Blog Archives
Shades Mountain Air in Anniston this Sunday Evening 5 pm
This Sunday, July 29, I’ll be performing with Shades Mountain Air at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Anniston, Alabama at 5 pm. The concert is open to the public and all are welcome to attend! It is located at 1320 Golden Springs Rd, Anniston, AL 36207. I’m looking forward to being there with Rob Angus, our new banjo player, Don Wendorf, and Brent Warren, who plays with us often. These are all topnotch musicians and we look forward to a great time with the good people of St. Mark’s and the surrounding area. If you’re close to there, come out and join us!
Don Wendorf
xGary Furr
Brent Warren
Rob Angus
Dugger Mountain Update
My apologies to fans who tuned into APTV last night to hear Shades Mountain Air on “Dugger Mountain Music Hall” and saw an older episode instead. Our recorded performance was to play last night but the station changed the program. I will try to find out about the last minute change and give an update about when our show will air. I apologize to our friends and fans, especially if you sat up past your bedtime!
Thank you for your understanding. UPDATE:
Got an update from APTV, who decide about shows on the schedule change. The producers could not get the program ready in time for last night’s broadcast. They have to edit an hour aand a half show down to 30 minutes, and it was not quite ready. Therefore, Shades Mountain Air’s episode has been rescheduled for July 25, 2017.
Meanwhile, those of you who watched last night got to meet Chris Golden, who is the son of William Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys (the one with the long beard!). He is a wonderful drummer and musician in his own right. Here is Chris’ song called “Thank God for Kids”–worth hearing.
Thanks for your interest!!
Gary Furr
COMING UP SMA on Dugger Mountain Theater
Shades Mountain Air on “Dugger Mountain Music Hall,”
ALABAMA PUBLIC TELEVISION (APTV) Tuesday, June 27 at 10:30 pm
Back in May, Shades Mountain Air (myself, Nancy McLemore, Don Wendorf, Greg Womble and Melanie Rodgers) loaded up and traveled to Dugg
er Mountain Music Hall in Piedmont, Alabama. It sits in as unlikely a spot as the crossroads where the boys in “O Brother Where Art Thou” picked up Tommy Johnson on the way to Tishomingo. DMMH came from the vision and ministry of Bob McLeod, a talented and charismatic former professional musician and studio engineer. Following a profound personal spiritual crisis, Bob McLeod began to seek to minister to people in trouble–in prisons, jails, streets, and those caught in addiction.
Eventually he established Dugger Mountain Music Hall as the public face of Our Father’s Arms, where they take in people in need of help. He describes the place as “a Christ centered family.” It is located in the middle of open country north of Anniston, Alabama in a former Baptist church that had ceased to exist. The building was given to him for a ministry, and he brought together his love of music with the ministry. Fast forward, now the facilities include a 30 acre farm with a home for men; a 3 acre home nearby for women, mothers and their children known as Eagles Nest; and a state-of-the-art recording studio, offices, fellowship hall and the Dugger Mountain Music Hall. In 2010, the television program was born. On the nights of performances, they open the doors to welcome the community, enjoy supper and bands and performers, some touring through and others from nearby places in Alabama, perform. Read the rest of this entry
Musical Profile: Laura McGhee
Laura McGhee
Laura’s talent is immense and her music full of heart…,I hope you get to hear Laura sometime. She’s a terrific musician and … You’ll find these tunes getting in your head and your voice humming along!
Laura McGhee performed together with Shades Mountain Air on Saturday evening, then came and performed at our church on Sunday morning, doing her two beautiful compositions, “Roxburghe House” and “Commemoration,” the former a musical reflection on a house in Scotland where hospice work now takes place, the latter a piece she composed for a 9-11 memorial in New York. Set in the context of worship, they affected the congregation deeply. It was quite a weekend, one in which I was able to spend more time than I often do with a fellow performer in a co-bill.
