Myke Jackson, Mike Neel and I [Tommy Gilstrap] were high school buddies in Arab, Alabama, a small town of about 5,000 situated 20 miles south of my home town, Huntsville, Alabama. We met at a music festival at an amphitheater atop Monte Sano in Huntsville during the summer of 1970. Myke was 16 at the time and had already written quite a few songs and was looking to put together a band to perform his original material. We sat at a picnic table as he played some of his tunes for me on his Gibson 335. I really liked his stuff so I talked some friends of mine who were playing at the festival into letting us use their equipment and we actually performed for the first time ( 'World' and 'Weepin' Mama Blues' ) after knowing each other for less than an hour!  We agreed that we wanted a fuller sound so a few weeks later we added Stan Lee to play rhythm guitar. This quartet rehearsed intensely at Mike Neel's father's upholstery shop after hours and in a couple of months we had about 20 of Myke's original tunes sounding pretty good, with all the band mates contributing to the arrangements.  One night a guy who worked at a local TV station [Lynn McCrosky - per Mychael John]  was driving by the upholstery shop and happened to hear us rehearsing. He liked what he heard and set up a demo recording session at a small studio in Birmingham [Ed Boutwell's studio] that was owned by a friend of his. We went in for a 3 hour session to cut 3 originals but the engineer was so impressed with our stuff that we were there until the wee hours and came away with 5 songs complete with triple-tracked harmony vocals. Not long after the demo session we met Alan Dalrymple who was a native of Albertville, Alabama and a couple years older than us. He asked to jam with us and his Hammond B-3 really completed the sound we all had in our heads. 

 

We gave the resulting demo tape to Myke's uncle, who was a country fiddler for many of Nashville's biggest stars in the 50's and 60's and a regular on the Grand Ole Opry.   [The tape was sent to my uncle, D. Roscoe Buttrey, who was president of Third National Bank (which would later become SunTrust).  Third National acquired a company called Cresent Company, which also included Nashboro Records, Woodland Studios, and Lookout Music under their umbrella.  Anyway, I met Bob through my uncle. - per Mychael John].

Bob Tubert thought we had potential and convinced the powers that be at Nashboro/Nasco to give us a shot. We recorded the album in two days ( about ten hours a day ) and Bob gave us an incredible amount of freedom in the studio, considering our youth and relative lack of knowledge concerning the differences between playing live and recording. By this time, Myke and Stan were 17, Mike and I were 18 and Alan was 19. We got a $5,000 advance on the album and thought we were headed for the big time.  [The advance was actually two advances in the amount of $1,000 each.  We did record the album in two days but mixed it in one day in early January 1971. - per Mychael John]   Unfortunately a month or so after we finished recording the album Myke ended up spending a couple of months in a state reform school.  

 

When Myke got out he was going in a different direction philosophically and decided to pursue a career in Christian music, effectively dissolving Felt.  Mike Neel would later go on the road with Myron and the VanDells who were a '50's Sha Na Na type group. In the mid '70's Alan died in a car accident.  [He was driving his van to see his girlfriend after a concert, fell asleep and died in the resulting accident - per Mychael John]. The last time I saw Stan he was playing jazz and classical guitar in Huntsville back in the early '80's. I'm pretty sure that meek, mild-mannered Stan was not a part of the Dickies. Myke gave me a call out of the blue in 1978 from Nashville asking me to join his new group. He had just been signed to Free Flight, RCA's new Nashville "rock" label. His new album was almost finished but I got there in time to play on 3 tracks. The album was titled "Mychael" and was produced by Cliff Williamson and Mychael for Tree Productions, AHL1-3400 Free Flight. I have one promo copy and have not been able to locate any other copies.  

 

The last time I saw Myke he was a licensed Baptist preacher at a church in Arab with a wife and kids and still recording his own Christian rock. [I left the Baptist movement and turned in my license to pursue more non-denominational efforts.  Since then I have ministered in most all Christian movements as worship leader and teacher at times...my concept of it all is "Unity." - per Mychael John]  The gig with Myke in Nashville opened a lot of doors for me and I lived there from 1978 through 1982 playing with some great musicians and doing a good bit of studio work. I was in one band called Cor that had as it's lead singer a wailing rocker (think Pat Benatar) soon to be country superstar by the name of Pam Tillis.  I also did some work with Al Green, Dobie Gray, Mary Wells, Cecil Womack, Eddie Floyd and others.

 

I'm currently taking it pretty easy doing resort stuff on the Florida and Georgia coast and some occasional club gigs. I hope this has answered some of your questions and that I didn't ramble too badly. I think it's great that our music is being appreciated more than 35 years after we  created it ...

 

Keepin' it low, 

Tommy Gilstrap

November, 2007