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For those who don't know, Carrollton, GA is one of the neatest towns in the South. Populated with cute girls, good ole guys, and people that everybody went to college with, it's the brightest oasis on I-20 headed to Atlanta.
The Chevys have been playing in Carrollton for about 20 years, deflowering the town when we did a joint birthday party for Wynn Grisham and her friend Christy at the Sunset Hills Country Club. We had met Wynn and Glynn Grisham when we used to play at Jax State.
Since then, we've played numerous times at the club for various stuff, and at several of the farms in town. These are not "farms" so much as massive spreads of land and beauty within a few minutes of town.
A 1969 class reunion several years ago even led to the romance and eventual marriage of Karen and Bob Tatum, who were friends in high school, but rekindled at the reunion. We played for their wedding reception as well.
The town is home to the University of West Georgia, and also to a great liquor store, Cheers, that we visit every time we're there.
Bob and Richard go there to get their high-alcohol boutique beers and I go for the incredible price they have on Coruba rum.
We played the Blue Jean Ball (a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity) last year as well, but were nearly shut out by a late January snowfall. It freaked Ken out, who was looking out his window in Faunsdale and seeing nothing but a heavy blanket of snow. Once we coaxed him up to Birmingham, it had eased up a bit, but we were on pins and needles the whole way there. In retrospect, it was nothing, but everybody in Birmingham had already bought out the bread, milk and beer from the grocery stores and the roads were riddled with four-wheel-drives, so we thought it could really be serious. As it began to clear, we realized that we would indeed make it to Carrollton, though half off the attendees had chickened out by that time.
This year, there was no snow, and the weather was clear and beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that even though it was January 31st, I left Bham without a jacket.
The event was held at Bland Farm, which is not a description of the place, but the name of the family that owns it. The property was beautiful, part wooded, part hilly, with a big red barn as the centerpiece, where the party was held. They had set up our stage outside the double doors with a tent and four clear sides covering us. The inside was decorated with a million little white lights and a hunting theme on the tables, with all kinds of flora and fauna around us.
The party started at 6:00 with Rick Carter and Rollin' in the Hay kicking things off. We played at 9:00 after barbeque and acoustic talent to eat by.
With the temperature dropping a degree every fifteen minutes, it was soon pretty gol-durned chilly. 28 degrees chilly. Roe, who plays drums barefooted, had to take his bass pedal out to the car during breaks to warm it up so it wouldn't stick to his skin like on "A Christmas Story." I sweated my ass off during the sets, of course, then had to deal with the icy environment on stage, where I changed shirts every break behind Bob's keyboards, then rushed out the back flap to the car where the heater was running.
By the time the third set rolled around, everyone was properly lubricated, and I brought out my camera for a couple of shots. Below are Glynn and Wynn Grisham, followed by Andrea and Josh Chapman, another couple blasted into wedded bliss by Chevy 6.
A great time was had by all.Stand by for more vanilla adventures from this 35 year old band.
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