I met Laura last year when we shared a performance at Moonlight on the Mountain in Hoover, Alabama, near where I live. It was a delightful evening, and her talent and musical chops were evident to all of us. When our host on Saturday evening scheduled a retirement party for all of her friends this weekend at the same listening room, Read the rest of this entry
“Live at Moonlight On the Mountain”
Our band has produced two CDs in the past, in 2000 (Shades Mountain Air) and in 2004 (Sky’s a Clearing). For the last nine years, we’ve been promising a “new” CD while going about busy lives. I have had four individual collections of songs in the meantime, and the band has done a CD related to Greg’s short film, titled Christmas At Virgin Pines.
Sometime last year, we said, “Why don’t we try a live CD? It can capture the energy and experience of a performance, the joy of sharing with an audience, in a venue we love?” So, the result was a June 1 concert at Moonlight on the Mountain in Hoover, Alabama, one of our very favorite places to play. Engineer Fred Miller of Knoddingoffmusic came and meticulously recorded the night and mastered the CD for us. After many months, Live At Moonlight On the Mountain is finally here and available for purchase. It’s a great CD, maybe the best ever. It shows our fifteen years together, the long experience of performing our songs until the arrangement is just right, and the love and energy of playing together. I think our fans will love it!
So, I encourage you to visit our store on our website. Eventually it will be available on Amazon and iTunes, but for now, you can purchase directly here by credit card. Just click the link! LIVE AT MOONLIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN
Thou Shalt Love Thy Bandmates
Anyway, riding in a van for a week turned us from “Friends
and Brothers” to angry inmates who couldn’t wait to bust out.
Fifteen Years. That’s how long Shades Mountain Air has been together, at least the core of Greg and Nancy Womble, Gary Furr, and Don Wendorf. We have spent a couple hours a week most of that fifteen years weekly at Greg and Nancy’s house, practicing, horsing around, composing, arranging, learning and growing from one another. We’ve only had one personnel change in all that time–Don’s son, Paul, our outstanding fiddle player, left us to move on with wife, kids, career, to Texas, and so, we were four again for a while, then found Melanie Rodgers. Mel has added dynamic new joy to our sound, and is now a part of our 15th Anniversary Live Album that is now available. (Go to the website store for our new CD click here!)
Shades Mountain Air at Moonlight, 2013
The album sounds great! We hired Fred Miller of Knodding Off Music to record and engineer our live concert. Fred did a fantastic job and we are so happy with the result. He captured our live sound and energy. It sounds like us! There is NOTHING like live music, and though it’s fun to be in a studio and monkey around with something until you get it “perfect”, there is a corresponding loss of that spark that performers-audience and a venue provide. We did it at our favorite gig–Moonlight On the Mountain in Bluff Park in Hoover, Alabama, with Keith Harrelson, as always, handling lights and sound.
I say all this because Shades Mountain Air is more than a band. We have become family together. We love playing together, singing, creating, whether anyone is listening or not. Greg and Nancy’s kids grew up having to hear us every week in their house. We have been through life crises, griefs, and changes Read the rest of this entry
Gary and SHADES MOUNTAIN AIR live at Wald Park tonight
N:ancy Womble will be OUT IN THE YARD at Wald Park! 7-8 tonight
I don’t go anywhere Jesus wouldn’t go,” and if I read the gospels right, that doesn’t exclude much at all.
Well, speaking of music, last week Nancy and I sang at the funeral I conducted for a dear, dear friend and fellow church member, Mr. Hack Sain. Hack loved our music and encouraged me in it. He got us front row seats at the Grand Ole Opry while we were in Nashville leading a prayer retreat for the church years ago. nThe retreat finished, people had free time, and a bunch of us went to the Opry, thanks to Hack’s good friend Joe Thrasher. Well, Joe got us front row seats, and there I was, staring up at Lorrie Morgan, who was hosting. She is a beautiful woman, and a great singer. It was a fine time. Of course, I forgot we were on TV, and after I drove home, preached, and was standing out in the foyer, members came up and said, “Hey Preacher, we thought you were leading a prayer retreat, but I cut on the Grand Ole Opry last night, and there was Lorrie Morgan in a miniskirt and there you were on the front row.” Blush. Hack loved it.
