, visit a friend, buy guitar strings...you get the picture.

Between the drinking and the blow, the whole thing was just destined to blow up in short order. But it probably was a semi-necessary stepping stone for me.

What I really needed was a band of my own...