I thought I would kick off a thread to let people tell their music stories. No hard fast rules or guidelines, just write up an interesting story about something regarding music and you. I will start it up.

I live in North West Georgia.  I work for a small company that has their corporate office in Athens Georgia.  I don’t get up there much anymore but for a couple of year, I was there about once every 4 to 6 weeks.  It is kind of a nasty drive with Atlanta and all and I usually could not do my job in a single day so I often stayed over.

Athens is a very interesting place, as many college towns are.  The main street in Athens has UGA on one side of the street and approximately an 8 by 4 block area of restaurants, bars, clubs, coffee shops and outdoor sitting places.  Most of the clubs are empty until 10 to 11 pm.  I guess all the diligent students want to do their studies before the debauchery begins! 

I usually stayed a couple of miles down the street.  I would drive though the nice wooded neighborhoods and park near the 8 by 4 scene.  I usually parked near The Grit, an interesting place to eat with a well known founder and I believe still owner.  I would find a place to eat and then walk around.

One evening on my walk in I went by a block building and could hear loud live music and voices behind a couple of steel doors.  The music was not organized and it did not sound too good either. It was not a club and there were no windows.  I stood outside the doors for a bit and then left. When I got to the front of the building I saw it was a bicycle shop.  It was closed and dark inside.  I figured it was some guys practicing in hopes of making it big as had several others from this small town.  After my dinner and walk I headed back to the car.  I went back by and they were still at it. 

I don’t remember if it was the next trip or the one after but when I went back by the bike shop they were playing again.  This time when I stood outside the doors it sounded a bit better, still muffled but more coherent and I was hearing a unique riff from the guitar. I left and had dinner and walked around town.  I was on my way back to the car and as I was coming up to the bicycle shop I saw two guys get out of a nice SUV with some pizza boxes.  They went around the corner and through the steel doors.  One guy caught my attention because of his hat.  He was thin with very short hair and wearing an odd but familiar hat.  I thought to myself, could that be…no I’m sure it is not.

Several months later I was in the car and a band that I am quite fond of had released a new album after many years.  They were playing the title song of their new album.  I did not care much for the song but there was something about that guitar riff that sounded very familiar!

Cheers

Russ, is this a mystery?    My guess is you saw Slash go into the bike shop and that you're referring to the Guns n' Roses Chinese Democracy album in your last paragraph.

-Nick

Yeah don't leave us hanging Russ!!!

 The obvious guess would be REM since they are by far the most famous band to come out of Athens, but I'm thinking that isn't it. . .  

nbuchen:

Russ, is this a mystery?    My guess is you saw Slash go into the bike shop and that you're referring to the Guns n' Roses Chinese Democracy album in your last paragraph.

-Nick

No, but Hicks should learn to trust his first hunches.

Cheers 

Jason Hicks:

Yeah don't leave us hanging Russ!!!

 The obvious guess would be REM since they are by far the most famous band to come out of Athens, but I'm thinking that isn't it. . .  

You almost won the prize.  It could have been the B52's you know, I'm sure one or more of them has had on a silly looking hat before!  I must admit that I was never any closer than across the street and it was night but the street lights were good enough that I was pretty sure it was Michael Stipe.

Speaking of the B52's, Chattanooga is a real musical town.  The summer is full of music (always with beer) festivals.  The Riverbend festival runs ever year in June, every night from Friday to the following Saturday.  Five or six stages from 6:00 pm till midnight for days with bands of all persuasion.  We have seen a lot of big names there over the years, Collective Soul, Joe Cocker, The Four Tops, Little Richard, Three Dog Night(don't laugh, they put on a good show), several others with many small bands that were just excellent.  Oh I almost forgot, last year we saw the B52's, not one of my favorite bands but it was fun.

Sheryl Crow is the headliner on Friday this year.  

Cheers 

Ah, I forgot that the B-52s were from Athens too, they are indeed a big one, but REM still has more hits I think.

Widespread Panic is another one that comes to mind, but they are definitely a few tiers below either of those bands. 

Here's one of mine:

So I was probably in high school at the time and my family and I were in L.A. visiting my grandma and uncle so we went out to eat at the House of Blues restaurant in Hollywood.  Pretty cool place, they have it done up to look like an old New Orleans bayou.  So after dinner I'm waiting for everyone to pay the check and go to the bathroom or whatever and I head out to the porch, and have a seat while I peruse a local weekly paper.  There's another guy out there on the porch in a suit, but I was just minding my own business and didn't look too closely at him.  A couple minutes go by and my brother (probably around 9 or 10 at the time) comes up to me all excited and says, "Look, it's Dan Aykroyd!"  I look over, and sure enough, it's him in full Elwood Blues get up.  The suit, hat and sunglasses, the whole nine yards.  I think to myself, "That's funny."  Here I was sitting on a porch with Dan Aykroyd, a guy who's movies I've watched over and over (especially Ghostbusters) and I was none-the-wiser! 

So my sister comes out (she must have been 6 or 7) and her and my brother are in full freak out mode by this time, scurrying around trying to scrounge up a pen and paper for an autograph.  Aykroyd looks around and figures out what's about to happen and is having none of it.  He gets up and tries to subtly remove himself from the situation and starts to head for the sidewalk.  My brother and sister, pen and paper in hand, start to follow him and dude makes a break for it.  I'll never forget the image of Aykroyd jogging down the street in an attempt to evade my siblings who are waving their arms around and yelling, trying to get him to come back and sign autographs for him.  Needless to say, he out ran them and no autograph was obtained.