from the band:
A Month at Band Camp : August, 2001

When Cameron, Jess, Stephen, and I made the decision to form a band, we knew that we had our work cut out for us. One thing we set out to do was start strong. We needed to play a lot together - both in the practice room and on stage - so we could begin fusing our collective gifts. So we decided to book five gigs at Potbelly's in Tallahassee - the five Fridays in August, 2001 - and for the second set of each show, we'd cover a different classic rock debut album in it's entirety. After all, it was the debut of our new band, so it seemed fitting to pick debut albums.

We picked the albums in July - each of us picking one album and the band collectively choosing the fifth. We had our first practice on the Monday before the first Friday's show at Bedtime - a mattress store on Tennessee Street. Here's a rundown of our month of August, 2001… fifty-two songs in five weeks… we like to call it Band Camp.

Week 1 - The Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band. This was the band's collective pick. There is no doubt that the Allmans have had an immeasurable impact on our lives and our playing, so it seemed fitting to start our journey by recognizing them first. To make it authentic, we had our friend Trevor Brooks come over from New Orleans to play Hammond B-3 and our friend Paul Harvey played the second drum kit and percussion. This was a good first album to pick because it didn't stretch us too much in our first week. We were familiar with most of the songs and they came real naturally to us. Having two drummers was a blast. At the show we were so geared up for the Allmans set that we beefed the first note of the first song. Oh well.

Week 2 - Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath. This was Cameron's pick. He's always been a huge Ozzy fan. Heck, when he was in middle school, he named his dog Randy (even though she was a she) after Randy Rhoads, the late, great Ozzy guitarist. This was a good one to follow the Allmans with…folks expected us to cover an album, nobody expected Black Sabbath. Cam and Jess sported Jackson "Flying V guitars". We all pulled out our black garb. We encored with Paranoid. The picture on our website from after that show says more than a thousand words.

Week 3 - Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin. This was Jess' pick. He felt that nobody would expect him to pick Zeppelin, but it would be a great "stretcher" for us. Cam singing Robert Plant, me playing Bonham, us sounding like Zeppelin… you very rarely hear bands cover Zeppelin well, and Jess knew that if we could pull it off, we would accomplished quite a bit in our third week of existence. This week we moved our rehearsal place from Bedtime to the Stewart's Warehouse on Lafayette Street. This was a much better place to practice…if not for anything else but Lindy's Fried Chicken. The crowd was really geared up for this show. We were amazed at how many folks knew all of the songs on the album. They were with us from the first hits of Good Times, Bad Times to the last ones of How Many More Times. Jess brought out the bow for Dazed and Confused and How Many More Times. We tried to be as authentic to album as we could. We got a good bootleg from this show (thanks to Jeff Davis). It does a nice job of capturing the energy from that night. After Sabbath and Zeppelin, we were beginning to think hard rock was the way to go…it's so damn fun.

Week 4 - Jimi Hendrix: Axis: Bold As Love. This was Spivey's pick…he loves Hendrix. This is actually Hendrix's second album, but it was released in the same year (1967) as his debut (Are You Experienced?). We had all played most of the songs off of Experienced in our previous bands, so we wanted to learn some other Hendrix stuff. So we went with Axis. We caught folks off guard when Spivey sang the first song off the album (Up From the Skies), and he also sang If 6 was 9. Jess especially had fun with this one because he played his beloved Betsy (Strat) the entire set, which was Betsy's debut with this band. This was the album that we probably had the most fun learning, because we were discovering all of these great songs. Plus, we were getting better at learning songs after three weeks of hitting it hard.

Week 5 - Derek & the Dominos: Layla. This was my pick. I've always loved this album. The passion of the players was captured so well in the studio. They meant every single word they sang and note they played. Very raw, lots of energy. This was the last week of Band Camp - light was at the end of the tunnel. Our friend Floyd Matthews joined us on guitar to cover the third guitar parts. We had a blast listening to Bobby Whitlock's vocal parts on the album (he played keys and was the vocalist). Not to mention the fire that Duane put into the sessions. The ironic thing was the week we were learning this album was the exact week that it was recorded, thirty years later! We didn't plan it that way at all. Just one of those eerie things. Highlights at the show were Keep On Growin', Tell the Truth, and Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad. Not to mention Layla, which we encored with. We also added Lay Down Sally and Badge to recognize other phases of Clapton's brilliant career.

Band Camp - fifty-two songs in less than thirty days, in a mattress store and an old warehouse - neither with air conditioning. Allman, Allman, Betts, Oakley, Jaimo, Trucks, Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward, Page, Plant, Bonham, Jones, Hendrix, Redding, Mitchell, Clapton, Whitlock, Radle, and Gordon. We were inspired by all of them. We learned from all of them. And we learned all of them. That is how Tishamingo was born.
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