Photo Credit: Jason Thrasher

Chickasaw Mudd Puppies

When guitarist Ben Reynolds and singer/harpist/washboard player Brant Slay started playing around northeast Georgia as a twangy, reverb-drenched rock duo in the late 1980s, they were dubbed by critics and fans as "stomp-blues" and "swamp-rock." Listening back to some of the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies' classic recordings, however, one also finds elements of '60s-era folk music, jangly power-pop, old-school country, gospel and garage-rock.

"And maybe a little punk, too," Reynolds says. "I love really stripped-down blues guys like R.L. Burnside or gospel guys like Boyd Rivers, but I also love Big Star, AC/DC and whatever grabbed me by the throat, musically or lyrically."

A native of Waynesboro, GA (located south of Augusta), Reynolds met Slay (a product of the Columbus area) while enrolled at the University of Georgia. Shortly after the pair started gigging out, indie labels and music venues began calling.

In 1989, the Puppies hooked up with a small label called Texas Hotel and released a lo-fi, high-energy debut collection titled White Dirt. It struck a chord with fans around the Southeast.

"Athens and its scene at the time definitely figured into things," Reynolds says. "We were given the opportunity to do something we probably wouldn't have had as some bar band in another town. Then there's the whole Southern thing, which we certainly embrace. For all of it's good and bad things, we are from [the South], and we try to write about it all."

The album was also a hit at college radio stations across the country. That success led to a deal with Wing Records, a subsidiary of Mercury. Working with two unlikely co-producers, blues legend Willie Dixon and R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe, the Puppies recorded and released a slightly more polished album, 8 Track Stomp, in 1991.

By that time, the band had become a full-time job for its two members, and their versatile mix of rock sounds allowed them to perform in just about any situation. Slay banged on assorted percussion instruments, including something he called a stomp board (usually placed at the foot of his antique rocking chair), a washboard, cowbells and various pieces of scrap metal. Reynolds stuck with electric and acoustic guitar, occasionally switching to dobro and lap steel.

"What was crazy about our band back in the day was that we could play at CBGB's in New York, an arena in L.A. or a folk festival in Georgia," Slay says. "It wasn't easy for people to pigeonhole us and describe what kind of band we were. Maybe that was part of our demise—no one knew what genre we were."

Indeed, after a few frustrating road trips and unsavory run-ins with music business folks, the Puppies disbanded in late 1992. Reynolds eventually became a science teacher and course coordinator at UGA, while Slay settled into a position as land protection manager at the Nature Conservancy in Georgia.

But in 2011, the band surprisingly reformed as a trio with the addition of an old musical colleague, drummer Alan "Lumpy" Cowart, previously of Florida Americana trio Beggar Weeds. "One thing I feared about getting back together as a band as I'm pushing 50 years old was having to beat on that stomp board," Slay says, laughing. "So, we're very glad that Lumpy's in the lineup."

The newly assembled threesome re-recorded an old Puppies tune called "Chickenbone" for the original soundtrack to Simon West's indie film The Mechanic. Things were clicking once again, and the band moved ahead. To the delight of longtime fans, it hasn't slowed down. The Puppies will head into John Keane Studios in Athens to track an album of new material this fall.

"We keep time better now that Lumpy's in the band," Reynolds says. "I don't have to play so hard or so much. There are spaces I covered on guitar that percussion now covers differently and more effectively… Learning to lay out some has been a fun challenge."

Slay agrees that the band is tighter and more confident these days, but says the chemistry between him and Reynolds hasn't changed at all.

"Now that we're playing again, we've found that we still have that raw, nine-volt battery energy about us," Slay says. "I think we still have that uniqueness, a style than only Ben and I can imagine. It carries over. We're smarter people now than we were then. but that raw, rock energy is still the same. When we play live, we see eight-year-olds dancing right next to 80-year-olds. Not every band can say that."

WHO: Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, Eddie & the Public Speakers
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 28, 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $10