Wet Willie – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Love Valley Rock Festival…1970

Today is the 44th anniversary of this Rock Festival at Love Valley.

What a festival this was and what a town it still is. It happened in Love Valley North Carolina. The headliners were The Allman Brothers who at that time only had one album out and were largely unknown to the masses. This huge festival was soon known as Woodstock South. Between 100,000-200,000 showed up.

A man named Andy Barker always wanted to live in a western town. When he was 29 years old he bought some land in 1954 and moved his family there. The land was in Iredell County and he he built the town and it was chartered in 1963. It has a saloon, hitching posts, a small church, and more. No cars are allowed in town…you can walk or ride a horse through.

It’s the place for riding horses, rodeos, and hiking trails with 2000 acres to cover. The population of Love Valley is right now at 96. Through the years it seems to stay around 100.

In 1969 Andy’s daughter Tonda wanted to go to Woodstock but he thought she was too young. So he asked her and her 16-year-old brother Jet Barker to organize a festive concert in Love Valley. While in college she had worked with an entertainment coordinator at college and knew the ropes. She managed to secure the Allman Brothers Band who at the time were known in the south but that is about it. They also got some more local bands to fill it out…it was a large bill. It took place Thursday, July 16-18, 1970.

One interesting thing that happened was that the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws showed up to battle each other. According to witnesses, Andy Barker stopped them, confiscated a chain and ax from each, and told them there would be no trouble there. They seemed to respect this man because after that the gangs dispersed and some camped out with no reported trouble. The festival went off without any major hitch.

Tonda: “It was perfect, it was like a dream. We had worked so hard and we could finally just sit down and enjoy it.”

Andy planned to make a documentary of it but it didn’t happen. All we have to look at is some grainy footage but that grainy footage shows Duane Allman a year before At Fillmore East was released. They were finishing up their second album Idlewild South at this time. Some very nice bootlegs are out there from their multiple sets.

Along with the Allman Brothers, the lineup consisted of these bands: Big Brother and the Holding Company (without Janis), Radar, Peace Core, Wet Willie, Johnny Jenkins, Tony Joe White, Hampton Grease Band, Donnydale, Catfish Freedom, Sundown, Chakra, Hot Rain, Kallabash, Warm Stone Blind, Captain John’s Fishmarket. There were over 40 bands over that weekend.

Some like Wet Willie would go on to have a few hits. Tony Joe White had a top ten hit with Polk Salad Annie the year before.

Ed Buzzell was a UPI stringer and took these photographs...they are amazing. They don’t show many bands…just the people…you feel like you are there.

Wet Willie – Weekend

It’s funny how local radio stations will change how songs are remembered. When I hear Wet Willie’s band name I think of one song…Keep on Smiling. When I posted that song a while ago…some did not know it but they knew this song. We did hear this song but to tell you the truth…until Dave told me it was Wet Willie a few years ago doing this song Weekend…I would have never known.

When I posted about them before…I’ll say the same thing. First, let’s get this out of the way… wet–willy. Noun. (plural wet willies) (slang) A prank whereby a saliva-moistened finger is inserted into an unsuspecting person’s ear, often with a slight twisting motion… Oh yes…I’ve given them and have been on the receiving end. When you are 12 given wet willies were a lot of fun….oh wait…that was yesterday!

Wet Willie began as a blues-rock band during the Summer of 1969 down in Mobile Alabama. The original nucleus of the group that eventually became known as Wet Willie was called Fox. Wet Willie eventually moved to Macon Georgia and signed to Capricorn Records sharing the label with The Allman Brothers and The Marshall Tucker Band. Still, they really didn’t have a Southern rock sound.

This song was released in 1979 on the album Manorisms. The album peaked at #118 on the Billboard Album Charts.

The song peaked at #29 on the Billboard 100 and #34 in Canada. Their biggest hit was Keep On Smiling which peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 and #21 in Canada in 1974.

Southern Rock took off in the 70s but crashed when Lynyrd Skynyrds plane did in 1977. It hung around a little longer with 38 Special and Molly Hatchet but died when the 80s came. Gregg Allman had a great quote on “Southern Rock.” He is right in this quote below. Most of the bands were so different from each other. The only thing many of them had in common was that they were Southern. The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd were the two biggest bands and they were day and night. Skynyrd was more like The Stones and Free and The Allman Brothers were a combination of blues, jazz, rock, and country.

