Left to Right: Wilbur Walton and Jimmy Dean of "The James Gang".

GEORGIA PINES by Wilbur Walton, Jr. & the James Gang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91w8n6hoWUA

Rest in peace, Wilbur. The great WILBUR WALTON, JR. has died. According to this link, Wilbur passed away on January 11. I plan to post a tribute to Wilbur on my ROCK PILGRIMAGE blog. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/wilbur-walton-obituary?id=38652319

Wilbur's Playground Studios recording of ARE YOU HIDING? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeTLAzKFrFU 

YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF WILBUR WALTON, JR.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wILBUR+wALTON

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KRRIoNh4ww&list=OLAK5uy_k4QpV5lohbPYNytjrMBxEK_RvUF1f7BJY

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIq6Bt2YucU

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rVZgTssw0A&list=OLAK5uy_k4QpV5lohbPYNytjrMBxEK_RvUF1f7BJY&index=4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmBj5icXS7s&list=OLAK5uy_k4QpV5lohbPYNytjrMBxEK_RvUF1f7BJY&index=2

  Wilbur Walton, Jr. on the subject of Panama City Beach's OLD DUTCH TAVERN, "It was a Mecca for dancing, fighting and music; like the Wild West but without the guns.”

Wilbur's Playground Studios recording of ETERNITY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W5ZjwcPTQs 

Wilbur Walton, Jr., Buddy Buie and Tuscaloosa's WTBC's Tiger Jack Garrett:

 
Wilbur: Buddy had it together way before I did. Buddy was managing and writing and there was a group called The Webs & Buddy was managing them. There was Bobby Goldsboro & John Rainey Adkins & Amos Tindall, Dave Robinson...
Was there a piano player, Buddy?

Buddy Buie: No, uh, I don't remember.

Wilbur: Anyway, they were over there rehearsing and they let me set in and sing. I didn't know nothing about it but Buddy...

Buie: But you had already been singing at the fraternity parties, hadn't you?

Wilbur: No! I was already out of high school. I hadn't sung anywhere. I didn't know a key from a...
You don't remember this but I remember a little bit about music.
I don't remember much about other things and I'm happy about that!

LAUGHTER

What were we talking about just then?

Buie: We were talking about...

MORE LAUGHTER

Tiger: Talking bands.

Wilbur: Oh, the band.

Tiger: Yeah.

Buie: Yeah, how you first got together and I said...
I was telling you that I thought that you had sung at the fraternity parties.

Wilbur: Oh yeah! I wanna tell you the first place I think of I ever sang.
You and Goldsboro were going to Birmingham to do some kind of...
I think y'all were going to make some demos and I took the car & y'all let me sang a song I wrote called EMPTINESS.

Buie: Do you know what...

Wilbur: Do you remember that?

Buie: I do remember it now, I believe.

Wilbur: I remember it because I took the car. I'd never sung.

LAUGHTER

That was great that y'all let me do it. I wish I had turned out better.

MORE LAUGHTER

Buie: At every Sigma Nu party at the University of Alabama though later on,
you were part of the entertainment and after you got a band, we put everything together.
You were probably one of the most sought after fraternity bands in town.

Wilbur: Well, I like that kind of music.

Tiger: Well, Wilbur's a lot like me. He doesn't remember everything- just the high points.
I guarantee you they played a lot around here at the University.
I guarantee you I remember that much.
We were fortunate enough to have 'em once or twice maybe at the Ft. Brandon Armory when we were doing our little sock hops at the armory back in those days. You know it's too bad you can't do things like that now days.

Wilbur: I was wondering about that.

Tiger: They just don't work.

Wilbur: Where do people play?

Tiger: I don't know. They don't. They don't play any venues like that. Mostly around here they play at bars, night spots.

Wilbur: There used to be, like you say, sock hops, like at armories.
They'd have 'em at different places and people would come.
It didn't cost an arm and a leg to get in either.

Tiger: I think we charged like two bucks a head and three for a couple, something like that.
'Course I guess that was pretty good money in 1965. It's pretty cheap now.

Buie: And best I remember we paid something like...
When I rented the Dothan Recreation Center where I did my first promoting, if I remember correctly, I paid $75 to rent the building and the chairs.
They had all the chairs I wanted. I just had to put 'em out and put 'em up.

Tiger: And put 'em down...
I think we paid about a hundred bucks for this one here when we first started but, you know, everything changes and that's one of 'em.
That kind of entertainment for kids just doesn't happen anymore.

Wilbur: No.

Tiger: I don't know where it went or why it went.

Wilbur: Well there are more places- more things for 'em to do.

Tiger: Most of 'em stay home and play computer games, I guess.

Wilbur: That seems to be the way of it now.

Tiger: Yeah, but I don't know. Like you say everything changes.

This link contains the entire 2008 WTBC interview with Wilbur (includes some great comments by Johnny Wyker) along with Ben Windham's review of Wilbur's last album, MR. REDBUD. http://robertoreg.blogspot.com/2015_08_09_archive.html