Ron's first fascination with recording came because the Ellisons owned a mono tape recorder.  They recorded some of the Shadow's  music occasionally (unfortunately, none of it is still available today), and even though they all knew that it basically sounded somewhat distorted, Ron especially loved the idea of being able to do it.

    In 1960, the band changed in name and personnel... A little more background is necessary.  Sidney Amburgey actually started The Wildcats.  Sidney was a rockabilly piano player who had learned some honky tonk and WW II songs while playing with his brothers Adolph and Jack.  He recognized the talent in The Shadows and wanted to become the leader of this successful group of youngsters.  The band had also been using a high school band sax player at the time, but they decided that he was no longer needed due to the fact that he was unable to keep up and play most of the tunes they were trying at the time, so they re-formed without him.   "Doc" Williams had split some time before this, so they formed The Wildcats, named for the hometown athletic team, the Pound Wildcats.     Also, the Ellison's house in Pound had burned and the family soon moved to Lanham, Maryland, leaving the band without a "frontman".

Fred Adkins had been away to University of Maryland and returned in 1961 to join The Wildcats as a new lead singer.  Fred was popular with the girls because they all thought he looked like Ricky Nelson.

In the spring of 1961, the Wildcats decided to add another member, a very good saxophone player named Kenneth Duncan.  He was an older experienced jazz player and fine musician from the big band era and he loved what the band was  doing and enjoyed playing with them.   Kenny could do it all - rock, jazz, country!  They soon went to McKinney's Recording studio in Johnson City, TN and recorded two songs... Harlem Nocturne, featuring Kenny on Sax, and Fanny Mae, featuring Sid on harmonica.  New recording techniques and effects were coming on the scene for small recording setups.  They had never heard a reverberation unit and it sounded heavenly on Kenny's sax!  The band and others loved the recordings!  Fred and Kenny took the master and went to Nashville to try and open doors for the band.  They met "John R".  They called back and told the guys to be sure to listen as the recordings were played on WLAC in Nashville, TN... the country's premiere blues radio station.  They  were all so excited and thought they were on the way to the big time!  It was not to be.  There were too many factors holding them in the mountains, but...these two songs are available on CD today from the studio.

 Since Fred was to be running the nightclub, The Wildcats all had a permanent job every Friday and Saturday night.  This helped pay Ron's and Donnie's way through college at East Tennessee State as they traveled back each weekend to play.  The downside was that it made the band somewhat complacent due to playing all the time in one place, and that caused them to lose steam.
    Musicians came and went between the years of 1961-1965 as Sid served a stint in the army and Fred went back to college to study law  at the University of Tennessee.  Donnie and Ron continued college at East Tennessee State University and continued to play for a period of time.  Donnie eventually stopped completely, and settled in Glouschester, VA  By this time they were both married.

     Things  were slowly starting to go sour for the Wildcats.  Ron was the last original member  to leave in the fall of 1965.  He was bored with Club Scotty, and even though he enjoyed playing with Gary Freeman, Larry Bolling, Leland Maggard, Mickey Mullins, Jim Dockery and  others, it wasn't like old times. About Larry Bolling though, Ron had this to say, "I called him Labo.  He was a fine bass player and so much fun! We really became good friends during that time and we still are today..."

A NEW BAND...A NEW ERA

    The Virginians band was a variety group, and was notably, and without a doubt, the most important and significant of all musical experiences for all members of the group! The band, organized by Joe Flanary in 1966, played at a host of area concerts, parties, events and proms for a generation of folks who literally loved live music, and loved to hear great vocals as well. The Virginians did not cull any type of music, and became popular for that reason.  Even though the core of their music was the big band sound, when the clients hired them for a gig, they knew that the band could meet their requests for not only Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey type tunes, but  could also provide quality productions of modern jazz tunes as well as blues, rock, pop, country-western, bluegrass, polka, latin and other styles.  The first Virginians crew consisted of Joe Flanary - trombone, Merle Dockery - bass, Danny Collier - drums, Glenn Smith - alto saxophone, Ron Flanary - trumpet and vocals, William (Buddy) Stewart - trumpet, and Ron Swindall on guitar.  Glenn wrote most of the arrangements and in the early days they featured Ronnie and Buddy on trumpets as they played many of the Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass tunes.  The T.B. tunes became the band's trademark during 1965-1967.  The Virginians played all over East Tennessee, Southwest Va and Eastern Kentucky in the country clubs, Moose Clubs, Elks Clubs, hi school proms, night clubs, etc.  The pay was good and they enjoyed themselves.  During the coming years, the face of the band changed many times as school, the army and  work carried members away, but Swindall stayed with the group for nine years, as did Joe and Glenn.  

     Through the years, temporary substitutes and permanent replacements brought many new faces and talents to the Virginians.  With all of this, the basic styles did not change and the sound was still very "identifiable".  In the middle years, the band found themselves traveling further distances more often.  They entertained several times at the Fine Arts Center in Kingsport TN where they met Bill Gamble, another great musician, a clarinet playing lawyer that had a fine group for several years called After Six.  Later, Bud Stewart played in Bill's band for several years.  Bill made the recordings of the Virginians at the Fine Arts Center during these concerts.  They also met Charles Goodwin, a very notable and wonderful jazz piano player who  formed a big band called The Charles Goodwin Orchestra.  Buddy plays with him occasionally today, as he fills in and performs in many places around the area.  Buddy is band director at Norton High School in Virginia.  The pictures below are of some of the other musicians that worked with The Virginians between the years of 1966 and 1974.  

          

<<<<Ron Flanary, front man and lead singer for the Virginians  poses for a picture beside the "Green Onion", our "Roadie" vehicle that carried the equipment in the late 60s.