“SOUTHERN COMFORT” with Teagarden & Van Winkle

“SOUTHERN COMFORT” with Teagarden & Van Winkle

Thursday, February 20, was a big night at Finney High (so what if you’ve never heard of it!). The Senior Class sponsored Teagardin and Van Winkle in concert, and man, I swear that place hasn’t been that lively since the boy’s john caught on fire!

Dave Teagardin and Skip Van Winkle had that whole school in the palm of their hands from the moment the first note sounded until the curtains finally closed. I feel confident that' their fantastic music along with those great senses of humor can pull them through hell and back. It was put to a test when, after the second number something strange happened to the organ. Whilst Skip and Joe (the equipment manager) tried to fix it Dave kept a fairly steady conversation going with his audience. I’m sure that 99.7 percent of those people wouldn’t have cared one little bit if the organs and drums both died as long as Skip and Dave stayed up there rapping. You’ve probably gathered by now that it was a rather casual and easy-going evening (if you haven’t you’re pretty slow, friend).. .the band made it that way and I’ve never enjoyed myself more. You always felt as though every comment was directed straight at you. That’s some gift to be able to do that without appearing completely assinine. It could have been those Southern accents that did it but in any case I’m glad that it happened.

Teagardin and Van Winkle have been in the music world for a long time, some eight years to be exact, and have been through many bands during that period. One of those bands went by the name of “L.S.D.&C.” or “Love, Skip, Dave, and Carl” (at least I hope those names are right!). Carl was a guitarist and he left the group for a better job some three years ago. Skip got his big organ at that time and they just never got around to finding a new guitarist.. .thus the birth of Teagardin and Van Winkle. They came to Detroit from their homeland of Oklahoma some eight months ago arid it was hear that they received their new name and cut their first album. Oh yes, in case you were wondering about the house on the cover of the album.. .it’s not theirs, it belongs (or used to belong) to the Fishers and it’s located right here in our Motor City. Their first album, An Evening At Home With Teagardin and Van Winkle, is doing great here and picking up speed in Chicago and on the West Coast. There should be another one released towards the end of March or beginning of April.. .so look forward to it. You’ve got a lot of time to save your pennies in.

Teagardin and Van Winkle are a great group (?) and fabulous people. They have good heads and know how to put a song across well. I’m sure they aren’t going to do one of those over-night deaths; they enjoy themselves too much on stage and won’t give it up easily. I guess we’re all the more luckier because of it.. .and babe, am I glad!

Gayle Clark