By Eric Curl
Feb. 21, 2025 – On Wednesday, Jim Reed was on WRUU – 107.5 FM Savannah to discuss the Western NC Hurricane Relief Benefit Album he recently released, which features rare and previously unreleased tracks from over 200 different Savannah-based musical acts. Jim played some songs from the compilation and shared some interesting stories and background about each of those artists with Louis Clausi, host of WRUU’s That Old Savannah Magic. Below you will find some of Reed’s quotes from the discussion, along with links to the individual songs.
ARTIST DISCUSSION
Jon Lee & The One Nineteens – Life Was a Song (2024)
“Not only do I think it’s a great catchy song and performance is great, but it’s also cool that, I mean, they recorded it, produced it all themselves in a home studio.”
Checkmates International – Thinking About You (1966)
“They were one of the first commercially successful kind of early rock and roll bands in this area that were playing their own original compositions.”
Greg Williams – Now That You Know Who You Are (2003-2008)
“My feeling, it’s a personal thing, but for me, I feel like Greg maybe, well, certainly one of the most technically accomplished rock and soul songwriters, singer-songwriters that this area has ever produced that I’m aware of.”
O’Keefe – Good Things (2019)
“I think it’s an amazingly underappreciated album … critically, the people who heard it were very complimentary about this record but underappreciated in the sense that I just don’t think a lot of people have heard it or know about it.”
Hotplate – Trick Pony (2019)
“Every single time I’ve seen them; their musicianship and their compositions blew me away … All of their songs are instrumental. They’re an inventive, quirky, it’s a pretty unpredictable sort of a band.”
Kristina Train & Friends – Came On In (2000)
“I’ll be honest with you, I still think even in 25 years later, I think that if this was on the radio and had a killer video behind it. Right now, I think this could be like, I don’t know, not a giant hit or something, but I mean, this is a very, very commercial song.”
The Vulgar Tongues – Comes The Dawn (2020)
“Jim (Couts) lived here in Savannah, was going to SCAD at the same time I was, so in the mid 1980s, he’s since moved away, and he has gotten into writing and recording songs, not under his own name, but under a band name. And so, this is something that he recorded completely on his own, put out online.”
John Banks Group – Very Jerry (1982)
“The quality on this is not great, the sound quality, but the playing quality is phenomenal… The name of this song is Very Jerry, like a guy’s name, very Jerry. And I am, although John and I did not talk about this, I am certain it’s called Very Jerry, because it’s an original tune he wrote that is meant to be an homage to the great Jerry Reed.”
bOB Holmen – Not Over You (2004)
“Bob is a legendary, iconic Savannah outsider musician, been in a number of bands, and this is a song he recorded. This was actually, I find it very touching as somebody who knew Bob very well, and a dear friend of mine, this is maybe one of the most touching things I’ve ever heard from him.”
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