Gregg Allman: For some reason, people think that we all grew up together and we all knew each other, and our friends were their friends and their friends were our friends, like there was one big town of southern rock stars or something. Man, it wasn’t nothing like that at all. You might know two or three cats in one band here and there, and you’d see each other passing in the night. If you did a tour together, then you’d see each other maybe a couple of hours a day.

Of course, there was some competition between bands—there has to be. But we weren’t out there to sell southern rock, we were out there because we had the best goddamn band in the land. The Allman Brothers Band has had its bad nights, but we are some Super Bowl motherfuckers compared to all them other bands.

Weekend

One Friday evenin’What a feelin’, feel like singin’Tired of workin’, my mind is buzzin’Feel like dancin’ yes I do

But you gotta make the best of life while you’re youngGood people, weekendDo just what you want to do, weekendWhen those workin’ days are throughWeekend, weekend, weekendWeekend, weekendYou know it’s time to get away, weekendI want to hear ev’rybody sayWeekend, weekend, weekend

Saturday night feelin’ just rightMakin’ new friends, lazy SundayEvery Monday ends my weekend, yes it doesBut you gotta make the best of life while you’re youngListen people, weekendParty down with all your friends, weekendIt’s party, hearty time againWeekend, weekend, weekendWeekend, weekendSpendin’ all my hard-earned pay, weekendWith crazy nights and lazy daysWeekend, weekend, weekend

But you believe me right now, weekendWatchin’ all the people play, weekendI want to hear ev’rybody sayWeekend, weekend, weekendWeekend, weekendDo what you want to do, weekendWhen those workin’ days are throughWeekend, weekend, weekendAh you gotta make the best of life while you’re youngRight now, weekendDo what you want to do, weekendWhen those workin’ days are throughWeekend, weekend, weekendYeah weekend

…

Love Valley Rock Festival…1970

By the summer of 1970, the spirit of Woodstock was still echoing across the American counterculture, and a small mountain town in North Carolina decided it wanted a piece of that magic, or at least its own funky version. Enter: the Love Valley Rock Festival, an improbable blend of peace, pot, rock ‘n’ roll… and cowboys. It went down in July 1970 like a haywire Southern cousin to Woodstock, with more horses, and a whole lotta Allman Brothers.

What a festival this was, and what a town it still is. It happened in Love Valley, North Carolina. The headliners were The Allman Brothers, who at that time only had one album out and were largely unknown to the masses. This huge festival was soon known as Woodstock South. Between 100,000 and 200,000 showed up.

A man named Andy Barker always wanted to live in a western town. At the age of 29, he purchased some land in 1954 and relocated his family there. The land was in Iredell County, and he built the town, which was chartered in 1963. It has a saloon, hitching posts, a small church, and more. No cars are allowed in town…you can walk or ride a horse through.

It’s the place for riding horses, rodeos, and hiking trails with 2000 acres to cover. The population of Love Valley is currently 96. Through the years, it seems to stay around 100.

In 1969, Andy’s daughter Tonda wanted to go to Woodstock, but he thought she was too young. So he asked her and her 16-year-old brother, Jet Barker, to organize a festive concert in Love Valley. While in college, she had worked with an entertainment coordinator at the college and knew the ropes. She managed to secure the Allman Brothers Band, who at the time were known in the south but that is about it. They also got some more local bands to fill it out…it was a large bill. It took place on Thursday, July 16-18, 1970.

One interesting thing that happened was that the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws showed up to do battle with each other. According to witnesses, Andy Barker stopped them and confiscated a chain and ax from each and told them there would be no trouble here. They seemed to respect this man because after that, the gangs dispersed, and some camped out with no reported trouble. The festival went off without any major hitches.

Tonda: “It was perfect, it was like a dream. We had worked so hard and we could finally just sit down and enjoy it.”

