The Loft Celebrates 32 Years – June 21
With The Infectious Groove of the Macon Music Revue
By Frank Etheridge
The Loft will shake with the deep sounds of Southern rock and roll history this month, with the sights and sounds of our down-the-road sister city’s musical heritage taking up residence in The Loft’s gorgeous Green Room space for a performance to be remembered. Much more than a tribute group, this radical crew of exceptional musicians will channel Macon’s iconic hitmakers in a blowout concert to celebrate the Loft’s 30+ year run as one of the centers of local music in the Valley.
Loft owner and serial entrepreneur Buddy Nelms knew he needed to find a first-string act to bring to the stage, and knew just who to ask – Lisa Love, director of the Georgia Music Foundation. “If she recommends something, I damn sure pay attention,” he says.
Describing Love as a “Georgia music historian” and “true music lover,” Nelms has worked with her for decades, with collaborations including booking bands for the short-lived but stellar Cutbait Music Festival, which brought cutting-edge talent such as Chris Stapleton to play the Broadway median stage. When it came to finding the right vibe to celebrate the Loft’s 32nd anniversary this month, Nelms once again turned to Love.
Her recommendation? The Macon Music Revue, a talented, diverse five-piece performing all the hits and some deep cuts of songs connected to the Middle Georgia city next door, home to Otis Redding, Little Richard and the Allman Brothers. The band, which serves as the house band every Wednesday night at legendary Southern rock/blues bar Grant’s Lounge, plays the Loft’s Green Room on Friday, June 21 to celebrate the Loft’s birthday, kicking off what Nelms promises to be “a great weekend of music.” The Macon Music Revue’s captivating, high-energy show wowed a huge crowd on Broadway last month for the Miracle Riders homecoming.
“They’re the real deal,” Nelms says. “They’re like the Wednesday night house band we have here, Sweet South. They have that rich Southern flavor and seem to fit what the Loft’s all about.”
What the Loft is all about is its role as a cornerstone for local music and community, both in Columbus and the wider region.
“I can’t overstate my admiration for Buddy Nelms,” Love writes in an email to The Local. “His commitment and dedication to presenting live music at The Loft has long been a cornerstone for sustaining the music community in Columbus. He and Pat Patten care so much about artists and every musician I’ve ever known who has played The Loft speaks of it with genuine respect and fondness.”
With a combination of Georgia music familiarity, expertise and vantage point unlike any other, Love’s regard for MMR and the city of Macon’s music heritage to which one should “damn sure pay attention.”
“When you talk about a city’s musical inheritance, Macon’s is extraordinary,” says Love, a former state Department of Economic Development official and longtime caretaker of the Georgia Music Foundation,
which turns 30 this year. “As a preservation band, the Macon Music Revue digs deep into the catalogs of Little Richard, Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers Band, mines the considerable Capricorn Records roster—Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, Swamp Dogg and more—and includes a lot of tunes folks don’t even realize are part of Macon’s lineage.”
Love adds, “The Revue is special because it features a new generation of local talent.” The band features keyboardist Ethan Hamlin, whose piano play is true to the tradition of Gregg Allman and Chuck Leavell; guitarist Dustin McCook, whose searing slide work was hailed by Guitar Player magazine; and deep-groove bass prodigy Evan Bentzel. For this special show at the Loft, MMR will be joined by Atlanta’s fire-hot Terminus Horns, featuring Richard Sherrington (trombone) and Umcolosi Terrell (saxophone).
Charles Davis, actor and radio personality at Macon radio’s 100.9 The Creek known for his fierce, gospel style vocal delivery, fronts the group. “I leave the musicianship to the guys behind me,” Davis says with a laugh. “They’re the future of Macon music and it’s a real honor I get to share the stage with them every Wednesday night.”
When covering their hometown’s vast catalog, “We make sure to change up the set lists,” Davis explains of MMR’s approach. “We always look to include Otis Redding, Little Richard, the Allman Brothers, and James Brown – who recorded his first two hit singles in Macon that launched his stardom. And there’s so much more, like Rev. Pearly Brown, who Duane Allman said he got a lot of his slide technique from. We go into REM. Atlanta Rhythm Section. Wet Willie. Brent Cobb. Jimi Hendrix – he walked these streets.”
Davis says MMR’s shows deliver a “nostalgia trip,” but the band makes the songs uniquely their own through fresh interpretations. “I get to sing some of everything,” he says. “It doesn’t really matter the genre – there’s all these great songs by all this great talent from this city. It’s really cool.”