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Not quite a year ago, I
was introduced to a new 'Internet band' from Jacksonville.
The sound was big, VERY Southern, refreshingly new, yet
familiar. It was almost as if you were listening to a
combination of your favorite all time Southern rock bands.
I took a listen to their entire CD The Boogie Man posting
a review in November of last year. After contacting
founder John Lanham (aka The Reverend Sam E. Tarry), I
found out that the familiar sound was more than likely
ingrained in Lanham's songwriting and playing style since
childhood, since he was performing in bands with founding
members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special while they were
all still in junior high and high school. Revival of the
Graveyard Boogie Band happened mainly because of the
Internet and the ability for gifted songwriters and
musicians to reach the masses that are interested in their
specific genre of music. Overwhelming response at MP3.com
has generated over 30,000 downloads, and inspired Lanham
to put the pieces back together of a band that barely
missed opportunities of fortune by fate and hard luck. I
felt his story and how the current incarnation of The
Graveyard Boogie Band came to be, was too enticing of
story not to feature, and have looked forward to this
interview for nearly 12 months.
<HotBands> Hi John. The first place I like to
start is at the beginning, to give a chronology of how you
got to where you are right now. Where were you first
exposed to music, when did you first start playing guitar,
etc. ?
<Rev. Sam> My father was in the U.S. Coast
Guard and was a Chief Petty Officer so he usually managed
the NCO clubs as well as the commissary (he was a cook).
He was a back-woods Georgia “Redneck” but, what a
guitar player. He could play anything from Chet Atkins to
Merle Travis and then hit you with some Andre Segovia and
Carlos Montoya. He always took care of the music at the
clubs so he would gather whatever he could find on the
bass and form the band to back him up. When I was 10 he
came home one evening from work with an instructional
record album called Learn to play the Brushes. It had a
round piece of cardboard glued to the back (it simulated
the head of a snare drum) and had two brushes. One played
the record and followed the direction given. He calls me
into the living room and gives me this and tells me to
learn it. To this point, the only world I knew was
baseball, although, for some reason unknown to me at the
time, Maureen O’Sullivan was starting to look different
to me.
<HotBands> So
you were exposed to music from the get-go from your
father?
<Rev. Sam> I was! I did as my father ordered,
and found myself at the club with my mother by my side. I
was scraping these brushes across a piece of cardboard in
time to the music. It was actually fun. In 1964, the night
The Beatles debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show, my whole
world changed!
<HotBands>
I remember interviewing another artist that said that
exact same thing (about the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan
show). I wonder how many people that impacted in the same
way
<Rev. Sam> Just about everyone of my
generation was impacted in one way or another by The
Beatles, but my dad hated them so I had to pretend to like
his music instead of the Beatles in order to get him to
show me some things musically. I have never learned
anything so fast in my life. In 6 months I was playing,
somewhat, Beatle songs with other kids who were trying to
learn and play. A year later I made my first $10 playing a
Coast Guard picnic. That was when I knew that being a
professional musician was what I wanted to do. We moved to
back Jacksonville Florida which is where my uncle Ray
lived, so I got to be with my cousin, Butch Lanham, who
played guitar as well. He had an old Silvertone guitar
from Sears and the amp was actually in the case. You
simply opened it up, stood it up, plugged in and turned it
on and you were ready to Rock and Roll. It was just the
two of us playing at Thomas Jefferson Teen Club off Bulls
Bay Hwy. every Friday night. One day Butch came to the
house and said he met a guy who played bass. His name was
Leon 'Thumper' Wilkeson. As I understand it, he was called
Thumper because he lived in a housing development where
all the streets were named for Disney characters and he
lived off Bambi Lane and he patted his foot when he
played. We went to his house that evening where he had an
organ player and a drummer. Man, we had a blast. The next
day Butch brought a drummer named Jerry Shelton from
Marrietta where we lived. We had a band for a while
playing the teen club and churches. When Butch graduated
to High School (he was six months older than me) I was
stuck at Stilwell Jr. high which is where I met Donnie
Vanzant. He was a pretty good singer, and he asked me to
play in his band so I did and we had a pretty good time
playing the sock-hops and teen clubs.
<HotBands>
So you were playing the local clubs from Jr. high school
on with some pretty big names back when they were kids!
<Rev. Sam> Butch came to the house one day
and asked me if I would be interested in forming a band
with he and Leon and they were gonna call it The King
James Version and they were going to travel and make some
money. I said heck yes. Then, something happened that
changed my life forever. Butch bought the new “Tiny
Tim” album and brought it to the “Biff Burger” on
Lane Ave. where we worked and sat it up on the ice
machine. He left before I did and I noticed he left it
there. I thought…I’ll just take it home and listen to
it and bring it back the next day since Butch was off, and
he'd never know. I was listening to it in my bedroom when
I could hear my younger sister yelling down the hall
“Johnny’s playing hippy music!” Bang! The door
opened and it was my redneck father. He grabbed the record
off the turntable and broke it over his knee. When Butch
came in to work and asked where his album was, I told him
I didn’t know. He figured the day guy took it.
<HotBands>
I can relate. I have a father that did the exact same
thing to one of my records when I was in high school.
