 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
* Reuben's Page *
Rock On Productions
| Reuben "The Lounge Lizard" |
{
}
THE TRIO BANDITOS with Steve Hutter &
Fiddlin' Jessy Daumen
email the lizard...
cooljams@hotmail.com
Fiddlin' Jessy www.fiddlinjessy.com
http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/loungelizard
My Baby Girl, Lana Morgan
click on images to enlarge
Angelina
Reuben and Friends
Reuben and the CoolJams
with Floyd Miles
July 15 2006 at the Band Shell
with Floyd Miles
July 15 2006 at the Band Shell
Fiddlin Jessy Daumen at
The Band Shell
with The CoolJams and
Reuben July 15, 06
The Band Shell
with The CoolJams and
Reuben July 15, 06
Reuben at his "No Worries" CD Release Party
Where all the folkies meet
We used to groove on Gamble Rogers
Watch Steve Goodman smile
You could hear the best damn music
In a thousand miles
Life down on The Bistro, It’s been a while
It seemed like just last year
Jimmy Buffett did appear
“The Great Filling Station Holdup”
“Wish I was somewhere other than here”
We used to groove on Jeff Espina,
Banana Blues Boat Band
We all loved Ray Whitley
And The Silverman
Life down on the Bistro, It’s who I am.
I was born in Macon, Georgia, actually just south of there. They never
locked my daddy in a Macon jail though, he was an attorney.
However, I did wash my hands in muddy water and somehow they
didn’t come
clean. Hence “The Lounge Lizard.’
At 8 years old, before The Beatles, I started picking guitar with my older
brother, David, who went on the next few years to play with local R& B
legends.
He also was with "The Nightwalkers" a Johnny Bee Management
Group along with "The Bushmen" (Rodney Mills) and "The Candymen"
Roy Orbinson's backing band.
Learning early “Ventures” rock & roll, C&W and getting 1st hand
exposure to the R&B scene shaped my early influences.
"Only The Beginning" I was asked to start a band with two older boys,
David Yancey & Bill Rhodes, for several years, we "learned to play"
together, covering everything on the radio as "The Rockets" and then
adding "originals" recorded our first record with "Rondey Mills"
producing as "The Formation Five" Later bands which David Yancey,
my older brother, David Morgan and myself played with in Hawkinsville,
Georgia, are reconized in the "Georgia Music Hall of Fame" in the
"Beach Music" section as "The Tip Tops and "Mark Seven Bands".
Then came a time when with Rusty Jessup, Terry Martin, John
Thompson and "zoom" Steve Gibson started a jam band in
Hawkinsville and it seemed to take on a life of it's own. "Spunk"
managed by Rusty's dad "Ray Jessup", we did some gigs around.
"The Crew" seems a 100 or so "brothers & sisters" doing
a Sunday Park Jams and "out in the field" festival style parties. Still a
few of "The Crew" around with some good memories today. Just ask
Marsha Hartley about those days, you're sure to get a special smile.
Just a hitch hike away, in 1970 I moved to Atlanta and lived upstairs
over a folk music nightclub called “The Bistro” at 1102 West
Peachtree, right next door to “Channel 17” the experimental UHF TV
station young Ted Turner had just started.
At 16 I was working at The Bistro and picking guitars with artists that
would come to play for a week at a time, most of them staying
upstairs as well like, Steve Goodman, Gamble Rogers and young
Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy had one album out that time (Down To Earth
on Barnaby Records), lived in Nashville. He did keep us laughing, and
wondering, with wild ideas and I recall Jimmy, alone on stage with his
guitar, introducing his band as “The Coral Reefers”….. his dream.
After Duane, Gregg and Paul Hornsby got back from California and
Duane hooked up a contract with Alan and Phil Walden, who had
been Otis Redding’s 1st managers hence came “The Allman
Brothers Band” which in all reality was the first born baby of
“Southern Rock”, the southeast was rockin’ and recording contracts
were bought and sold on every corner.
I was running the stage lights at “The Bistro” when Al Cooper came
to town and took a two week gig there playing piano and an ARP
Synth (one of the 1st) and doing the nightlife after his gigs with an
agenda. Warner Reprise had given him the go to start a new record
label. Al asked me directions to “Finocchio's House of Rock” over on
Peachtree, and I went, as he did to hear guys from Jacksonville,
who had been playing around the bars. Hence came “Lynyrd
Skynyrd” who was signed for MCA Records first band. I had met and
heard them previously at “Mothers” and other venues in Atlanta.
A few years later, I was working with an 8 piece band called “Love &
Haight Revue”. We toured the “grits & gravy” circuits giving chance to
meet artists like Al Green, Barkays, Booker T. with Cropper & Dunn of
course. I had the band record a tape of 6 of my songs, with the
horns, at a rehearsal and I took it to a local Macon Attorney who was
getting into the business, Pat Armstrong. He was working with
another band from Jacksonville at that time soon to be “Molly
Hatchet”. Pat liked the tape and signed us on for a management
contract. We were to be produced by “Tom Dowd” and recorded at
Criteria in Miami. In the time leading up to the sessions, we worked
college show band gigs for Armstrong Agency and I was writing for
the upcoming project. The guys in the band decided one night that
30% was too much for Pat to be taking and showed up a few days
later in his office with a pistol in hand to demand out of the contract.
