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We've been needin' this!

After an overlong holiday from public view, Atlanta's own OKOLONA is ready to slake our thirst for what's as hard to get these days as Pabst Blue Ribbon in a salad bar. I mean of course that authentic beer-drinkin', HONKY TONK MUSIC! Now they feature a whole passle of their original tunes that draw on their thirty-one-year history of making Real Country Music.

 wayne, jim, richard, tally

If you want even more of the real thing, they'll fill in with an expanded repertoire of covers including the best of Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall, Hank Williams, Jr., Johnny Cash -- a true walking, talking Atlanta honky tonk history lesson.

Old timers in the Atlanta honky-tonk music scene, who may even be able to pull out an old OKOLONA  T-shirt, hat, or 45 rpm, remember OKOLONA  from as far back as the early '70s. In fact, the founding members -- multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Wayne Drummond and lead singer Jim McGee--grew up in what's now being called East Atlanta Village, on the south side that spawned so many of Atlanta's unrecognized honky-tonk musicians. Rhythm guitarist, singer, and songwriter Tony Allen hails from nearby Red Oak. Osama Kheir, OKOLONA ’s voluble and talented bass player, formerly of Nashville, has been with OKOLONA  enough years now to absorb all their legends and country traditions. Whereas countless Atlanta bands have come and gone over the decades, OKOLONA ’s still around and, if a bit grizzled, sounding' better than ever.

 dennis, richard, jim, tony, wayne

The reason OKOLONA  has survived and thrived while other bands died is owing not only to their talent but to their love of the music they all grew up listening to and loving. We're talking about the country music of the '40s through the '60s--the golden era when it was still Real and there was little or no talk of crossover.

Then you appreciated tractor trailer rigs and listened to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM on Saturday nights or you didn't. You watched either Porter Wagoner or Lawrence Welk or American Bandstand, and you had no use for the other two. If you listened to WPLO, you didn't listen to WQXI or WERD. Country artists and groups weren't just hunks in hats popping Country Lite in microwave ovens, nossir. They tended to live what they wrote and sung (or at least they felt a true affinity for it). Many of their songs reflected their own personal experience of poverty, hard labor, failed dreams, loneliness, betrayal, imprisonment--and of the consolation found in the bottle.

 tony, jim, richard, wayne

And so, to speak to the heart in ways impossible for today's microwaved Country Lite, Real Country music is remarkably distinctive and distinguishable, some forms of it even more so than others. It ranges widely from the high lonesome of Bill Monroe to the sophistication of Patsy Cline or Western Swing. The honky honk tradition in particular--the workin'- lovin'- drinkin' - fightin'- truckin' tradition still followed locally by OKOLONA -- built on the roadhouse amplification of country music by the likes of Ernest Tubb and then Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce, Hank Williams, and Merle Haggard.

 tony

In Atlanta, country music venues once provided for all tastes in country music. The old Municipal Auditorium and the Sports Arena on Memorial Drive hosted all manner of famous acts, notably including the bluegrass artists. Comparatively genteel, refined clubs such as The Copper Kettle, where the legendary Pete Drake played before moving on to Nashville, or, later on, the popular, rustically-decorated Al's Corral on Juniper Street were available for the local mainstream. And then--still in the '50s and '60s--there were the unpublicized (except negatively, in crime reports) real honky tonks that flourished most gloriously out on the 42 highway (read Moreland Avenue) around the Atlanta General Depot (now Fort Gillem). The real honky tonks that spawned Jerry Reed, Roy Druskey, and Pete Drake. The real honky-tonks where country bluesmen like OKOLONA reigned.

  vintage jim in the vintage T-shirt he designed

Even if uncharitably described by good wives and mothers as "hell holes" rather than merely "informal" and "comfortable," in them a workin' man (or an angel) could thoroughly relax-- that is, get drunk as a skunk, cuss, brag, shout, cry, fight, cheat and be cheated, and maybe even find a necessary excuse to cut somebody or shoot off a gun.All to the pleasant accompaniment of country bands playing the music so highly appropriate to the activity. 

In that time, before Clayton County went dry, some of OKOLONA 's personal and musical mentors from the south side like The Rhythm Masters played country music in this considerable honky-tonk scene in clubs such as the Silver Slipper and the Rainbow Inn (whose faded sign, at least, still stands today about a mile on the right of highway 42 south of I-285). 

 joy singin' in 2002 

And when Clayton did go dry (probably in part to shut down highway 42, which besmirched its attempts to build a "Tara" image) the earlier bands simply followed displaced honky-tonk patrons to the somewhat calmer intown dives like Ray Lee's Blue Lantern on Ponce, Bob's Hideaway on Stewart Avenue, the Crowe's Nest on McDonough Boulevard, and even--on occasion--the Grant Park Moose Lodge and the infamous VFW off Moreland, which hosted The Rhythm Masters for fourteen years.

 wayne, O man, tony , jim (94-02)

It was as house band at one of these-- the Crowe's Nest -- that OKOLONA began its long musical career. Run by proprietors Herman and Miz Crowe, the Crowe's Nest, located not far from Harold's Barbecue, catered primarily to the country music-loving shift workers from the Lakewood General Motors plant. "When we first auditioned there in '70, the band didn't even have a name," lead guitarist Wayne Drummond recalls with a chuckle. "Herman asked and suddenly the title of a Bobbie Gentry song, 'The OKOLONA River Bottom Band,' just popped out.

