version of “Mountain Jam” (based on a riff from Donovan’s “There Is a Mountain”). “Eww—it sounds like country music,” a female friend re- marked. The next evening they all gathered again, at the Cedar Hills National Guard Armory on Normandy Boulevard. A month later the Fantastic Group packed
up and split for Macon. Betts told Guitar World the police ran them out of Jacksonville, but it’s also true that Macon-based manager Phil Walden wanted to keep closer tabs on his investment. The remaining members of the Second Coming tried to soldier on. Wynans and Meeks stayed in Jacksonville, re-adding guitarist/vocalist Rein- hardt to replace Betts, replacing Oakley with Load bassist Richard Price and regrouping as the New Second Coming. The group was intent on salvaging its deal with Hourglass Records and even recorded tracks for an album at Sound Lab in April 1969. However, when the label execs found out their star singer, Dale Betts, was no longer with the group, they deemed the contract void and refused to pay the $6,000 studio bill. With no recording contract, the members decided it might be better to part ways. After forming a short-lived, guitar-less trio
called Ugly Jellyroll featuring bassist/vocalist Gary Goddard, Wynans went back to Bradenton and got a day job. He made a point of keeping in touch with Duane Allman, who hooked him up with Boz Scaggs. From there he went on to an il- lustrious career, working with Captain Beyond (alongside Reinhardt), Jerry Jeff Walker, Delbert McClinton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Joe Bona- massa.
Larry Reinhardt decided to make the move
to Macon, hoping some grand opportunity might present itself—and one did. While he was hanging around the Capricorn offices, a call came in from Iron Butterfly’s management in Los Angeles look- ing for a session guitarist to play on their current recordings. Walden relayed the message to Rein- hardt, who flew to L.A. to record with the Butter- fly. Guitarist Mike Pinera of Tampa band Blues Image also played on Iron Butterfly’s album Metamorphosis. Both Pinera and Reinhardt were recruited to join the band full-time. In 1971, Rein- hardt and Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman would form Captain Beyond, bringing Wynans in a year later.
In November 1969, another musician
friend, guitarist/keyboardist Jesse Gay, and I were browsing at Hoyt Hi-Fi in Roosevelt Mall, very close to the site of the old Scene nightclub where the Second Coming had performed. In a display you couldn’t miss was an album bearing a figure that looked a lot like Berry Oakley doing his best Jesus imitation. Here he was in a church niche wearing a dark robe with both arms out- stretched, as if he were blessing a group of sin- ners below him—a couple of whom looked very familiar. “Is that—?” I stammered as I pointed to
the album. The store clerk, who had obviously been asked this question many times, interjected, “It sure is!” There they were, the Second Coming, rein-
carnated as the Allman Brothers Band. My friend and I shot looks at each other. Suddenly anything was possible. Success in the music biz for local dudes was a reality, not just some pipe dream, as my dad had declared. The parents were wrong! Leon Wilkeson, who would join Lynyrd Skynyrd three years later, told author Lee Ballinger he and many other musicians around town had had the same epiphany: “The Allman Brothers showed us that it could work, that it was worth pursuing— you know, putting your head on the chopping block.”
A local band called One Percent was able
to pick up a lot of loose fans after the Second Coming and its spinoffs left town. Many more Jacksonville bands, such as Cowboy, Blackfoot, .38 Special, Johnny Van Zant Band, Molly Hatchet and others would follow the trail blazed by this band of brothers. •
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