Well,,,,, up in smoke for my project. I saw Pat Armstrong at Volusia
Mall recently when he was attending a “Charlie Allen” show and we
laughed about it as he re-told the story to a friend. Armstrong is in
Orlando now with Parc Records.
Touring with rock bands into the late 70’s was gettin’ rather thin, so I
took a job with a show band that offered better pay and rooms at 4
star hotels for a while. Into the 80’s after playing six week stints on
Bourbon Street, Reno, Vegas and Miami, we went to Houston to re-
group the show band. While there, we were to do jazz on the top floor
restaurant at Stoffer’s Hotel across from the Summit Arena. I
remember partying with Sugar Ray Leonard and entourage the first
week there. While working on my jazz chops and pretty much hating
Houston, the gig seemed to just linger too long, so I took out on I-10,
back to Macon. Chuck Levell was hittin’ with Sea Level and there
seemed to be some good offers still available.
Putting together a new band in Macon, we did some great gigs and
got studio time with my friend Alan Walden, but no great offers. So I
took a gig with “Johnny Rodreguiz” and did some opening act shows
for Waylon, then Willie’s band, and met Charlie Rich, then toured with
him a bit. Our sax player “Rusty Jessup” went with Lee Roy Parnell
which lasted a few years and his memorial tribute is on our site at
www.rockonproductions.us
I missed the beach so much after living in Daytona in the 70’s, and
my two kids were here, so I came “Back to Daytona”. (A song which
was written by my good friends, Floyd Miles and Gregg Allman.) In
the early 1990’s playing in every “hole in the wall” and pool decks on
the beach, I had frequent lunches with the late writer and News
Journalist Tom Tucker. He and I would talk about the Daytona music
scene and a book he was working on.
Finding so much interest in the history of Daytona music and being a
part of the scene, a few local musicians and I started hosting jam
sessions, (now on 10 years) with the "nod" from local Jam Master
Glenn Ring and eventually “The Daytona Musicians Guild” with an
attempt to fuel the fires a bit. Since “The Guild” now folded, two
organizations are currently fueling the scene in the form of
Songwriters Showcases of America and The Daytona Blues Society,
all of these guys former Guild members.
Daytona, while I maintain is still not the entertainment Mecca it has
been or can be, is a great place to live and work as an artist. The
culture and history is enough to feed a strong music scene. The
Blues Society’s keeping the jams alive and Rick de Yampert, our
local entertainment writer is still pumping the up and coming
recording projects and live shows.
Rock On,
Reuben Lounge Lizard Morgan
We used to groove on Gamble Rogers
Watch Steve Goodman smile
You could hear the best damn music
In a thousand miles
Life down on The Bistro, It’s been a while
It seemed like just last year
Jimmy Buffett did appear
“The Great Filling Station Holdup”
“Wish I was somewhere other than here”
We used to groove on Jeff Espina,
Banana Blues Boat Band
We all loved Ray Whitley
And The Silverman
Life down on the Bistro, It’s who I am.
I was born in Macon, Georgia, actually just south of there. They never
locked my daddy in a Macon jail though, he was an attorney.
However, I did wash my hands in muddy water and somehow they
didn’t come
clean. Hence “The Lounge Lizard.’
At 8 years old, before The Beatles, I started picking guitar with my older
brother, David, who went on the next few years to play with local R& B
legends.
He also was with "The Nightwalkers" a Johnny Bee Management
Group along with "The Bushmen" (Rodney Mills) and "The Candymen"
Roy Orbinson's backing band.
Learning early “Ventures” rock & roll, C&W and getting 1st hand
exposure to the R&B scene shaped my early influences.
"Only The Beginning" I was asked to start a band with two older boys,
David Yancey & Bill Rhodes, for several years, we "learned to play"
together, covering everything on the radio as "The Rockets" and then
adding "originals" recorded our first record with "Rondey Mills"
producing as "The Formation Five" Later bands which David Yancey,
my older brother, David Morgan and myself played with in Hawkinsville,
Georgia, are reconized in the "Georgia Music Hall of Fame" in the
"Beach Music" section as "The Tip Tops and "Mark Seven Bands".
Then came a time when with Rusty Jessup, Terry Martin, John
Thompson and "zoom" Steve Gibson started a jam band in
Hawkinsville and it seemed to take on a life of it's own. "Spunk"
managed by Rusty's dad "Ray Jessup", we did some gigs around.
"The Crew" seems a 100 or so "brothers & sisters" doing
a Sunday Park Jams and "out in the field" festival style parties. Still a
few of "The Crew" around with some good memories today. Just ask
Marsha Hartley about those days, you're sure to get a special smile.
