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Did you ever wonder where all the former EMBERS went? Well we know Craig formed his own band
THE CWB. But where is JACKIE GORE, GERALD DAVIS, MARK BLACK, JEFF GRIMES, JOHNNY BARKER, TONY DAVIS, & STEVE DAVIS? Well
all those FORMER EMBERS ARE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN along with newcomers Tony Davis, Rusty Smith and Jason Moore. Yep they have come together to form their own group, Legends of
Beach.
Over the years, these musicians left the EMBERS for various
reasons, but they all seemed to have a burning desire to get back together and perform. It just never seemed to be the right
time -- until now.
| HERE THEY ARE THE LEGENDS |
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| OF BEACH MUSIC THE FORMER EMBERS |
BELOW ARE SEVERAL ARTICLES WRITTEN ON THE LEGENDS OF BEACH AND THEIR HISTORY ! PLEASE READ THE FORMER
EMBERS MEMBERS STORIES!
By Ogi Overman – Editor
The buzz circulating among the beach music community began early last summer,
and by the first month of the new year had reached a cacophonous crescendo. Word
had it that a group was forming that would take the genre to heights it had never experienced before. And it would do so by reuniting the band that virtually all observers consider the group that started it
all, the group without which there would be no such thing as beach music. The Embers
Of course, there was and is a group called the Embers, but only one original
member remains, drummer Bobby Tomlinson. This band, while comprised of five men
with legitimate claims to the formative Embers years and combined stage experience with the group of almost a whopping
200 years, decided to call itself what they are now, rather than what they were then.
Hence the name Legends of Beach.
How appropriate. How perfectly fitting. What else could it be when Jackie Gore,
Gerald Davis, Mark Black, Johnny Barker and Jeff Grimes get back together? As
anyone who follows this music indigenous to the Carolinas would affirm, each of them is a legend in his own right. And when they added
longtime Embers sound tech Steve Davis, drummer Tony Davis and horn man Rusty Smith, they instantly became … Legends
of Beach.
While they have recorded an eponymous CD that has several singles on the beach
music charts simultaneously, and toured throughout the Carolinas, Georgia
and Virginia, they had not made an appearance in the Triad. Until now.
This Friday, Jan. 25, Legends of Beach will make their Greensboro debut at Thirsty’s 2. The long-running beach club, located at 119 N. Chimney Rock Road, promises to be jam packed with shaggers
and beach aficionados of all descriptions. Showtime is 8 p.m.
Bring your shagging shoes.
Caption for picture:
Legends of Beach, composed of five former members of the Embers, will make
their Triad debut Saturday at Thirsty’s 2 in Greensboro. For info call 336-218-0074 or go online at www.thirsty’s2.com
The link below is the Warrenton NC paper.
May I have your attention? Are you listening, Bob Traylor? I have
an
important announcement to make! The old Embers are back. Not really the Embers, but a new eight-member
band composed of five former Embers members. With the voice of Jackie Gore. With the voice of Mark Black, once the young lead
singer of the Embers, as well as saxophonist extraordinaire. With the voice of Johnny
Barker, who wrote "Summertime's Calling Me." With Jeff Grimes,
instrumentalist and vocalist. A new multitalented eight-member band with an old sound, formed by
the "Sixty-Minute Man" himself, Gerald Davis of Wilson. Need I say he was with the Embers about 30 years? The band's called
The Legends of Beach.
For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:
ANOTHER ARTICLE ON THE NEWLY FORMED FORMER MEMBERS OF THE EMBERS. THE LEGENDS OF BEACH
By Jordan Cooke, Staff Reporter
The lineup of a new beach music band will no doubt be familiar to longtime
fans of the genre.
Months shy of what would have been their 50th anniversary as The Embers, the core of that band has
come together in a new group.
The band, Legends of Beach, is wrapping up a new CD featuring a title that captures the meaning of
the band’s reunion, said drummer Tony Davis.
The name of the CD will likely be “Feels Like the Real Thing,” because bassist Johnny Barker
wrote a song by that name talking about the band getting together, Davis said. “We are really excited about this and
are looking at it as a way of going out on top,” he said. “The band is like an all-star cast in the beach music
industry.”
