Événement

The Original Super Grit

It was twenty years ago today-wait, that's not it..it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving 1974. Bill Lyerly wanted to get out of mainstream rock and roll and get into country music and Clyde Mattocks wanted to get out of mainstream country and get into country rock. The two were from Kinston but had never met-until that Saturday. It was pure magic from the first note, and within a couple of months Super Grit Cowboy Band was born. When Bill tried to book the band into rock and roll venues he was told "it's too country" and when Clyde tried to book the band into country venues he was told "it's too rock and roll". "That's when we knew we were doing something right," says Mattocks. Super Grit's first gig: The Attic in Greenville, and what happened? The band tore down the house and left jaws on the floor. College towns seemed to have the perfect venues for Super Grit, like The Town Hall in Chapel Hill and The Pier and Café Déjà Vu in Raleigh. But it was still new territory for Lyerly and Mattocks. Within a year venues were actually sprouting up for the sole purpose of housing Super Grit concerts. The band began recording an album of songs penned by Lyerly and Mattocks. Super Grit's self-titled first album was released in the summer of 1977, one month after Lyerly left the band to pursue a solo career. In 1979 the Bill Lyerly Band was formed and, like Super Grit, is still going strong. Both bands had Billboard Top 100 Country hits in the 80s, Lyerly on the RCA label and Grit on their own hood Swamp label. There were (and still are) many reunions featuring both bands and endless jams. At Mattocks' suggestion, he and Lyerly formed an acoustic duo, Bossmen, named after a book about the parallel lives and music of Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters. This is still an active project. Lyerly has relocated to northern Spain and is currently on the Gaztelupeko Hotsak label. He has six CDs and three albums and has recently remastered his entire catalog at the world famous Abbey Road Studios in London. Super Grit has five albums and five CDs. Lyerly and Mattocks even have a CD together, "Requiem Mess," reviewed at its release by Blue Suede News as "one of the year's best." Both bands have performed with the who's who of rock and roll, country, bluegrass and blues. Years ago The Village Voice proclaimed Super Grit as "the South's hottest honky tonkers." Nash Arts presents the Original Super Grit featuring Bill Lyerly & Clyde Mattocks on Friday March 1, 2013 at 8PM.