Take in the Lasershow and Georgia’s music heritage
Hall of fame shows off artifacts at Stone Mountain’s Memorial Hall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, July 16, 2009
There’s a heaping helping of rock at “the Rock” this summer, plus some country, R&B, blues, gospel and hip-hop.
Stone Mountain Park is presenting “Our Music Is Georgia Music,” an exhibit organized by the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, in Memorial Hall. The hall boasts large picture windows overlooking the lawn where visitors take in the park’s nightly Lasershow Spectacular, which this summer, not coincidentally, includes a segment dedicated to Georgia hall inductees.
Phil Skinner/pskinner@ajc.com
The nearly 40 artifacts cut a wide swath across Georgia music, from Little Richard’s scarlet-shaded, sequins-strapped boots to Robert Shaw’s baton to boat shoes so flattened and worn out by Widespread Panic’s John Bell that they look more like catcher’s mitts.
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“Our Music Is Georgia Music” is sort of sampler platter of the Macon hall of fame attraction, featuring cool artifacts from some of the varied players who’ve found the Peach State a peachy place to make music.
As Georgia-bred tunes such as Gregg Allman’s “I’m No Angel” and the B-52s “Love Shack” crank on Memorial Hall speakers, visitors can eye exhibit cases boasting items such as a golden ring sent as an invite to Ludacris’ 30th birthday bash in Las Vegas (guests had to wear the party rings to gain entry) to a white fedora once donned by country picker Chet Atkins.
The nearly 40 artifacts cut a wide swath across Georgia music, from Little Richard’s scarlet-shaded, sequins-strapped boots to Robert Shaw’s baton to boat shoes so flattened and worn out by Widespread Panic’s John Bell that they look more like catcher’s mitts.
You may ask yourself how such disparate artists could possibly hail from one state. “Home Grown and World Known,” an accompanying 20-minute film shown nonstop in a side gallery, attempts to answer.
“It must be the magnolias or something,” B-52s singer Kate Pierson speculates in the documentary, “but there’s something in the air in Georgia that just makes creativity, I think.”
Classical violinist Robert McDuffie confesses that he learned about chamber music by listening to guitar duets by fellow Maconites the Allman Brothers Band. And Columbus folklorist Fred Fussell and country singer Ronnie Milsap separately speak to the way different music traditions rub up against each other, and rub off on each other, amid Georgia’s thick humidity.
Some of the items playing off each other in Memorial Hall include:
? A cherry red Model 18105 Bo Diddley square guitar made by Gretsch Guitars of Savannah.
? A 1967 day-glo-hued poster for the 7th annual Shower of Stars at New York’s Apollo Theatre, headlined by Otis Redding but featuring an endless bill of talent, from Carla Thomas to the 5 Stairsteps.
? Hand-made ukuleles that the late married songwriters Boudleaux and Felice Bryant used to compose hits including “Rocky Top” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.”
? A copy of a 1966 Georgia House resolution soliciting Johnny Mercer to compose a work to be considered as the state’s official song (“Georgia on My Mind” later took that honor).
? An Ampex reel-to-reel tape recorder used to record Ray Charles in 1959 at Atlanta’s Herndon Stadium for the classic Atlantic album “Ray Charles in Person.”
? Hand-printed lyrics for the song “I’m Sorry” on lined notebook paper by teen sensation Brenda Lee: “You tell me mistakes/ Are part of being young/ But that don’t right/ The wrong that’s been done.”
? A fan letter to ’60s bubblegum star Tommy Roe on groovy blue stationery with squiggly floral and paisley shapes: “You are one of my favorite singers … Could I please have either a picture or something personal of yours?”
“Our Music Is Georgia Music” is the second in a series of Memorial Hall exhibits intended to extend Stone Mountain’s mission of preserving Georgia heritage and at the same time give guests one more reason to revisit the attraction, says Stan Morrell, special events, entertainment and guest experience director.
The first show was “Courage of Conviction,” paintings by Ted Ellis depicting African-American soldiers from the Revolutionary War through World War II. Following “Georgia Music” will be “Pow Wow: Ritual and Regalia,” featuring Native American drums, clothing, feathers and art works, Sept. 12-Nov. 29. That exhibit is being mounted in conjunction with the park’s 10th annual Indian Festival & Pow Wow,” Nov. 5-8.
The music exhibit grew out of a similar synergy. Morrell had contacted the Georgia Music Hall of Fame for input on a laser show tribute to the state’s musicians that he wanted to add, and a partnership was struck to create the exhibit, too.
While the film and wall text developed by the Macon hall include many artists across the genres, some visitors may wonder why there are artifacts representing, say, gospel stars Hovie Lister or big band singer Connie Haines, but nothing from much better-known acts such as R.E.M. or Trisha Yearwood.
Morrell acknowledges that the display is “somewhat eclectic,” shaped by what the Macon hall had available to travel, but that he wished for it to hold some surprises, too. “We wanted a very broad experience. … Some [artists] are not as well known, but we have visitors saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know they were from Athens or Atlanta.’”
The laser show’s five-minute Georgia music tribute jumps for the most familiar, however, featuring the music of Little Richard, Otis Redding, Indigo Girls, the B-52s, R.E.M., OutKast, Ray Charles, Sugarland, Alan Jackson and the Allman Brothers.
James Brown closes out the segment, which falls just before the National Anthem finale, with “I Feel Good.”
“You can see the audience bouncing around,” Morrell says, “and you can tell, with that closer, that everybody does indeed feel good.”