Five Embers members, including Barker, lend their talents to the new band, which will make its first
public appearance this weekend at TJ’s Night Life in Raleigh. Jackie Gore, writer of the beach music classic “I
Love Beach Music,” will sing lead vocals. Former Embers Gerald Davis, Jeff Grimes and Mark Black are also returning.
Joining them are Davis, co-founder of the American Music Jubilee in Selma, and Rusty Smith and Jason
Moore. Davis recently sold his share of the Selma musical show to colleague Spook Joyner.
The rebirth of The Embers, so to speak, is a significant moment for the musicians of Legends of Beach.
Band members say the new CD and tour have generated a lot of buzz in the music industry and should be well received by fans
of the original Embers.
“A few years ago, The Embers became affiliated with a record company in New York City,”
Davis said. “At that time, the music started changing. It alienated the die-hard beach music fans who want to see us
play what we have for 47 years.”
“Since we decided to get back together about two months ago, I know there has been a lot of buzz
going on,” Barker said. “There are a lot of people who remember the band and us individually as solo artists.
Where we are now, we are remembering those times and want to get back to the sound we are known for.”
In recent weeks, the eight musicians have been putting in serious time at Jeff Grimes Music Services
in Goldsboro, where they are recording a new album. The CD will include six original songs and remakes of some of The Embers’
hits, including Barker’s single “Summertime’s Calling Me.”
The studio recording comes on the heels of several private performances, including a wedding reception
for a fan and a festival in Chesapeake, Va. Davis said the band has already lined up its first major out-of-state show at
2001 Nightclub in Myrtle Beach, S.C. That show will take place in October, he said.
But don’t expect to see the Legends playing hundreds of nights a year, Davis said. “At
our ages and at this point in our lives, we are just not going to be traveling as much as we did previously,” he said.
“But we hope to play about three nights a week.”
Barker said the band also planned to increase its marquee value by playing exclusively at one club
in each town.
“We know things will never be like they were as far as popularity is concerned,” he said.
“But we are moving forward and are excited to see what will happen.”
ANOTHER GREAT ARTICLE ON THE LEGENDS OF BEACH !
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
By 7:30 the line outside Thirsty's 2 had already
started queuing up and by the time
the doors were
opened at 8:07 numbered around 50. At least that many
more were waiting in their cars, given that Friday
evening's
temperatures were hovering in the mid-20s,
and dashed to the door once they saw the line
dwindling. By the time the
featured attraction hit the
stage at 9:15 the room was SRO, hence the necessity of
braving the January chill to get
a table.
The long-running beach music club is accustomed to
large crowds, as aficionados of the narrow genre
border
on the fanatical, but since this marked this
particular act's first appearance in Greensboro, owner
Thurston Reeder
was not sure how well they would draw.
Whatever trepidation he may have had, however, was
quickly erased, and by the
time the band ended their
first set with the beach music anthem "I Love Beach
Music," he and everyone else in the room
were all
smiles.
Legends of Beach had lived up to their press
clippings.
Not that anyone else doubted
they would. After all,
when you have a combined two centuries-plus worth of
stage experience, pre-gig jitters are not
apt to be a
problem, even in a virgin venue. Still, when you put
the word "legends" in your band's name, you'd better
be
prepared to back it up. Anything less than a
memorable performance will be viewed as empty bravado,
a clunker here and
there as merely going through the
motions. So if their rationale for calling themselves
legends was a form of self-induced
pressure, a way of
ensuring peak performance night after night, then it
worked. If there happened to be a doubting Thomas
among
this room full of true believers, by show's end
they had likely been converted.
But there may be another reason.
In a musical form that evolved from
late-'40s-early-'50s R&B, grew into '60s soul, and
ultimately became
an idiom unto itself by the
early-'70s, beach music is not really old enough to
have more than a handful of so-called
legends. It has
progenitors and influences and heroes - almost all of
them black and most of them dead - but very few
who
can legitimately be called legends. And among those
still touring and recording, the list is even shorter.
