Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 15 · column 3 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
Everything is going toJ»p OK in Rappahannock County tnis Saturday night.
As in OK, it’s time to rock and roll.
As in the OKs, the hometown dance band that achieved legendary status — at least locally — before disbanding some five years ago.
Saturday’s dance at the Washington fire hall is the first in what the OKs laughingly refer to as their Relapse ’89 Tour. They plan several additional gigs between now and the New Year, partly for fun, partly for profit and partly for other good causes. (For instance, a portion of the gate plus the proceeds from refreshments sold at Saturday’s dance will go to Spring Mountain, a nonprofit private school near Sperryville.)
Jr
The catalyst for Relapse ’89 is Bob Smith, more familiarly Jmown as Smiggy. A former sourer technician for the Grateful Dead, piano player for Buffy St. Marie and bass player with Robin Trower, he was the band’s main man.
This OK stalwart — a multi-talented musician who sings, writes songs and alternates between lead guitar, drums, bass and piano — returned to Rappahannock last month from his native Scotland for a visit. “I came back and not one of the OKs was playing in a band. What a waste!” he complained.
“So you can say this reunion is Smiggy on a mission from God,” joked drummer Steve Pratt.
In a more serious vein, the members of the band — “Mothers Brothers” Scott and Barry Muthersbaugh on guitar and keyboards, Bill Abernathy on guitar, Terry Waggener on bass, plus Smiggy and Pratt — say they are playing together again mostly because they missed the music and the company. And they missed not only their fellow band members, but the rest of the OK crowd as well.
“A bigh part of the OKs was the Rappahannock people that came with us when we played anywhere,” Barry Muthersbaugh acknowledged.
“OK’s people, not groupies, please!” interjected Nan Reddick, one of those OK people and the artist behind the recreation of the OK’s tee-shirt for Saturday’s dance. (These tee-shirts were for years the badge that proclaimed in-crowd and longer-time resident status among a certain segment of Rappahannock society. But in a decade, colors fade, collars fray and tee-shirts disappear into the same maw that snatches socks, hence the re-issuance.)
Explaining the band’s popularity, Ms. Reddick noted that the OKs were “never too tight.” The musicians were always ready to “go with it,” in response to their audience. “So you didn’t have to dance tight, either,” she pointed out.
“They were always the people’s band. They sang for the people,” added Julie Coon, a singer with Rappahannock’s new Crazy Eights band and long-time fan on hand to help with last Sunday’s rehearsal.
The OKs aren’t exactly sure when their band was bom. It depends on who you ask. It could have been 1975, or it cojld have been 1978, or it could have been a year in
87.3%