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Virginians
reunite for May 30 concert in Appalachia
IDA HOLYFIELD
> Editor
Forty years after they first gathered to create a dance
sound that would create a regional following, the Virginians
are coming back together on stage in Appalachia.
Mark those calendars for Tuesday, May 30. Get to the
Appalachia Cultural Arts Center well in advance of the 7
p.m. downbeat, and don’t miss a moment of this wonderful
reunion concert, organizer Charlotte Green urged in a Monday
interview.
Green, who has been helping Sue Ella Boatright-Wells
organize the music lineups at Home Craft Days for the past
25 years, couldn’t be happier about the masterstroke of
good luck that brought the band back together, and to the
town for a concert.
Appalachia Centennial Reunion organizer and council
consultant Jerry Strong had contacted Green and asked for
her assistance in coming up with concerts and musical events
that could be staged downtown to help bring life back to
Main Street. But Green said she never dreamed that project
would result in a Virginians reunion.
“I’d been thinking about things we could do that would
bring back memories of happier times, and the Virginians
came to mind,” she said.
Several weeks ago, Green contacted John Collier in Lee
County, a former Appalachia resident and the drummer for the
original Virginians band, and asked if group members had
ever thought of getting back together to play.
They had talked about it, just for fun and memories, but
there’d been no serious discussion, she learned. Would the
band members consider coming to Appalachia’s Cultural Arts
Center to play a short reunion concert? Green asked.
A 1967 photo of the Virginians which had run in The Post
earlier in the year had generated quite a buzz in the town,
Green told Collier, and she wondered if a reunion might be
possible.
To Green’s delight, Collier agreed to call around, and
then band members decided to get back together to practice a
couple of times. Then came the word — they agreed to play
at the Cultural Arts Center on Tuesday, May 30.
The Cultural Arts Center will accommodate about 150 folks,
Green estimated. To help the center meet the cost of
operation, the event will be a fund-raiser. Tickets will be
$5 per person, she noted.
As part of the reunion, and to preserve the wonderful
history of this group, Green asked band member Ron Flanary
if he would write up a history of the band (see story this
page).
The line up for the reunion concert will include Ron
Swindall on guitar, Mark Wooten on bass, John Collier on
drums, Buddy Stewart on trumpet, Ron Flanary doing vocals
and Dave Tipton, on keyboard.
Of the rehearsal, Flanary said, “We had a ball, and after
a lot of the rust came off, we actually sounded quite good,
I thought.” (See first version of the band’s play list,
this page).
Of the performance Flanary said, “You have some old guys,
including a retired school administrator, a high school band
director, chief engineer of a major coal company, and the
Lenowisco Planning District Commission director, coming
together in a manner that only the geezers around here even
remember. There are few people who would associate me with
playing a trumpet and singing.”
But those who do remember truly cherish the memories, Green
noted. “This reunion will be a wonderful gift to the town,
and it’s a great reminder of the years when live music was
an important part of our social lives,” she noted.
The Virginians, folks have said, helped put Appalachia on
the map 40 years ago, and are an important part of the
town’s legacy.
“It’s not about us. It’s about my old home town,
Appalachia,” Flanary noted. “More than ever, they need
some good news to say something positive about the
community. This is about doing something that could bring
back some positive Appalachia memories.”
Reserve your tickets early by contacting Green at Mountain
Empire Community College, 523-7464.
Tickets are $5 each and may be purchased, beginning Friday,
at The Post newspaper in Big Stone Gap, Roy A Green Funeral
Home in Appalachia, and Green’s office on the campus of
MECC. |
Tunes
you may hear May 30
| Coming to the
Appalachia Cultural Arts Stage on May 30 at 7 p.m. will be
the Virginians — Ron Swindall on guitar, Mark Wooten on
bass, John Collier on drums, Buddy Stewart on trumpet, Ron
Flanary doing horn and vocals and Dave Tipton on keyboard. |
Tunes you may be hearing, include:
- “Hello Dolly,” Ron Flanary
vocal, ensemble;
- “Tijuana Taxi,” Ron Flanary
and Buddy Stewart, horns;
- “Mustang Sally,” Ron
Flanary vocal;
- “What I Say?,” Ron Flanary
vocal;
- “Cryin’ Time,” Ron
Flanary vocal with ensemble backup vocal;
- “Salty Dog,” John Collier
on banjo, Ron Flanary vocal and backup;
- “Alfie,” Buddy Stewart on
horn;
- “Girl from Ipanema,” Ron
Flanary vocal;
- “Wood Chopper’s Ball,
ensemble;
- “The Night Life,” Ron
Swindall vocal;
- “I Left My Heart in San
Francisco,” Ron Flanary vocal;
- “Star Dust,” Ron Flanary
vocal;
- “The Preacher,” ensemble;
-
- "Them That Got," Ron
Swindall vocal;
- “Everything I Love,”
ensemble;
- “Indiana,” Buddy Stewart on
horn;
- “Carry Me Back to Old
Virginia,” ensemble.
-
The Virginians
— memories of a Wise County band
Compiled by Ron
Flanary
The Virginians
was the brainchild of Joe Flanary, best known as the
director of the Appalachia High School “Tricky Sixty”
band from 1952 until 1971. Joe had lived a life of music,
and was particularly a devotee of jazz. Beginning in the
late ‘30s, he played trombone in a number of regional
bands in his ome area of eastern Kentucky. However, there
were many other personal stories involved in shaping this
memorable dance band.