The
case can be made that the reason beach music
evolved from merely expropriated R&B into a genre all
its own is that
the white kids coming of age in the
'60s picked up on it. Of the hundreds of "blue-eyed
soul" bands kicking around the
Carolinas in the
pre-Beatles era, one stood out from the rest. By the
time the baby boomers were entering college, the
frat
boys and booking agents alike knew there was one band
at the top of the heap, one combo that delivered the
goods
consistently and professionally. That group was
the Embers.
Therefore, it can be argued that the Raleigh-based
group's
rise to prominence did not coincide with the
rise of beach music but that it actually drove its
promulgation. It is
no stretch to say that were it not
for the Embers, beach music as it is known today would
not exist.
And to take
the argument one step further, the Embers
would not have become the preeminent beach band if not
for their lead singer,
Jackie Gore. Gore and drummer
Bobby Tomlinson started the band while still in high
school and stayed together until
Gore left to pursue a
solo career in 1995. Bassist Gerald Davis joined in
1976, logging 31 years before leaving last
year.
Keyboardist Johnny Barker, who penned the classic
"Summertime's Calling Me," sandwiched a 15-year career
with
the Embers around stints with the Catalinas and
Entertainers. Sax man and singer Mark Black and
guitarist Jeff Grimes
were Embers for over two
decades, and when Grimes departed shortly after Davis,
the seeds of a reunion were planted.
"I'd
already talked to Jackie about it as soon as I
left," said Davis before the show Friday, "and we
talked to Johnny and
Mark, but when Jeff left and
committed to us we knew we had a band."
The five added drummer Tony Davis, horn men
Rusty Smith
and Jason Moore, and longtime Embers sound tech Steve Davis,
began working up some of their classic
hits as well as some newer material, and then hit the
studio.
They released an eponymous CD last fall, which
not only has several singles on the beach-music charts
simultaneously,
but gave them product to peddle at
their live shows.
Gore, who wrote the all-time anthem "I Love Beach
Music"
in 1979, remarked, "I can't tell you what a
pleasure it is to play with these guys. And being here
tonight, it's like
we never left. It's like being
young again."
That's what happens when you're a legend.
Comment on this story
at yesweekly.com or e-mail
editor@yesweekly.com.
__________________________________________________________
Saturday, August 18, 2007
ANOTHER GREAT ARTICLE ON THIS GREAT BAND!
New band, familiar faces
By Gina Childress Daily Times Staff Writer
What do you get when you bring together five former members of the music group
The Embers? You get a new beach music group and a familiar sound that is unmistakable.
Former Embers Gerald Davis, Jackie Gore, Johnny Barker, Jeff
Grimes, Tony Davis and Mark Black, along with Steve Davis, and newcomers Tony Davis, Rusty Smith and Jason Moore have come
together to form their own group, Legends of Beach.
Over the years, the musicians left the Embers for various reasons, but they all seemed to have a burning
desire to get back together and perform. It just never seemed to be the right time -- until now.
"This is a dream come true," said Wilson native Tony Davis, "I never thought it would really happen.
This feels like it was meant to be."
Gerald Davis of Wilson said The Embers were going in a new direction: "I wanted to get back to the
original sound."
To reach his goal, Gerald Davis, who had been performing full-time until recently, got in touch with
former band members and friends Gore, Barker, Grimes and Tony Davis about two months ago. The group almost immediately began
working on their music.
Gore, the 65-year-old co-founder of the Embers and the vocalist and writer of the hit song "I Love
Beach Music," was immediately behind the plan.
"I was completely blown away when Gerald called me with
the idea," Gore said. "Old friends are finally back together doing what we love. This is a group that I feel very confident
bragging on each and every member."
Gore, who has been performing full-time for many years, sang with other groups, including Jackie Gore
and the Mighty All Stars. He also performed solo.
Tony Davis said he is performing with the cream of the crop. "Everyone is on the same page musically,"
he said. "We want to enjoy life and perform together."
