The Southern Rock Hall of Fame
Donation protected
Friends,
Ronnie Van Zant once sang the words, "If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?" Well, many of us will never, ever forget Ronnie.
It has been a long time dream of mine to help establish museum that pays tribute to the greats of Southern Rock, and and hold an annual induction ceremony and concert.
Let's face it, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is great, but it is doubtful that many of the great SOUTHERN ROCK bands will ever be inducted. We need our OWN Hall of Fame.
The dream is to see a brick and mortar museum, complete with a gift shop and a Southern Rock Cafe on site, along with a small indoor acoustic stage, and access to a nearby outdoor venue for larger shows.
This campaign is being staged in order to fund the establishing of The Southern Rock Hall of Fame & Museum as a corporation and a nonprofit organization. Once we are funded and incorporated, The Hall of Fame may begin fundraising under our 401C-3 status.
The Museum will collect and preserve artifacts, documents and reference material surrounding the wide variety of bands and artists that fall under the category of Southern Rock music, and utilize these collections in the presentation of exhibits, educational programs, and performances. There will also be an annual Southern Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony
Your support is greatly needed and even morer greatly appreciated.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Michael Buffalo Smith is an author and music journalist from Spartanburg, SC. He grew up there during the heat of the seventies Southern Rock boom at a time when his hometown heroes The Marshall Tucker Band were at the top of their game. Even then, Buffalo was sowing the seeds that would one day find him referred to the “Ambassador of Southern Rock.”
Buffalo worked many jobs as newspaper editor, features writer, columnist, sports reporter, layout and more along with many years in radio as an announcer, copy writer, DJ and production coordinator. He also logged several years as a radio air personality catering to the sounds of the beautiful south while singing and playing his own music and recording five albums that featured many of the old Capricorn gang including Bonnie Bramlett, Pete Carr, George McCorkle and Tommy Talton. He has penned liner notes for many albums, including releases from The Charlie Daniels Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, Dickey Betts, Dixie Tabernacle, Bonnie Bramlett, Billy Eli, and others.
In 1997 Buffalo’s first book was published by Marshall Tucker Entertainment of Beverly Hills, CA. Carolina Dreams: The Musical Legacy of Upstate SC is a history of the MTB and all the other great music that came from the region. Smith began writing for various regional and national publications including The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Spartanburg Herald Journal, The Greenville Journal, Sandlapper, Blue Suede News, Y’all, Relix, Mojo, Hittin The Note, Discoveries, and Goldmine where he became the “go to” writer for all things Southern rock. He created several 10,000 word cover stories including features on The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels, and Gov’t Mule (in their first ever magazine cover story.) He also wrote countless features on everything from surf music to Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa and record collecting, as well as hundreds of album reviews.
In 1998, Buffalo founded the online magazine GRITZ and began a ride that lasted over 12 years, including three years as a glossy print magazine. During the GRITZ years, Buffalo conducted countless interviews and wrote hundreds of features, reviews and columns/blogs. In 2006 he joined forces with another internet site and continued doing what he does best, writing about Southern music. When that project ended, he founded a new online magazine called KUDZOO , which he contines to publish, featuring interviews, reviews, food and more.
When CMT needed a Southern Rock authority to appear on their Outlaw Country and Southern Rock special, they enlisted Buffalo. He was later featured on the documentary section of the Shout! Factory release Live from the Garden State by The Marshall Tucker Band.
Released in September, 2012, Prisoner of Southern Rock, with a foreword by Billy Bob Thornton, was published by the prestigious Mercer University Press of Macon, Georgia. His second book on the Mercer imprint, Rebel Yell: An Oral History of Southern Rock, (foreword by Alan Walden) was published in October, 2014. He has also self-published a 500-page collections of his Southern Rock interviews and an equally massive sequel , and in 2016 self-published My Kind of Country, a collection of interviews with great country music stars such as Bobby Bare, Jerry Reed, David Allan Coe, Cowboy Jack Clement and more. Smith's latest book on Mercer University Press is Capricorn Rising: Conversations in Southern Rock. (The foreword was written by long time Allman Brothers road manager Willie Perkins)
He is also working on a collection of southern based fiction short stories, a Southern novel, a collection of children's stories, and a pair of screenplays.
ENDORSEMENTS
"Michael Buffalo Smith as a musician, writer, critic, and southern music historian really gets it. His taste and deep appreciation for the real thing are qualities that inspire all of us in his wake. And it's a big wake."
- Billy Bob Thornton
(Oscar and Golden Globe Winning Actor, Director, Writer & Musician)
"If anybody has been the scribe for the history and growth of the music known as southern rock, it's been Michael Buffalo Smith. His devoted and in depth writing has for decades kept the public abreast with the music, the players, the triumphs and the tragedies.
His new book Capricorn Rising gets to the heart of the matter with one on one conversations with the artists who have made the music a part of American Culture."
-Charlie Daniels
"I’ve known Michael for several decades and have the upmost respect for him and his talents. In this book of interviews with various musicians, artists and folks in the music business from the South, he brings forth great insight into the making and development of the Southern Rock sound. You get all sides of the story and the history unfolds as he leads the interview subjects with dexterity and great questions. This is a highly entertaining, interesting and important read!
—Chuck Leavell
Keyboardist/ Musical Director, with The Rolling Stones and former member of The Allman Brothers Band
"In “Capricorn Rising,” Michael Buffalo Smith has put together a collection of personal interviews that take the reader through one of the most important periods in the long, wonderful history of “Southern” music.
His care for and love of the genre and the musician’s who added to it is present in each and every question. We should all thank him for his patience and ability to document the history, by presenting it from the inside view of those who were right in the middle of it all! "
—Tommy Talton
recording artist and member of the band, Cowboy
Thank you for your donation!