My rule about playing music is I don’t perform where the venue isn’t about the music. My rule is, “I don’t go anywhere Jesus wouldn’t go,” and if I read the gospels right, that doesn’t exclude much at all. Might keep me out of a few religious gatherings, but if sinners are there, I have the green light from the Boss…
HEY, all of our bama and Birmingham friends, we will be at WALD PARK tonight for the resxcheduled I LOVE AMERICA series for Vestavia Hills. Kids activities, free swimming and a family movie, along with our concert at 7-8 pm. Hope you can come out!!!!!
CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE INFO
cloud.chambermaster.com_userfiles_UserFiles_chambers_888_File_ILAPoster-july12update
Visitor to Virgin Pines
Scene from the movie
I have dipped my first toe into soundtrack creation for a movie. My bandmate, Greg Womble, has written and produced a beautiful short Christmas film and is in the final edit stage of his short Christmas film, “Visitor to Virgin Pines.”
Our band was invited to do music for it, and I have to say, it is one of the most interesting undertakings I have ever done. Mostly late at night, I sat with a banjo, guitar, mandolin, even percussion, and tried to create “moods” for scenes. I have enormous appreciation for what people who do this face. And yet, it is joy to do it. I came up with some really nice instrumental stuff, not all of it chosen for the musical, but which may land in a Christmas CD. Here’s a piece I did on the banjo called “Sugarplum Ferries” (yes, I know. I spelled it the way I wanted to–I had the image of little boats going back and forth loaded with goodies). “Sugarplum Ferries” Read the rest of this entry
Sunday July 1 5 pm, Gary will be in concert at St. Alban’s Episcopal with Shades Mountain Air
This Sunday, I will be in concert with our band, SHADES MOUNTAIN AIR, at 5 pm at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Bluff Park (Hoover), Alabama.
Looking forward to seeing a lot of our friends for a fun time together!
CLICK to go to St. Alban’s website
Think Globally Listen Locally
Corporations are not necessarily evil in and of themselves, but the net effect can be the disappearance of everything that makes the place where you live distinctive.
Got a notice from my friend Steve Norris that our friend Dale Short put us on his “Music From Home” radio program yesterday. (LISTEN) (SMA is on the first program)
Thanks, Dale! “Music From Home” is local artists. I appreciate that there are still programs here and there in a world in which globalized corporate mass culture (which is short for “controlled by a few people who are not always interested in the music”) threatens to gobble up everything. Music and making money have a long and unhappy marriage. They love one another and need each other but they can’t make each other happy. Their families were so different. They hurt each other and use each other all the time. Sometimes they have to separate to get on with life.
Dale Short of “Music From Home”
The internet and programs like Dale’s provide hope that artists, musical worlds and songwriters can collaborate and pursue their craft in different ways. The web is already having a salutary effect on music. It is possible to skip the narrow funnel of corporate mass marketing that has produced some great stuff but also turned away some great music that people would like. This is why listening rooms like Keith Harrelson’s Moonlight On the Mountain and other great places struggle to make it and deserve our support.
These changes will be painful for a while, as they are in publishing and in every field. But as with all things human, there is also possibility for many good things, too. Hope you’ll support local artists, internet radio and local radio programs, and local venues and businesses. Corporations are not necessarily evil in and of themselves, but the net effect can be the disappearance of everything that makes the place where you live distinctive. Supporting local life (which means “I am willing to pay more for what I like’) is a way to protest the gobble ’em up and kill ’em off so I can have a house in Santa Fe culture.
We need to pay attention–how we spend our money, what we listen to, and where we direct time has massive implications for our future. Be purposeful in your life. It matters.
