Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in Raleigh; A GoFundMe to Help a NC Rock Legend
Months before Newport '65, Dylan and Baez were caught backstage in Raleigh; Nantucket's frontman needs your help.
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in Raleigh, 1965
A Complete Unknown has thrust one of our greatest songwriters back to the forefront of pop culture. While 60 years ago, during the very era the new film chronicles, two students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ended up backstage at Raleigh’s Reynolds Coliseum with folk music’s power couple.
Thomas Goldsmith got the scoop years later for Raleigh’s News and Observer. Read the 2018 account here.
Nantucket’s Larry Uzzell Needs Our Help
Larry Uzzell, the lead singer of ‘70s hard rock legends Nantucket, is currently in long-term care at a health care facility in Durham, NC.
Nantucket - Tommy Redd, Larry Uzzell, Mike Uzzell, Eddie Blair, Kenny Soule, and Mark Downing - started out as Stax of Gold, a hybrid of the soul/beach music sound prevalent in eastern North Carolina in the ‘60s. By the early ‘70s, inspired by Mountain’s majestic “Nantucket Sleighride,” they hardened their sound and christened themselves Nantucket. They were signed by Epic Records in 1977 and released their self-titled debut a year later. Anchored by the classic rockers, “Born in a Honky-Tonk” and “Heartbreaker,” the album sold around 200,000 copies and put them on the road with a veritable who’s-who of late ‘70s hard rockers touring behind peak albums (Boston, Styx, Mother’s Finest, Journey, Cheap Trick, Meat Loaf, KISS, etc).
They followed up their debut with 1979’s Your Face Or Mine and 1980’s Long Way to the Top. On the strength of that album’s title track, a cover of the AC/DC classic, the band was invited to open for AC/DC during the historic Back in Black tour.
Shuffling through different labels and lineups as the ‘80s pressed on (including a stint without Redd but with a pre-Cry of Love Jason Patterson, who eventually became their permanent drummer), the group eventually splintered before reforming in the ‘90s. They continued to tour regionally, keeping their loyal following throughout it all, and eventually making it into the NC Music Hall of Fame. I even got them booked for my hometown Hot Sauce Festival in 2010.
Through it all, Tommy Redd wrote the songs but Larry Uzzell gave them their voice. One of the most underrated voices in hard rock, Uzzell’s vocals could rattle the rafters with the best of ‘em. He was also equipped with a self-effacing southern charm that was as disarming as it was approachable.
Now, he needs our help. Click here for his GoFundMe page, set up by his daughter, Taylor Cylke, to find out more. It’s time to give back to an artist who, through his motley crew of rock’n’roll ne’er-do-wells, have kept us rockin’ and dancin’ in North Carolina and beyond, for generations.
Before you go, we’re all watching the devastation happening in California. Click here for a list of resources on how to help.
Our citizens in Western North Carolina still need our help. Here’s information on how to help there.
I'm sad to hear about Larry's medical issues. I'll throw a couple bucks their way. I lived down the street from Kenny Soule for a year or so and while PKM wasn't really a band I followed at the time, most of the guys seemed like good dudes when I ran into them. Thanks for helping spread the word.
Great poster. (It's sad that almost all the vintage posters you see don't have the year on them)