Ronnie Van Zant once sang the words, "If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?" Well, many of us will never, ever forget Ronnie.
It has been a long time dream of mine to help establish museum that pays tribute to the greats of Southern Rock, and and hold an annual induction ceremony and concert.
Let's face it, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is great, but it is doubtful that many of the great SOUTHERN ROCK bands will ever be inducted. We need our OWN Hall of Fame.
The dream is to see a brick and mortar museum, complete with a gift shop and a Southern Rock Cafe on site, along with a small indoor acoustic stage, and access to a nearby outdoor venue for larger shows.
This campaign is being staged in order to fund the establishing of The Southern Rock Hall of Fame & Museum as a corporation and a nonprofit organization. Once we are funded and incorporated, The Hall of Fame may begin fundraising under our 401C-3 status.
The Museum will collect and preserve artifacts, documents and reference material surrounding the wide variety of bands and artists that fall under the category of Southern Rock music, and utilize these collections in the presentation of exhibits, educational programs, and performances. There will also be an annual Southern Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony
Your support is greatly needed and even morer greatly appreciated.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Michael Buffalo Smith is an author and music journalist from Spartanburg, SC. He grew up there during the heat of the seventies Southern Rock boom at a time when his hometown heroes The Marshall Tucker Band were at the top of their game. Even then, Buffalo was sowing the seeds that would one day find him referred to the “Ambassador of Southern Rock.”
Buffalo worked many jobs as newspaper editor, features writer, columnist, sports reporter, layout and more along with many years in radio as an announcer, copy writer, DJ and production coordinator. He also logged several years as a radio air personality catering to the sounds of the beautiful south while singing and playing his own music and recording five albums that featured many of the old Capricorn gang including Bonnie Bramlett, Pete Carr, George McCorkle and Tommy Talton. He has penned liner notes for many albums, including releases from The Charlie Daniels Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, Dickey Betts, Dixie Tabernacle, Bonnie Bramlett, Billy Eli, and others.
In 1997 Buffalo’s first book was published by Marshall Tucker Entertainment of Beverly Hills, CA. Carolina Dreams: The Musical Legacy of Upstate SC is a history of the MTB and all the other great music that came from the region. Smith began writing for various regional and national publications including The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Spartanburg Herald Journal, The Greenville Journal, Sandlapper, Blue Suede News, Y’all, Relix, Mojo, Hittin The Note, Discoveries, and Goldmine where he became the “go to” writer for all things Southern rock. He created several 10,000 word cover stories including features on The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels, and Gov’t Mule (in their first ever magazine cover story.) He also wrote countless features on everything from surf music to Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa and record collecting, as well as hundreds of album reviews.
In 1998, Buffalo founded the online magazine GRITZ and began a ride that lasted over 12 years, including three years as a glossy print magazine. During the GRITZ years, Buffalo conducted countless interviews and wrote hundreds of features, reviews and columns/blogs. In 2006 he joined forces with another internet site and continued doing what he does best, writing about Southern music. When that project ended, he founded a new online magazine called KUDZOO , which he contines to publish, featuring interviews, reviews, food and more.
When CMT needed a Southern Rock authority to appear on their Outlaw Country and Southern Rock special, they enlisted Buffalo. He was later featured on the documentary section of the Shout! Factory release Live from the Garden State by The Marshall Tucker Band.
Released in September, 2012, Prisoner of Southern Rock, with a foreword by Billy Bob Thornton, was published by the prestigious Mercer University Press of Macon, Georgia. His second book on the Mercer imprint, Rebel Yell: An Oral History of Southern Rock, (foreword by Alan Walden) was published in October, 2014. He has also self-published a 500-page collections of his Southern Rock interviews and an equally massive sequel , and in 2016 self-published My Kind of Country, a collection of interviews with great country music stars such as Bobby Bare, Jerry Reed, David Allan Coe, Cowboy Jack Clement and more. Smith's latest book on Mercer University Press is Capricorn Rising: Conversations in Southern Rock. (The foreword was written by long time Allman Brothers road manager Willie Perkins)
He is also working on a collection of southern based fiction short stories, a Southern novel, a collection of children's stories, and a pair of screenplays.
ENDORSEMENTS
"Michael Buffalo Smith as a musician, writer, critic, and southern music historian really gets it. His taste and deep appreciation for the real thing are qualities that inspire all of us in his wake. And it's a big wake."
- Billy Bob Thornton
(Oscar and Golden Globe Winning Actor, Director, Writer & Musician)
"If anybody has been the scribe for the history and growth of the music known as southern rock, it's been Michael Buffalo Smith. His devoted and in depth writing has for decades kept the public abreast with the music, the players, the triumphs and the tragedies.
His new book Capricorn Rising gets to the heart of the matter with one on one conversations with the artists who have made the music a part of American Culture."
-Charlie Daniels
"I’ve known Michael for several decades and have the upmost respect for him and his talents. In this book of interviews with various musicians, artists and folks in the music business from the South, he brings forth great insight into the making and development of the Southern Rock sound. You get all sides of the story and the history unfolds as he leads the interview subjects with dexterity and great questions. This is a highly entertaining, interesting and important read!
—Chuck Leavell
Keyboardist/ Musical Director, with The Rolling Stones and former member of The Allman Brothers Band
"In “Capricorn Rising,” Michael Buffalo Smith has put together a collection of personal interviews that take the reader through one of the most important periods in the long, wonderful history of “Southern” music.
His care for and love of the genre and the musician’s who added to it is present in each and every question. We should all thank him for his patience and ability to document the history, by presenting it from the inside view of those who were right in the middle of it all! "
—Tommy Talton
recording artist and member of the band, Cowboy
Thank you for your donation!
Organizer
Michael Buffalo Smith
Organizer
Spartanburg, SC