Just a hitch hike away, in 1970 I moved to Atlanta and lived upstairs
over a folk music nightclub called “The Bistro” at 1102 West
Peachtree, right next door to “Channel 17” the experimental UHF TV
station young Ted Turner had just started.
At 16 I was working at The Bistro and picking guitars with artists that
would come to play for a week at a time, most of them staying
upstairs as well like, Steve Goodman, Gamble Rogers and young
Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy had one album out that time (Down To Earth
on Barnaby Records), lived in Nashville. He did keep us laughing, and
wondering, with wild ideas and I recall Jimmy, alone on stage with his
guitar, introducing his band as “The Coral Reefers”….. his dream.
After Duane, Gregg and Paul Hornsby got back from California and
Duane hooked up a contract with Alan and Phil Walden, who had
been Otis Redding’s 1st managers hence came “The Allman
Brothers Band” which in all reality was the first born baby of
“Southern Rock”, the southeast was rockin’ and recording contracts
were bought and sold on every corner.
I was running the stage lights at “The Bistro” when Al Cooper came
to town and took a two week gig there playing piano and an ARP
Synth (one of the 1st) and doing the nightlife after his gigs with an
agenda. Warner Reprise had given him the go to start a new record
label. Al asked me directions to “Finocchio's House of Rock” over on
Peachtree, and I went, as he did to hear guys from Jacksonville,
who had been playing around the bars. Hence came “Lynyrd
Skynyrd” who was signed for MCA Records first band. I had met and
heard them previously at “Mothers” and other venues in Atlanta.
A few years later, I was working with an 8 piece band called “Love &
Haight Revue”. We toured the “grits & gravy” circuits giving chance to
meet artists like Al Green, Barkays, Booker T. with Cropper & Dunn of
course. I had the band record a tape of 6 of my songs, with the
horns, at a rehearsal and I took it to a local Macon Attorney who was
getting into the business, Pat Armstrong. He was working with
another band from Jacksonville at that time soon to be “Molly
Hatchet”. Pat liked the tape and signed us on for a management
contract. We were to be produced by “Tom Dowd” and recorded at
Criteria in Miami. In the time leading up to the sessions, we worked
college show band gigs for Armstrong Agency and I was writing for
the upcoming project. The guys in the band decided one night that
30% was too much for Pat to be taking and showed up a few days
later in his office with a pistol in hand to demand out of the contract.
Well,,,,, up in smoke for my project. I saw Pat Armstrong at Volusia
Mall recently when he was attending a “Charlie Allen” show and we
laughed about it as he re-told the story to a friend. Armstrong is in
Orlando now with Parc Records.
Touring with rock bands into the late 70’s was gettin’ rather thin, so I
took a job with a show band that offered better pay and rooms at 4
star hotels for a while. Into the 80’s after playing six week stints on
Bourbon Street, Reno, Vegas and Miami, we went to Houston to re-
group the show band. While there, we were to do jazz on the top floor
restaurant at Stoffer’s Hotel across from the Summit Arena. I
remember partying with Sugar Ray Leonard and entourage the first
week there. While working on my jazz chops and pretty much hating
Houston, the gig seemed to just linger too long, so I took out on I-10,
back to Macon. Chuck Levell was hittin’ with Sea Level and there
seemed to be some good offers still available.
Putting together a new band in Macon, we did some great gigs and
got studio time with my friend Alan Walden, but no great offers. So I
took a gig with “Johnny Rodreguiz” and did some opening act shows
for Waylon, then Willie’s band, and met Charlie Rich, then toured with
him a bit. Our sax player “Rusty Jessup” went with Lee Roy Parnell
which lasted a few years and his memorial tribute is on our site at
www.rockonproductions.us
I missed the beach so much after living in Daytona in the 70’s, and
my two kids were here, so I came “Back to Daytona”. (A song which
was written by my good friends, Floyd Miles and Gregg Allman.) In
the early 1990’s playing in every “hole in the wall” and pool decks on
the beach, I had frequent lunches with the late writer and News
Journalist Tom Tucker. He and I would talk about the Daytona music
scene and a book he was working on.
Finding so much interest in the history of Daytona music and being a
part of the scene, a few local musicians and I started hosting jam
sessions, (now on 10 years) with the "nod" from local Jam Master
Glenn Ring and eventually “The Daytona Musicians Guild” with an
attempt to fuel the fires a bit. Since “The Guild” now folded, two
organizations are currently fueling the scene in the form of
Songwriters Showcases of America and The Daytona Blues Society,
all of these guys former Guild members.
Daytona, while I maintain is still not the entertainment Mecca it has
been or can be, is a great place to live and work as an artist. The
culture and history is enough to feed a strong music scene. The
Blues Society’s keeping the jams alive and Rick de Yampert, our
local entertainment writer is still pumping the up and coming
recording projects and live shows.
Rock On,
Reuben Lounge Lizard Morgan
The Lizard Speaks;
