MUSIC ARCHIVES

Archive for May, 2008

Soul Series: The Man from Macon - The Otis Redding Story Part III

- by Joe Nolan, Friday, May 30th, 2008

Otis Redding

Started by Hamp Swain, The Teenage Party was the scene at the Douglass Theater. It was Swain and fellow DJ Cliff Brantley who gave James Brown his star in 1958. Hamp was an energetic, smooth talker who was always looking for a way to get ahead. He began selling insurance, but a series of fortunate opportunities lead him to radio, where his innate talent as a raconteur and promoter really began to pay off.

When the program director at WIBB – where Swain broadcast his Night Ride program – brought up the idea of a live broadcast, Swain was all ears. Every week Swain hammed it up on air, introduced acts, played saxophone, and – week after week – he announced Otis Redding as the winner of the variety program. The program got Otis noticed by the young ladies who listened to the program every week to hear the tall, clean-cut, Redding sing in his modified Little Richard style. Otis also caught the attention of another Macon music legend with dreams of his own.

(more…)

No Comments

Soul Series: The Man from Macon - The Otis Redding Story Part II

- by Joe Nolan, Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Otis Redding

During his early years, struggling as a musician in Macon, Redding witnessed first-hand how the right combination of talent, hard work and good luck was falling into place for other players in the local scene.

For all of its seeming ramshackle anarchy, the R&B music scene in Macon was largely under the control of one driven, ambitious black entrepreneur named Clint Brantley. There was nearly no music on a stage, or song on a radio in Macon that Brantley didn’t have a hand in. He owned the Two Spot club, and was in charge of booking all the shows at the City Auditorium. Brantley was well connected with the local radio stations as well, and he worked regularly with a spectrum of bands like the Clovers, the Drifters, Louis Jordan, Otis Williams and the Charms. It was during this period that two of Redding’s heroes, under Brantley’s direction, began to gain the kind of buzz that would launch them into super-stardom.