 OKOLONA's first single on 45 vinyl cover shot
jim, richard, wayne, tony

After we subsequently got introduced as The Oklahoma Boys, we knew we'd better shorten it to just 'OKOLONA '!"  As dives go, the Crowe's Nest was nothing if not classic: jukebox, pinball machine, two pool tables, cheap tables and chairs, and a long bar. It had the requisite honky-tonk stink of beer and stale cigarettes, of course, except that it was unusually heavy on the vomit, a measure of its patrons' loyalty and perhaps reflective as well of the doubtful cuisine of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and Rose's pickled sausage or eggs offered from the menu. 

forever friends

At the Crowe's Nest OKOLONA  learned to play whatever and however its hard-core patrons wanted--classics such as "Crazy Arms," "Just To Satisfy You," , "In The Pines," and "Folsom Prison," just to mention a few, with prominent twanging guitar accompaniment. Merle Haggard's "You're Walking On The Fight", a rousing cover of Merle Haggard's "You're Walking on the Fighting Side of Me" was the band's choice to accompany the nightly fights.

 the corner of country and honktonk

Meanwhile, it happened that the greatest honky-tonk in Atlanta was still going strong out on highway 42, outside the Clayton limits: the Buckalou Corrall. Much larger than the Crowe's Nest, it also had later closing hours because the owner, Lou, had cut a special deal with the Atlanta police. After other bars closed, hard-core country imbibers headed for the Buckalou. To keep some semblance of order, Lou found it necessary to employ a bouncer, Pasquale, rumored to be a Mafia hitman, who sat in a reserved place at the bar with his ever-present .25 caliber pistol neatly tucked away in his belt.

 richard, tony, dennis, jim, wayne

It was only appropriate if not inevitable that Okolona left the Crowe's Nest to become the house band at the Buckalou Corrall. Fortunately there was only one shoot-out during their tenure there, and no member of the band was hit.  Surviving the Buckalou, Okolona took off and played most everywhere in country music venues in and around Atlanta.

 tony, linda, ray @ Casey's 

And beyond--Okolona had a number of prominent appearances at the McIntosh Opry and were featured at the Georgia Agrirama three times, though they had to stay at different motels each time. They worked with Ross Brooks of WBIE radio and Len Anthony of WPLO. Their record got drive-time air play. They played live on WSSA radio, and they were filmed for the What's Happening in Atlanta TV show. They were the opening band for the Texas T Room country music dance hall. They were long the favorite at the infamous roadhouse Gale's, which stood off I-75 in Fairburn before it mysteriously burned down.

 richard, tony, jim, wayne, ray

Had they been more ambitious professionally, who knows where they might have gone? But OKOLONA  has always had merely three, mutually inclusive priorities: enjoying the great and long-standing friendship among the band's members; casual good times; and playing "real" country music, the music they grew up with, for the love of it. When their audience finally seemed to turn more towards the hunks in hats--Okolona even got dismissed from o' them plastic suburban cowboy clubs on the northside--OKOLONA  took an introspective break to write more of their own songs, privately record, and, in their weekly practice sessions, learn and enjoy whatever good new songs that come to hand.

 vintage stage show from 1980

Now, happily, given some recent signs of renewed public interest in the hard stuff, OKOLONA 's agreed to come out again and play it for those of us who've long been desperate to hear it amid all the schlock. Any bar that hosts artists such as "too country for country" Dale Watson (OKOLONA 's most recent hero), couldn't be a more appropriate venue for guys who've never moved far, physically or spiritually, from their old neighborhood.

 tony, O man, jim, wayne @ the star bar in 1999

As noted earlier, they're gon' play many of their great new tunes they've written, like the haunting, unforgettable "Good Ole Days," and "In Georgia," a compelling, beautiful anthem for the land we call home. (Much of "In Georgia," interestingly enough, came in a revelation to songwriter Wayne while he was waiting in his car at the stoplight at Moreland and Euclid.) "The Law Is The Law" wryly presents the attitude adjustment necessary these days when there are more laws than people.

 richard, johnny, ray, tony, wayne

ray sportin' OKOLONA merchandise

And they're gon' play some of their old Crowe's Nest / Buckalou Corrall playlist and other Real Country music they've discovered in the past thirty one years.

 wayne, tony, jim, richard, dennis

Needless to say, they're gon' do all these songs up right, too, if, by the end of the evening, not necessarily upright. Wayne's still playing his old '59 Stratocaster "screamin' like a mountain lion in the night" that once belonged to Jerry Reed and then to his uncle Billy, who played it on highway 42 with The Rhythm Masters. Jim's rich, confident, Waylon Jennings-like voice, first trained in the choir of the Eastside Baptist Church and mellowed in smoky honky-tonks and Black Jack whisky, will still send shivers down your spine. 

 linda is an angel carrying the OKOLONA torch forward

Tony's backup, when he's not also singing lead on one his fine tunes, and Osama's driving Fender bass and occasional fiddle, complement perfectly. Lovers of honky-tonk, dust off them old cowboy boots. 

linda

Grab a longneck, sing along, dance, shout, and cry. East Atlanta's own OKOLONA  is gon' tell it like it was--and still is.