After moving to Appalachia, Joe met Glenn Smith, from
Norton. Glenn was a phenomenal musician who had left a
promising career in New York City in the late ‘40s and
early ‘50s to return to his home when his father became
ill. Finding a job as a postal clerk, Smith continued to
play alto sax with other area musicians during that decade.
Over in Pound, guitarist Ron Swindall had developed into one
of the finest musicians from that community, and was a
founding member of another great band, the Wildcats.
For much of the first part of the ‘60s, the Wildcats were
the regular house band at Club Scotty’s, which was located
between Needmore and the Guest River area in Wise County.
Glenn Smith had played occasional gigs with the Wildcats.
The Wildcats also played many other gigs in the area for
proms, TV, theatre concerts, etc. Like the Virginians,
several of the original Wildcats will re-unite on July 1 to
play for a Pound High School Class reunion.
In 1966, Flanary, Smith and Swindall would come together in
a serendipitous union, all motivated to go in new musical
directions as the exciting young sounds of the decade
unfolded.
A few rawboned rookies who heretofore were merely high
school band musicians would join them. John “Danny”
Collier, from Appalachia, joined the band as drummer. John
was a 1964 graduate of Appalachia High School, where he was
a drummer and drum major for the high school band. Ron
Flanary also became a Virginian. Also an AHS graduate, class
of 1966, Ron was an All-State trumpet player in the high
school band. From Norton, William “Buddy” Stewart was
the third member of this group of rookie semi-professional
musicians. Buddy was also an outstanding All-State trumpet
player and a member of the J.I. Burton Raider Band.
Just out of college, Swindall began a life-long teaching
career at Appalachia High School as a biology instructor.
There, he met Joe Flanary, who had learned of Swindall’s
guitar skills. Joe was interested in forming a new band
around some new concepts, so he invited Swindall to join
him.
At the time, Joe and Glenn were playing with a more
conventional jazz band. While the music was good, they could
see there was a demand for rock and roll, rhythm and blues,
and even some country and western that was not their forte.
They could see an opportunity for a band that was extremely
versatile in playing a number of musical genres well — but
it would take the right people. In early 1966, the seeds
that would become the Virginians germinated, and a run of
almost a decade of musical success throughout the central
Appalachian region would follow.
The Virginians became a true variety group. The
instrumentation was initially patterned after Herb Albert
& the Tijuana Brass, but that same lineup lent itself to
Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Ray Charles, James Brown and the
Famous Flames, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Wilson Pickett, Sam
and Dave, Chicago and any other number of groups and musical
styles.
The Virginians all could read music, and played an extensive
“book” of arrangements written primarily by Glenn Smith,
but also by Joe Flanary. Ron Swindall and Buddy Stewart also
scored tunes for the band, including some original numbers.
The concept was an immediate success, and for the next nine
years, the band normally played somewhere every Saturday
night, and sometimes Fridays.
The original lineup of the Virginians thus included Flanary,
Smith and Swindall (all of whom would stay with the band for
the entirety of its nine-year existence, 1966-1974), drummer
John “Danny” Collier, Buddy Stewart on trumpet, Ron
Flanary on trumpet and vocals, and Merle Dockery on bass and
vocals. By 1967, Dockery had left the band, and was replaced
by Carl Hoag. When Hoag left the band in early 1970, Joe,
Glenn and Ron Swindall auditioned a 14-year old bass player
from Norton named Mark Wooten. They were impressed by his
performance and command of the instrument, plus he could
read music (he was a member of the J.I. Burton High School
band). With special permission from Mark’s parents, he
joined the line up, and remained the band’s bassist until
the end.
When Ron Flanary departed the band in April 1970 upon
graduation from college (to take a job in Louisville, Ky.
with Southern Railway), another veteran musician from the
region, Dave Tipton, stepped in to play trumpet. Dave, a
native of Lee County, had also grown up doing dance band
work in the 1950s and early ‘60s, and as director of the
Powell Valley High School band, he was already a
well-regarded friend and fellow musician within the region.
Ron would be drafted into the U.S. Army that fall, so Dave
became a permanent fixture in the band. The following year,
Buddy Stewart was also drafted into the Army, so Paul Dotson
stepped in replace him. Upon Ron Flanary’s return to the
region in 1972, he replaced Dotson.
Other musicians served brief stints with the band, including
Gary Freeman and Mark Jackson on bass, and a number of
different vocalists to cover that portion of Ron Flanary’s
duties during his stint in the Army. These included
“Little Willie” McCrary, Sam Broach, Aaron Ellis and
George Reynolds. Greg Still replaced John Collier on drums
in 1973. Earlier, Bob Moore played some sax with the band
during its formative months.
As with virtually every band, the Virginians ultimately came
to a time of dissolution. That happened in the summer of
1974. Everyone left as friends and lifelong colleagues,
however. The pressures of real jobs, families and other
responsibilities made it increasingly difficult to devote
virtually every weekend to performing somewhere.
At the suggestion of Charlotte Green, some of the former
Virginians were contacted to see if there was interest in
getting back together for a “reunion” performance.
Collier, Swindall, Wooten, Ron Flanary, Stewart and Tipton
were all still living in the area, so after some 36 years
since this particular ensemble last played publicly, the
Virginians will bring back their particular brand of music
on May 30. |
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