TURN IT UP
The Homegrown Band
By Elizabeth Billips lizbillips@yahoo.com

J ody Williams turns up the amp, and his guitar screams. The crowd goes wild.

Well ... wild for Methodists, that is.

They clap along and yell for more as the band belts out some Johnny Cash. Then seven voices find each other and raise the roof with "I'll Fly Away" and "Old Time Religion."

They're The Homegrown Band, and this is how they like it.

"Our attendance seems to increase each time they sing," the Rev. Marshall Singletary says. The church pews are filled with fans. Some wear diapers. Others have canes. The band is as sorted as its audience.

Mark delivers babies when he's not banging on his drums. Jody splits his time between guitar strumming and importing textiles.

Thirty-two years span the band-baby Neil and its oldest member, John.

Then there's Vonnie, a retired trucker, who conjures up old mountain music on his gitjo. Charlie is the quiet guy … until he lets loose with a voice as smooth as George Strait's. And Eugenia is the sole woman in the boy-band.

"I complain a lot to make them feel at home," she says as the guys egg her on.

"And she does a good job," Mark quips.

But their differences don't stack up to the motivation

behind their melody.

"It's for the glory of God," Charlie says as the others nod in agreement.

The band, in fact, was born right there in the First United Methodist Church (FUMC) where Rev. Singletary dubbed it the Homegrown.

"They grew as a band right here," he says, stretching his hands toward the stained glass windows. "Their ability to play a variety of sacred music enables them to minister to almost everyone."

He has a point.

They've even dabbled beyond the old church gospels, bringing out Jimmy Buffet and classic R&B. They aren't afraid of Lynyrd Skynyrd … not even CCR.

But that wasn't always the case. When the Homegrown played their first concert at the FUMC nearly two years ago, they could count their play-list on one hand. "We were awful," they say in unison.

"But the good thing about playing at church is that the people will come no matter what," Eugenia points out.

Things have changed, though.

The Homegrown Band found its sound and is now cranking out original songs written by Neil and finetuned in the den of the Hagood House next to the church.

Their sound is catching, and their concerts are migrating from the church pulpit to stages all over the community.

And Eugenia need not worry. The people keep coming and coming.
CATCH THEIR SOUND:
Boss Hog Cook-off
Saturday, May 10, 1-3 p.m.