``It's scary how much Skinny sounds like
Johnny Cash,'' Hannah said.
Gravitt and Cash share the same birthday:
Feb. 26. Cash was born in 1932 and his sound-alike in 1971.
``That's kind of eerie,'' Gravitt said.
So it made perfect sense for the trio to
book a recording session at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tenn.,
on Feb. 26 to celebrate two birthdays and musical roots,
and to feel the ghosts of a studio made famous in the 1950s
by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
The trio, which perform regularly at the
Osceola Tavern in Dade City, made the pilgrimage to Sun
Studios to record 16 songs in a three-hour session at $75
per hour.
``It was definitely eerie being in that
studio,'' Gravitt said. ``It gives you goose bumps. You
could feel them all in there.
``I felt a nervousness like I'd never had
before. I was bone nervous,'' he said. ``It was in that
room where people recorded all the music I've enjoyed. And
to stand on the same spot as Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley
and be recording ... man.''
Hannah said James Lott, who has been at
Sun for 18 years, recorded the session.
``He'd met Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis
and talked to Johnny Cash on the phone,'' he said. ``You
could hear their spirits in your head. We got everything
down in one or two takes, though, and recorded 16 songs.''
`A Real Rockabilly Shrine'
``But it was a setting that made you nervous,
a real rockabilly shrine,'' Hannah said. ``There's photos
of them all up on the walls.''
The trio hope to produce a CD from the session,
which included three original songs and six by Cash, including
``Leave That Junk Alone,'' which the musical legend recorded
but never released.
``It's about leaving alone liquor or whatever
demons you have,'' Hannah said. ``It's haunting, and a song
that needs to be heard. I've got a friend who was gripped
by this song.''
Cash, who died in September, owned a house
along the Cotee River in Port Richey that he considered
a retreat after taming his substance abuse and marrying
June Carter in the 1960s.
Gravitt wrote two of the original session
recordings, ``Let It Rain'' and ``I'll Never See The Light,''
for Cash on a flight from Calafell, Spain.
There, the group played a tribute to Cash
during a rockabilly festival the week he died.
``We got a standing ovation and did three
encores,'' Hannah, 37, said. ``The festival was on a beach
along the Mediterranean in Calafell. It was beautiful and
such an emotional and spiritual gig. We were on a cloud
after that.''
Bell plays acoustic guitar, fiddle and harmonica,
and sings background. Hannah plays guitar.
``I also tried to pay tribute to Luther
Perkins, Johnny Cash's guitarist,'' Hannah said. ``I try
to pick like Luther, and Skinny sings like Johnny.
``And we're just like an early Johnny Cash
group. It was called Johnny Cash with the Tennessee Two.''
The trio formed in 1997 and produced two
albums, ``Skinny McGee and His Mayhem Makers'' and ``Model
A Blues,'' before releasing its 2002 CD, ``Mint Juleps &
Sweet Magnolia,'' available on the trio's Web site, www.skinnymcgee.com.
The trio have played gigs and rockabilly
festivals in Holland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Las
Vegas and Orlando.
``This is a self-supporting habit for us,''
said Hannah, a sign painter and shirt and cap screener.
``We save our money from playing gigs to go to festivals,
and do our own recording at Skinny's house in Winter Haven
with vintage equipment.''
Gravitt, a 33-year-old hairdresser, contrived
his stage name from ``Gilligan's Island.''
``Gilligan had a buddy named Skinny Mulligan
and another friend named McGee,'' he said.
Bell, 38, of Winter Haven, is a band and
concert promoter and former restaurant owner.
Trio Get `People Going'
``Skinny and I were in Winter Haven bands
that broke up and we got together,'' Bell said. ``I'd met
Mark and we added him. We've been together seven wonderful
years, and we're excited about the future. We get people
going, young and old.''
The three men have formed a bond.
``Playing is a relationship,'' Gravitt said.
``Starting a band is like meeting a girl one day and marrying
her that day. You have to learn if they put the cap on the
toothpaste or not, all the idiosyncrasies. Mark and I understand
each other now. It clicks.''
Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170.
This story can be found at:
http://pasco.tbo.com/pasco/MGA61ZWDVRD.html
