David Green It was Bemis, Tennessee July 30, 1946 when David Agee Green first saw the light of day. He was born into the cotton mill family of Hollis and DeLois Green, Bobby 7 years older and Susan 5 years younger. Music was always a major part of the Green household, daddy played fiddle, guitar and sang, Bobby played guitar and drums, I played guitar, spoons and drums (played piano in later years). Susan played the drums. I made my debut in 1957 at the home of Buck Perkins’. It was while Carl was home from a tour and several local musicians were Jamming. I played the spoons with Billy Wayne Rolison and his band, and thought I was as big as the rest of them. I first started playing drums on an old banjo head while my buddy, Bobby Perkins sang and played the guitar, we made a pretty good team. At the age of 13 I started playing around Jackson, Tennessee. For 10 years I played most of the honky tonks of west Tennessee. A few of the local guys were: Billy Wayne Rolison, Little David Wilkins, Rayburn Anthony, naturally, Carl Perkins, Perry Pulliam, Glynn Bryan, Curtis Hobock, Kenny Parchman. About six of those years were spent at the Del-Mar Club in Jackson. The group was called the Del-Mars, which consisted of Glynn Bryan, Perry Pulliam, Ronnie Griffin, Frank Congardo and myself. It must have been around 1967 John Huey (Buttermilk John) would come up one night a week and play. He was playing steel guitar with Conway Twitty and said, man I want to pick a little more than “Hello Darlin”. Man did he pick! In 1967 I began playing some out of Nashville as a sideman (drummer) with Pap Wilson who played with Roy Acuff for about 25 years. He would provide a back-up band for country & western singers up and down the eastern seaboard. There is no way I could name all the singers and entertainers I played with during my brief career. To name just a few: Mel Tillis; Lefty Frezzel; Stu Phillips; Clyde Beavers; Lorrain Mann; Charlie Rich (said, hoss I’d like to hire you but I can’t afford a band, about a year later he come out with “Behind Closed Doors”, I didn’t hear back from him); Tom Paul and the Glazier Bros.; Tex Ritter; Harold Morrison; Loretta Lynn; String Bean and on and on. In about 1968 I played a week with Mel Tillis at the Play Room in Atlanta, GA. The week following we remained in Nashville and played as the house band at Mr. Ed’s (a club owned by George Jones). The back doors of the club and the Grand Ole Opry were across from each other. That week every body from Merle Haggard to Faron Young was there sitting in. It was during this time that I realized the life style I was living, (alcohol and amphetamines) was going to lead me to an early grave and was certainly not conducive to family life. I had married my childhood sweetheart, Paula Nesbitt in 1965 and our first of three daughters was born in 1968. I quit the music business “cold turkey” in 1969 and went to work at Owens Corning Fiberglas in Jackson, Tennessee. George Hamilton IV called the week I went to work at Fiberglas with an offer and I think Bob Luman also called the same week. January 10, 1975 I became a born-again Christian. Musician and friend Fred Matthew was saved about the same time. In the latter 70’s I played piano for Fred at revivals and Home Comings. In 1983 I surrendered to the Gospel Ministry and have been pastoring Baptist Churches ever since. I am currently the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Maury City, Tennessee. At my age, nostalgia and memories have a way of creeping back into mind. Good friend and musician Billy Wayne Rolison had written about early life in Bemis and encouraged me to write about growing up in a cotton mill town. I’m honored to present this CD of my memories as a child growing up in Bemis. What good memories I’ll always have of Bemis, Tennessee!