Davis said that the ideal situation would be for the group to perform about three times a week. "We
would like to spend most of our time in the studio, recording," he said.
Jeff Grimes not only plays an instrument with the band and sings vocals, he is also engineering the
group's new CD. Grimes owns Jeff Grimes Music Services, a recording studio on John Street in Goldsboro.
Not only did he perform with the Embers, but he has worked with other well-known vocalists. Adorning
a wall in his studio are pictures of some of the musicians he has worked with over the years: Reba McEntire, Cuba Gooding,
Buck Owens, DeBarge and Billy Dean.
To round out the vocals, Mark Black and Johnny Barker,
both former members of the Embers, have joined the group as well. Barker wrote the classic, "Summertime's Calling Me."
Additional musicians are Rusty Smith and Jason Moore, along with Wilson native Steve Davis, who was
the sound technician for the Embers for more than 20 years.
The musicians' families are excited about the new band, and so are fans.
Lori Wiggs, a Wilson native and avid beach music lover, was happy to hear the news.
"I think it's wonderful!" she said. "They are what originated beach music. I'm glad to hear they're
coming back," she said. "I can't wait!"
The CD, which the Legends have been working on for the past six weeks, will feature 13 songs, most
of which are original. Included are "Summertime's Calling Me" and "I Love Beach Music."
"Feels Like the Real Thing" is what the group thinks will become their signature song. It lets everyone
know how glad the men are to be back together again and what they hope to accomplish. It also is reminiscent of their earlier
days and all of the good times they had:
"... Do you think we could get it together one more time, Cause when we played our songs together,
We all knew it was something special ..." the lyrics read.
The group held a dress rehearsal in Virginia earlier this month. It sold out in a matter of hours.
"It was a wonderful experience," Gerald Davis said. He said it couldn't have gone better, and the group is already booking
for spring.
"This will be the last group I perform with," Gore said, "and there are no other people I would rather
end my career with -- my family," he said.
gina@wilsontimes.com | 265-7816
YOU ARE LISTENING TO BURTON GAAR!
BURTON GAAR LOUISIANA GUY WITH
SOME BEACH MUSIC SONGS ON THE CHARTS.
HOLE IN MY HEART
100 POUNDS OF TROUBLE
LEAVE IT ALONE
| THIS IS BURTON GAAR |
|
| BLUES MAN GONE BEACH |
RICK STRICKLAND IS NOT REALLY NEW BUT HE NOW HAS HIS OWN BAND. YOU CAN CATCH
THEM AT PIVOTS THE LAST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH . BOOK THE RICK STRICKLAND BAND FOR YOUR NEW YEARS EVE PARTY!
CALL BIG MAMMA 843-814-0577
| RICK STRICKLAND IS NOT REALLY A NEW ARTIST |
|
|
| BUT HE NOW HAS A BAND / LOOKING FOR NEW YEARS EVE GIG ! |
DO YOU HAVE THE NEW LOCALS TOO CD? IT IS CALLED A LITTLE MEAT ON THE SIDE . OF COURSE FROM MOLLY'S
SONG. YOU CAN GET ONE AT J B PIVOTS BEACH CLUB.
THESE THREE GUYS ARE CALLED WALLSTREET AND THEY HAVE A GREAT SONG ON THE CD. IT IS CALLED "CLOSING
TIME" . THEY ALSO HAVE A GREAT SONG OUT CALLED "FINALLY FRIDAY" AND ONE CALLED "THE LITTLE THINGS" WE HAVE JUST ADDED
THEM TO THE 2008 CHARLESTON BEACH MUSIC AND SHAG FESTIVAL
LISTEN!
WE HAVE THE CD'S AT J B PIVOTS ALSO SO PICK ONE UP TONIGHT.
| WALLSTREET |
|
| JUST ADDED TO THE CHARLESTON BEACH MUSIC AND SHAG FESTIVAL |
HEAR WALLSTREET AT THE 2008 FESTIVAL
WE NEED TO BOOK WALLSTREET FOR YOUR NEXT PARTY . CALL TODAY
TO BOOK WALLSTREET!. 843-814-0577
|
