A few months back, Anita and I had made plans to get together with Kathy and her girls for a Christmas get together. We all agreed to meet in Macon- and visit the "Emory" shrine in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, as none of us had the chance to see it. For those of you unfamiliar with the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, it's quite the big deal. I truly had no clue that artists like Little Richard, Gladys Knight, and Otis Redding were from Georgia. The Georgia Music Hall of Fame also has inducted many of their "Non Performers" that have made a splash in the music industry as well. While I don't quite understand why Emory is listed as a "Non Performer", since he is a musician, I'm quite thrilled to say that Emory was inducted in 1992. As I glanced at the people on the inductee list, this is quite an honor. Emory was inducted before people like Chet Atkins, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, ect. It's great to see that he is so well appreciated in his home state.
As we met up, exchanged our hugs, we hurried into the museum, anxious to see the display. The kids (Kelly Ann, Leslie, and Rhett) all wandered about as we actually stopped to read a few things. Upon entering the actual museum, we saw a few plaques for inductees inducted this past year (Mike Curb being one of them). In honesty- I walked past more than half of them, just glancing at a few. Many names I did not recognize. However, as we stepped into the next room, thanks to Miss Patty, I did recognize some of these artists. Huge plaques and awards hung for Otis Redding. Otis Redding was before my time, and as I grew up on Patty music, I never took the time to listen to many artists besides her. While reading articles and interviews on Patty, I've read over and over the influences of "Percy Sledge and Otis Redding", which peaked my interest to find out who they were. Thanks to that, I was ecstatic to find the area on Otis Redding and actually know about him. We took photos of the kids sitting at the tables in front of Otis Redding walls in honor of Patty.
We headed to the "Country Music" area, which we is where we had expected to find Emory. Upon walking in, we found a Toby Keith display, which made me a little irate. The senator had asked Toby to donate something, and he did. (In my biased opinion, I think that if Toby Keith could have something in a museum that's not his home state, then Patty could too. At least her husband is in the museum!). Anyways, we wandered around, viewing the stuff from Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, ect. I was a bit surprised that there really wasn't a whole lot for each of them. Alan Jackson had donated a guitar and an outfit. But, the more I thought about, the more I had come to the conclusion that these artists are still quite popular, and have stuff demanded from them for different museums all over. I figured we couldn't expect a whole lot from all of them. There were a few artists I had no clue were from Georgia- a few that were born elsewhere, and raised in Georgia, such as Ronnie Milsap. We spotted a jacket and a few albums from Gram Parsons, which we thought were pretty neat. (And made us think of one other beloved Loveless Lunatic, Richard!)
As we headed to the next section, we found sections of a couple non performers....and as we walked further back in the room, there was the display for Emory Gordy Jr! I must admit, caught our eyes first to make us realize that it was Emory's section...was an Only What I Feel album flat hanging on the wall, with a note that Emory is Patty's producer. Next to it were photos of Emory with John Denver, Emory as a High School Student in his marching band uniform, and a few other various photos. Also there was a nice photo of Emory playing bass for Elvis, wearing a blue suit. Below that photo- was the actual blue suit Emory had worn onstage with Elvis! It looked so super tiny! It was pretty neat, especially once I realized it was the actual suit from that photo. In front of the suit was a stand with a few different documents of Emory's that he graciously allowed the Museum to display. One of them being a Memo to him, and another, which we found quite interesting, was one of his contracts for his Elvis days. It was from a 13 day- stint, on the road with Elvis, which said he was paid a little over two thousand dollars for the 13 days. At the bottom of the contract to the left was Elvis' signature, and at the right was Emory's. It was really neat to actually see a Contract, and to see how much he was making at that time for things like that.
To the left of his suit and display, were a few things for a few other non performers, and also a few Chet Atkins things. To the left of that, we found a guitar, which stated it was also Emory's. All of Emory's things were donated by Emory in 1995. Above the guitar, there was a plaque, of more photos with Emory in it. A few of him holding a guitar, playing guitar, and there was also the album sleeve to "Trouble with The Truth" in there. Each thing had a small little section below it that explained what it was, and when Emory donated it. In front of the entire section, you could find a small plaque talking about Emory's career, where he grew up, and of course, who he is married to. Not far from his display, was a cd and a set of headphones, which, to our delight, you could put on and listen to 'Traces' (which, we all know, was a very popular hit written by Emory). During our "pass around the headphones" game, they began to talk about Emory over the intercom that plays throughout the Museum. They then played "Blame it On Your Heart", to which we all squealed and had the need to sing along to. After spending a while excitedly reading everything, and giggling (as we usually do), we took photos of us in front of his display and decided to move along. (Of course, Anita made a trip back once she realized she'd left her purse right next to Emory's display! LoL!)
We went to a small area that was a "theater" (and we also passed a few things of "Joe South", who I immediately associated with Emory. He was a part of Emory's career when he first started. You can read more about that in the About Emory area. Inside of the theater, you chose three types of music, and then an artist from each section. We sat there for a while and listened to a few artists videos, and then we went to find where the kids had run off to.
The girls told us they had been in the "recording studio", recording themselves singing Patty songs. We followed them to the Childrens area, which consisted of different stuff for the kids to play with (including a Slide that played Piano tones as you slid down), and sat around chatting while the kids played. We found a machine that showed different categories of jobs in the music industry, and when you chose a job, it would give you people listed and what they did, and told you a bit about them. We chose "A & R Coordinator", since that was indeed what Emory had been doing, when he was running Rising Tide Records, but he wasn't listed. Kathy selected Session Musician, and there was Emory! We chose him and it told of what artists he had worked with, artists albums he had produced- and after the list of artists, it said that his favorite female artists, though, would have to be his wife, Patty Loveless. We were pleased to see her mentioned once again.
We decided to go ahead and leave and head to Americus, where we were going to spend the night .We took photos outside of the Hall of Fame (we're planning on making Emory a scrapbook of our Emory Filled Weekend), and got on the road. Of course, it was a longer trip than anticipated, as we got lost quite a few times in Americus. We became quite familiar with the Town's Burger King and Hospital! However, once we did retreat to our hotel, we spent the hours watching Patty videos and laughing until the wee hours of the morning. Anita, Rhett, and I headed back to Atlanta the next morning (we were even on "41" for a few minutes, and although the sky wasn't the color of polished steel, we were still quite thrilled, and it prompted our usual "Awww Patty!" and then a short "Nothin But The Wheel" rendition.). It was definitely worth the trip out there. It was, as always, wonderful to get together with some Patty friends who have become more of Family than just friends, and it was so wonderful to see Emory so recognized in his hometown. After seeing so much of his stuff, and reading all about it, you really have a greater appreciation and respect for Emory. He's an incredibly talented guy, and that definitely cannot be denied. He's got great taste (he married our girl!), and he's just a super guy all around. I'm very glad that Georgia realizes all that.