Wheeler and Snake 1968 tribute---best of rhythm and blues That’s the way it was over the years in my career I played with many R & B groups such as "Big John Maberry” & The Counts, "Little" Tommy Trojan & The Trojets, and Elray Lee & The Little Big Three. I also played western swing with Johnny Dutton & The Western String Billies, Blackie Crawford & The Western Cherokees and Bobby Rountree & The Drovers. My most fond memories are of my association with the "Sirs" band & my oldest & dearest friend Roland "Snake" Atkinson. I also became acquainted with my good friend Lewis Elliott. Snake used to hang out at the 13th Hour Club where he met Lewis Elliott. Lewis hired Snake to play with the Cavaliers band & all three of us were close personal friends of J. Frank Wilson. the Cavaliers band was very well known around San Angelo, Texas. in 1964 the band got the chance to go into the brand new studio of Ron Newdolls "Accurate Sound". thats where J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers produced the famous record "Last Kiss". "Last Kiss" is still to this day the biggest selling rock & roll tragedy tune of all time. because the song made it to #1 the band got to go on the road with Dick Clarks Caravan Of Stars. sharing a bus with the Animals, Ronnie & The Daytonas, Bryan Holland, The Ronettes and others. After the tour was over Lewis Elliott and Snake continued to play gigs around the San Angelo area. Lewis kept the band "The Cavaliers" and played bass guitar. Snake & I, Jimmy Stuart, Ralph Kimmey & Mike "Duck" Hodges continued to play as the "Sirs". we played the best of R & B. tunes by Ray Charles, Bobby Bluebland, Wilson Pickett, Ottis Redding, Guitar Hill Slim, James Brown, "Gate Mouth" Brown, Percy Sledge, & many more until 1969 when I retired from the music business. I did play at the Paramount Theater in Abilene, Texas occasionally in the early 1980’s. Snake went on to form other bands of his own. in the 1970’s he had the "Living Color", and the "Snake & The 15th Street Blues Band". In 1973 his band was again dubbed as the "Sirs" and in 1975 he started "Snake and Sagebrush". Snake continued his music career until 1986 when he left to pursue his hobbies of auto racing, camping & bass fishing. around 2000 Snake began to pursue music again, playing in the San Angelo area. he recorded his own cd in 2000 playing the lead, rhythm, bass, & drums tracks himself as well as doing the vocals. his love for music has gotten stronger over the years & he feels that there is a lot of talent out there in the world that is not being heard. One day in 2004 he & I got together & decided hey! we are older but we can still have some fun ! we finished our cd in 2005. Maybe our efforts will encourage other artists out there to try it once no matter how old or young they may be. "This CD is dedicated to the kids, grandkids, friends, and my dog Sammy" "There will probably never be another time like the 1960's" 36 years ago (late ‘60’s) Jimmy Wheeler & Roland “Snake” Atkinson would fill the night with rock & roll music. Once more the music from that time comes to life with the shared talents of these two life long friends & great musicians. {Note from Snake} When a good friend from 30 something years ago ask you to get with him and put a CD together, have a little bit of ‘For Ole Time Sake’ fun. You enjoy the chance to put it all together. You want to do it while you can. this project means so much more to me then I had thought possible. Jimmy Wheeler died in November 2005. I am thankful I never thought of turning him down, enjoying every minute of it. and being glad he was able to see it all come together. Now there will more people who will not forget Jimmy and his love for life, love for music.