<Rev. Sam> That night Butch called my house
for me but, I wasn’t there and my mom told him what
happened to the album. The next morning Butch got on, he
walked right up to me, punched me in the eye and kicked me
out of the band. I was devastated, and in 1968 I moved to
Palmetto Fl. to live with my aunt and uncle. Butch was
popular and had an influence on people. When he kicked me
out of the band it was hard for me to the point of leaving
Jacksonville for a while just as everything was getting
started
<HotBands>
I'm wondering why he wasn't more understanding, being your
cousin and all...and over a stupid record. So did you keep
playing after that first band divorce?
<Rev. Sam> Yeah. In 1969 I met a blues harp
player named Dave York, AKA, Rockbottom. He introduced me
to some musicians and we started learning some tunes. We
ran an add in the news paper for a drummer as we didn’t
know any. One guy resonded to the add. His name was Larry
Klophenstein who was a mortician by trade. He pulls up in
this 1955 hearse he bought from the funeral home and
starts unloading drums. That was the original “Graveyard
Boogie Band”. In 1970 I left them and went back to
Jacksonville and met back up with Donny Vanzant where we
formed a new band. I was a guitar player who could play
bass and since there wasn’t a bassist around, I was it.
I got a bass and amp from my dad and began playing bass.
One day Donnie came to rehearsal and said the bass player
in his brother’s band “Lynyrd Skynyrd” was looking
to make a change. Donnie and I loaded up in Don Barnes
“Hav-A-Tampa Cigar” van and drove to Gainesville Fl.
where they were the opening act for “The Blues Image”.
When they left the stage Donnie went over and talked to
Larry Junstrom and he decided to come and play with us. We
were playing at Art Heisan’s Comic Book Club downtown
which was a bottle club that didn’t close until six in
the morning. One night while we were on our last brea,k I
went into the bathroom to roll myself a joint. I stuck it
in the back of my ear and forgot about it. When we
finished our set,I walked out on the street to go back to
the hotel and a beat cop stopped me and asked me what was
behind my ear. Thirty days later I got out of jail with
time served. I had one phone call and one friend with a
phone so I called him to let the guys know where I was and
to pick up my equipment and take it to his room. When I
got out, the band was gone and so was my friend. Leon went
on to be the bassist in Lynyrd Skynyrd and Donnie went on
to form .38 Special. I just traveled around from that day
on in different bands and never had those opportunities
again.
<HotBands> When
Lynyrd Skynyrd got big, where did your music take you? Did
you pursue it, or did it take a back seat in your life?
<Rev. Sam> I always pursued it. That sort of
music took the back seat and if you weren't already
established, no one was interested.
<HotBands>
So was it the internet that opened the door for you or do
you think that music goes in cycles and that your 'sound'
is ripe again? The re-birth of the Graveyard Boogie Band
seems to be largely in part to the Internet and the
ability to reach a targeted audience for your music.
You've had over 30,000 downloads of your music there, and
I was wondering what type of inspirational direction that
has given you.
<Rev. Sam> Touring is what I propose to do. I
have so much money tied up in equipment right now I'm
drowning and I can't swim anyway. As far as why the rise
in the popularity of our sound is probably a combination
of the the fact that Classic Rock stations are springing
up every where and Southern Rock is slowly on the rise
again.
<HotBands> You started the Graveyard Boogie
Band (again) in your basement, but now it's grown into a
band. How did that happen?
<Rev. Sam> Well I started the whole thing by
simply wanting to record my music I've written over the
years for my grandchildren. I put them up on mp3.com at a
suggestion from a friend and I was amazed at the response.
Now I have a full band playing this music and we are ready
to go. The internet has opened up a whole new world for
guys like me. And if it weren't for guys like you no one
would know who I was.
<HotBands> Who is in the band, and what do
they play, etc?
<Rev. Sam> John Lanham (1st Lead Guitar,
Slide and Acoustic Guitars), Ruth Lanham (Bass Guitar),
Jaraid Filion (2nd Lead Guitar), John Nimms (Rhythm and
3rd Lead Guitar) and Neal Hersey (Drums). Jaraid is self
taught and has been playing in his bedroom for about 7
years. John Nimms has been playing about 10 years but not
much else. Ruth has been playing about a year here at home
helping me. Neal Hersey has been playing about 17 years in
various bands around town.
<HotBands> What is the future direction of
the band?
<Rev. Sam> We are getting ready to re-record
the CD, and we're writing new material and rehearsing to
stay sharp. We hope to go as far as we can go with this.
I'd love to have it become a full time endeavor.
<HotBands> Between 1970 and now... were you
in original bands, cover bands, or mostly just working the
day-gig and supporting a family?
<Rev. Sam> I've played with recording artist
Great Bear and have done some studio work. Mostly it was
cover and Blues Bands that gave me enough to make a living
and feed the family. I retired from the music business in
1993 and got a day-gig.
<HotBands> So you were a full time musician
till 1993 and now your back at it again. It's never too
late for success, and stories like yours make news because
you champion a whole generation of baby-boomers by
reliving the music stories of yesteryear.
<Rev. Sam> I hope I can do something good
Patrick.
<HotBands> If you have anything to say to
readers of our site that may be of inspiration to a band
or artist, what would it be?
<Rev. Sam> The same old thing but, probably
the best advice one could receive: Never give up, and give
more than you feel you can.
Visit Graveyard Boogie Band at: http://www.soundclick.com/thegraveyardboogieband
and also check out the rockin' GBB website out at www.thegraveyardboogieband.com
Graveyard Boogie Band
performing with MTB at the
Suwanee Campground.
dreviews@muzikreviewz.com
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