Andy planned to make a documentary of it, but it didn’t happen. All we have to look at is some grainy footage, but that grainy footage shows Duane Allman a year before At Fillmore East was released. They were finishing up their second album, Idlewild South, at this time. Some very nice bootlegs are out there from their multiple sets.

Along with the Allman Brothers, the line up consisted of these bands: Big Brother and the Holding Company (without Janis), Radar, Peace Core, Wet Willie, Johnny Jenkins, Tony Joe White, Hampton Grease Band, Donnydale, Catfish Freedom, Sundown, Chakra, Hot Rain, Kallabash, Warm Stone Blind, Captain John’s Fishmarket. There were over 40 bands over that weekend.

Some, like Wet Willie, would go on to have a few hits. Tony Joe White had a top ten hit with Polk Salad Annie the year before.

The Love Valley Festival doesn’t get the press that Altamont or even Atlanta Pop did. There’s no movie, no official recordings, no box set retrospective. Just faded photos, whispered stories, and a ghost-town memory of the time the South went psychedelic under the watchful eye of a cowboy mayor with a dream.

It’s part of what makes digging through this era so damn fun. Not all the magic happened on the coasts. Sometimes it galloped in on horseback, plugged into a wall of amps, and raised a little hell in the Carolina hills.

Ed Buzzell was a UPI stringer and took these photographs…they are amazing. They don’t show many bands…just the people…you feel like you are there. (Unfortunately, Ed Buzzell or someone else took them down.) If you know where they are now, or if they are anywhere, please let me know in the comments.

Wet Willie – Keep On Smilin’

First, let’s get this out of the way… wet–willy. Noun. (plural wet willies) (slang) A prank whereby a saliva-moistened finger is inserted into an unsuspecting person’s ear, often with a slight twisting motion… Oh yes…I’ve given them and have been on the receiving end. When you are 12 given wet willies were a lot of fun….oh wait…that was yesterday!

Wet Willie began as a blues-rock band during the Summer of 1969 down in Mobile Alabama. The original nucleus of the group that eventually became known as Wet Willie was called Fox. Wet Willie eventually moved to Macon Georgia and signed to Capricorn Records sharing the label with The Allman Brothers and The Marshall Tucker Band but they really didn’t have a southern rock sound.

They did open for their label mates and gained a following. Like many bands from that era if you were from the south you were automatically “southern rock”…

Keep On Smiling peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 and #21 in Canada in 1974.

They broke up in 1979. They haven’t recorded anything new since then but they still tour. In 2012 Wet Willie released a new live CD “Miles of Smiles” on the Hittin’ The Note Records label. They continue to tour with three original members including original lead singer Jimmy Hall, brother Jack Hall on bass and vocals, sister Donna Hall Foster on vocals as well as other long time members, drummer T.K. Lively, Ric Seymour on guitar and vocals, Ricky Chancey on guitar and newest member, keyboardist Bobby Mobley.

Keep On Smilin’

Well you say you got the blues,
You got holes in both of your shoes, yeah-
You’re feeling alone and confused,
You got to keep on smilin’, just keep on smilin’

Yeah, you’re- you’re bout to go insane,
Cause your womans playing games,
And she says that you’re to blame,
You try to keep on smilin’, just keep on smilin’

Keep on smilin’ through the rain, laughin’ at the pain
Just flowin’ with the changes, till the sun comes out again
Keep on smilin’ through the rain, laughin at the pain
Just flowin’ with the changes, and singin’ this refrain

Singing in a honky tonk cafe,
Nobodys hearin’ what you play, yeah-
They’re too busy drinkin anyway,
You gotta keep on smilin’, brother keep on smilin’

Say you found a piece of land
[Lyrics from: https:/lyrics.az/wet-willie/keep-on-smilin/keep-on-smilin.html]
Gonna change from city boy to country man, yeah-
Try to build you’re life with your hands
And just keep on smilin’, keep on smilin’

You’re just hangin out- in a local bar,
And you’re wonderin’- who the hell you are
Are you a farmer – are you a star?

Smile on through the rain
Laugh all through the pain
Flow through to changes
Till the sun comes out again

Keep on smilin’, smilin’ – smilin’, smilin’
Laughin, laughin- said laughin’, laughin’
Keep on flowin’, flowin’, flowin’
Yeah