A Moment Of Noise

Had a bang-up time at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night. Folks being honored included Gregg Allman, Dallas Austin, Felice Bryant, Jermaine Dupri and R.E.M. Of course, we were there to see R.E.M., who played a three-song set with Bill Berry behind the drum kit: “Begin The Begin,” “Losing My Religion,” and “Man On The Moon.” Michael Stipe dedicated “Moon” to former Texas Governor Ann Richards, who passed away four days ago.

After R.E.M. was Gregg Allman, who played “Sweet Melissa” on acoustic guitar followed by a pretty song I’d never heard before on piano. Allman then closed the ceremony with “Georgia On My Mind” before being joined onstage by R.E.M. (minus Stipe) to cap the night with a joyously rockin’ version of “Midnight Rider.” Everybody — on stage and off — was grinning ear to ear.

An unexpected highlight of the evening was learning about Felice Bryant, a songwriter I’d never heard of before. But somebody performed a medley of some of her hits — recorded back in the day by artists such as Little Jimmy Dickens, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, and others — and that was very cool.

If you’ve never been to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, it is definitely worth a day trip to check it out.

[ Thanks to Jim Johnson for the photo! ]

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 17th, 2006 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Other Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.