| "Cornbred" was the name used to designate
our electric country band during the early and mid-1990's. It was a rather
loose knit organization because we didn't play with enough regularity
to keep musicians committed to being available. Joe Spann had put together
his own group with some fellas from the Dade City area and was unavailable
for the weekend gigs and since I really liked playing acoustic rhythm,
I found myself in need of a lead guitarist. The band sported a variety
of personnel during the first half of the decade including: Roman Whitney
and Bunky Jackson on lead guitar; Mickey Merritt on piano, Tammy Hatch
on utility keyboards and Joey Foley sang lead vocals. Fortunately, drummer,
Rodney Price, hung in there with me for the duration and between he,
Nancy and myself, we managed to keep a pretty solid rhythm section. When
Mickey was on piano - it could be awesome. Joey Foley and I usually swapped
off on the lead vocals.
We had worked with clogging sensation, Joey Foley,
while we were all working at Boardwalk & Baseball. He was always
good at pickin' up gigs and even provided some jobs himself -- in the
form of his semi-annual Clogging Hoedowns that he promoted in order to
raise funds for his Midnight Cloggin' Express dance team's annual pilgrimage
to clogging Mecca, Maggie Valley, up in North Carolina.
One venue Joey brought to the table was a non-alcohol
club in Haines City called "Southern Country Danceland". They
had classes that taught the line dances that were so popular at that
time as well as the two-step and other traditional moves. The owners
were friendly and it was a good atmosphere to work in even if the money
was not all that great. Since Joey was the one with the contact, he acted
basically as the front man for the shows. He would do most of the contemporary
country hits and I would fill in with a few of my old classic favorites.
While we used the name "CornBred" for a
lot of the electric country shows we played during the early and mid-90's,
we did occasionally use "The Dizzy Rambler Band" autonym if
we thought the name recognition would make a difference. For the most
part, DRB was reserved for our acoustic act that was usually more
bluegrass oriented.
CornBred Country Blues Band Photo
Gallery
Click Thumbnails for larger images
SCDL Poster 1995 |
Carl Chambers |
CornBred Onstage |
CornBred |
Midnight Cloggin Ex. |
Dancers |
Mickey Merritt |
Nancy Chambers |
Roman, Joey, Carl |
Roman Whitney |
Tammy Hatch |
Angel Shumate |
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