Jamie

I have been singing, songwriting, playing guitar and piano since 1978. It's been my pleasure to have played with some awesome musicians. My first gig in 1979 was playing bass and vocals for RapidFire, a southern rock band with Ronnie Parker on lead guitar &vocals, Larry Pruitt on rhythym guitar, and David Chandler on drums & vocals. __________I spent the summer of 1979 in Detroit where I became reaqquainted with a childhood friend named Greg Perlongo. Greg was also a fine guitarist and was into outlaw & classic country & southern rock. We instantly hit it off and I began gigging with Greg's band on the Detroit scene. Through Greg I met bassist Tom Dawson and we all had instant chemistry, we decided that after high school we were going to do something. _________I went home to Tennessee & started my own band in 1981 swapping lead and rhythym guitar roles with my younger brother David Spaulding, Connie Doughten on rythym guitar & vocals, Neel King on bass, and David Charlton on drums. I went back to Detroit for the summers of 1981 and 1982 and again spent the summer with Greg & Tom, gigging and working on our chops. To make a long story shorter, Greg & Tom moved to Tennessee and we formed the Tennessee Drifters (a play on Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys). Greg, Tom, my brother David, Connie Doughten, and David Charlton made up the Drifter's line up. Unfortunately, the economic malaise of the late seventies and early eighties was in full swing and day jobs and gigs were hard to come by. We held out for 8 months practicing 8 hours a day, five or six days a week. __________Now we weren't just friends, we were family by marriage. One of Greg's niece's married my cousin on my Dad's side of the family and another niece of his would later marry a cousin on my mom's side of the family. Greg & Tom had to move back to MI due to being broke. These two guys, to this day, are my brothers. The original songs I wrote and arrangements we came up with are still fresh sounding even today. Tom ended up marrying another niece of Greg's and the whole bunch now lives back in Tennessee. Greg has three kids and lives with his wife in Algood TN. Tom and Rhonda have two beautiful, smart, daughters and have recently adopted Zachariah. They live in Sparta, TN. They own and run Coffee Corner and The Natural Answer in downtown Sparta. And __________.Through Greg, I also met the guy that would be the bassist for my next band. Donnie Hopps was new to the bass and didn't have the experience under his belt that Tom had, but he had an excellent work ethic. Our rehearsals were known to be brutal and long. Many times we'd finish and I'd go by the music room and there Donnie would be, still working. He went on to become one of the finest bassists I've ever played with. We started gigging in 1986 as Renegade. Because I was well known in our region, many times we were advertised as Jamie Spaulding and the Renegades. The name, however, was Renegade. The lineup was me- lead/rythym guitar, lead vocals, David Spaulding- lead/rythym guitar, Donnie Hopps- bass & vocals, Scottie "everso" Easley- drums._________Through all my years of playing music I had a group of friends that were, by default, road managers, stage managers, sound engineers, lighting technicians, drivers and roadies. The two that had been there the longest were George "Pappy" Akers and Kenny "Rooster" Gargus. These two were as much a part of my music as I was. Valentines Day of 1987, Renegade had a gig at the Eagles Club in Union City TN. Kenny, usually ran the light board, while George ran the sound. Kenny asked if we could handle the Eagles gig without him, as he had an old friend in town and wanted to spend some time with him. We said sure. _______We did the gig and load out and got to our house about 2AM Feb.15,1987. At 5AM I got a phone call from the ambulance service because I was a first responder. They said that there were people injured in a house fire, gave me the address and asked if I could respond. I said yes and pulled on my clothes. When I opened my front door I knew why that address souned familiar. I could see the southeastern horizon glowing orange and realized that Kenny's house was on fire. ___________The toughest thing I've ever done in my life was to wake up my brother after returning home from the call to tell him Kenny was gone. They had been friends since elementary school. Renegade had played their last gig._________ We were stunned and shocked. We were so young. We were immortals. We did all kinds of high risk stuff for fun, i.e., rapelling, caving, hunting, shooting (even rapelling off of all the local water towers at night!). The "what ifs" were hard to understand. What if we'd told Kenny we really needed him for the lights. He would've crashed at our house. He slept there 80% of the time anyway. Gig or no gig. I think that was a watershed moment for us all. I know, personally, I began to think about the future. A steady girlfriend maybe, a family of my own, a real job. I guess I grew up the day I was pall bearer for Kenny. Kenny's dad also died in that fire cause he went back in to find Kenny because he wasn't outside with the other family members._________ When Renegade broke up, Donnie went back home and went to broadcasting school and is now producing the news on Detroit's Fox affiliate and is the father of five. We also stay in touch and are thankful for our brotherhood.Since 1984 I had been singing at the Strand Theatre in Millington, TN. It was a local Opry type show held every Saturday night. So if there was a Saturday night that the band had no gig, or I had no band, I sang there. It was an easy $80 to $100 depending on the generosity of the crowd who would lay dollars on the stage if they liked what you were doing. I continued to do so until New Year's Eve 1988. That night I was the last entertainer and had the honor of ringing in the New Year with the good folks there. On stage, I announced my engagement to my girlfriend Mary Rae Gulick (another person I picked up on one of those trips to MI). That was my last performance at the Strand. _________We married in July of 1989 and moved to Nashville. I tried doing some writers nights at the Blubird Cafe and other beer joints that take advantage of all the talented and broke people in the Nashville area._______ It didn't take me long to realize that talent has very little to do with making it in the music business anymore. I became disillusioned with the whole mess and started my family life with the birth of my son Ethan, in 1992. I continued to play but not professionally. I hadn't written much over the last few years. _________ I moved back to West TN in 1993 and went to work at Goodyear in 1994 where I met Mark Macklin and Neill Pate. We began writing together in 1995 and I must say my songs from this era are probably some of the best I've written, i.e., "Trade it All for Love", "One Lost Angel" "I still Think of You" etc... We recorded under the name of P.M.S. (Pate, Macklin, & Spaulding) and got some local radio play. ____________The last few years I have been playing with Richard Holt and company aka R.H.A.C. Richard Holt on rythym guitar/vocals, Mike "Cornbread" Weathers rythym/lead guitar/vocals, Neel King (yep, same one that played bass for me back in '81-82') on bass and Jeff Henderson on drums & vocals. We play for fun not money and sometimes we play for Jesus, at church. And we do have fun. I'm also again doing some gigs with my "brother" Tom Dawson, as a part time guitarist for the Tony Drake Band. It's a blast and Tony Rocks! __________ My music has brought me great opportunities like meeting Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash & June Carter,(two of the nicest people I've ever met). Johnny and June spent the better part of an hour talkin' to me about the music business and just life in general, and it was the first time they met me. I've met Johnny Russell and played on Beale St. with Tommy Boyce. I like to talk of the old days. I had a blast. But my most important contributions to the world are my kids. Ethan, Nathan, and Savannah, continue to be blessings to me everyday. I love them and their mom, Mary, very, very, much. I will never make my name a household word but I am very successful. I wouldn't trade my life with anyone. __________ And to all my brothers, Greg, Tom, Donnie, Scottie, Cornbread, Neill, Mark, Neel, Jeff, George, new little brother Tony, and last but not least, David: I know some of you have found the same success I have. Others of ya are still out there pluggin'. Still looking. God bless ya! I hope you get what ya want. Have faith in Christ & keep in touch. Jamie