From: will.dockery@gmail.com   
      
   The history of the Columbus-Phenix City folk rock music scene, by Rick Edwards.   
      
   =============================================================   
      
   My tribute to Robert George, published in Playgrounds Magazine in January of   
   2010.   
      
   ROBERT GEORGE   
   I first met Robert George in front of the Electric Toadstool in January of   
   1971 and we remained friends for the next 40 years. Sadly, Robert passed away   
   on December 20, 2009, he was 67 years young. Robert and I became fast friends;   
   he, just recently back    
   from a tour in Viet Nam and me recently out of my tour with the U.S. Navy but   
   that is not what bound us together. I was a fledgling singer/songwriter with a   
   voice that could curl hair and a quite crude and abrasive style on rhythm   
   guitar; Robert, on the    
   other hand, had that ‘smooth as silk’ type of voice that only a few are   
   blessed with and a very sure and confident approach on guitar. We played every   
   chance we got and in so doing I was inspired to be a little smoother on the   
   guitar and, though he    
   couldn’t give me that silky voice, he did assist greatly in my learning to   
   maximize the voice I possessed. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many songs   
   Robert knew from memory; no matter how many times we played and jammed   
   together he could always    
   manage to pull one of those old folk/bluegrass/ole timey songs out of his   
   head: songs like “In The Pines”, “Chitlin’ Cookin’ Time In Cheatham   
   County”, The Wreck of The Old 97” or “On The Banks of The Ohio” and he   
   would always see to it    
   that I learned them well enough to play along.   
   Actually, I met his future wife and soul-mate, Mary, in November of 1970,   
   before I met Robert; she was just a young girl that had run away from her home   
   in Texas and was living with a mutual friend. These friends were also friends   
   with Robert’s sister,    
   Mavis, so one weekend in January of 1971; they took Mary up to Atlanta to meet   
   Robert and the rest, as they say, is history. 40 years together though they   
   weren’t married until January 11, 1978.   
   In 1973, Robert, Doug Martin, my brother, Roger Woodham and I formed an old   
   timey/bluegrass band called “The Chattahoochee Valley Boys” and played for   
   a fundraiser for Lester Maddox at the rodeo arena in LaGrange, GA with Junior   
   Samples of Hee Haw    
   fame; it was so cold we couldn’t feel our fingers. We also played a number   
   of times at Old Bullochville in Warm Springs, GA. In 1974, Robert and Mary   
   moved to Franklin, NC and lived there until, in 1976, Roger Woodham and Doug   
   Martin paid a visit and    
   convinced Robert to move back to the Columbus/Phenix City area and form a   
   bluegrass band with them; thus began the “Bluegrass Revue”. They played   
   almost every night at Pennypacker’s and my friends, Henry Parker, Ron   
   Hildreth and I played happy hour;   
    the music in that place was magical, to say the least.   
   In June of 1977, the Bluegrass Revue began their tenure at Country’s BBQ on   
   Mercury Drive in Columbus, GA and, even with the passing of Doug Martin in   
   1985 and Gene Jackson in 1987; they have continued to perform every weekend at   
   that establishment.    
   Even now, with the passing of Robert, the torch for the Bluegrass Revue has   
   been passed to Robert’s youngest son, John who will continue at Country’s   
   with the bands latest incarnation.   
   Through all of Robert’s life he touched and was touched by countless   
   musicians and music lovers; every bluegrass musician worth his/her salt for   
   miles around have graced the stage with Robert George and the Bluegrass Revue.   
   The legendary fiddler, Gene    
   Jackson, joined the band in 1978 and performed with them until his death in   
   1987; there were nights when another legendary fiddler, Willie Guy, would drop   
   by and do some twin fiddling and sometimes Carter Rushing would also get into   
   the mix. Those were,    
   indeed, special times.   
   Somewhere around 1978, Robert and Henry Parker went down to the Dixieland   
   Bluegrass Festival and competition to try and win a recording contract; I was   
   supposed to go but family matters kept me away until the next day. Needless to   
   say, they won first    
   place with their rendition of “The Great, Speckled Bird”; Robert on guitar   
   and singing and Henry on slide acoustic guitar. They were not supposed to win   
   as the promoters had other ideas but the crowd simply went nuts and since   
   crowd response was the    
   deciding factor they won a recording contract.   
   I’m telling this story for a very specific reason because the life of Robert   
   George can’t be told without a number of side bars and the antics of some   
   extremely special and talented characters, of whom I am proud to be a member.   
   Robert came back home    
   with a recording contract but the other members of the Bluegrass Revue refused   
   to be a part of it, mainly because the hard-edged, hard-drinking, no-nonsense   
   singer/songwriter Henry Parker was to be an integral part of it all. So,   
   Robert and Henry decided    
   to break the project into two sections and while Robert was still trying to   
   convince the other members of the Bluegrass Revue into recording Henry was   
   putting together musicians for his portion of the recording. I was brought in   
   on mandolin, Willie Guy    
   on fiddle, Henry’s brother Beni Parker on guitar, my brother, Roger Woodham   
   on guitar and Bill Dewberry on bass. Robert could not sway the Bluegrass Revue   
   so the above mentioned musicians performed on both portions of the recording   
   and will forever be    
   remembered as the band “Homebrew”. In my view, that recording is a   
   classic, it was the first recording studio experience for all of us except   
   Willie Guy, however, it was to be his last.   
   Earlier that year on July 4th, 1978, Robert and Mary put together a bluegrass   
   festival on the land they were renting in Fort Mitchell, AL. To my knowledge,   
   it was the first bluegrass festival ever promoted in this area and was a   
   stepping stone for the    
   career of widely known guitarist Glen Talbot, billed as the fastest guitarist   
   alive. There were more musicians than audience in attendance but it was still   
   a wondrous event; I have photos but I wish I had some video footage.   
      
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