A Brief History of the Band From

 The Teller Was No Longer Interested

1 The Beginning

2 Demo Tape

Major Nelson (the band, not the TV character) began way back in 1993 when bassist Kevin Crothers, newly-relocated to Charlotte, NC, answered two different musician-wanted ads in the Creative Loafing - one from guitarist Gray Barker and one from guitarist Henry Pharr. With Gray he jammed to Neil Young and Dylan, and Henry played him lots of Beatles albums and a few of his home four-track demos. Sensing the possibility of some creative cross-fertilization, Crothers gave each guitarist the contact information of the other, and a new band was born. Drummer Jimmy Zills was enlisted, and Major Nelson was chosen as the band name at Henry's behest (Gray lobbied hard for The BagDads, and Kevin pushed briefly for Joe Cocker Spaniel). A precedent had been set, though no one realized it at the time.

The new band quickly began rehearsing at a warehouse in south Charlotte, and despite the fact that Kevin owned some fine recording equipment, Henry recorded a practice on a cassette four track and released it as the band's first public offering. Despite (or perhaps due to, who knows) the rough recording quality, the tape gained the notice of the scribes of the local alternative papers, who offered mostly glowing reviews. All four songs on the tape were written and sung by Pharr, which in retrospect seems an obvious sign. This demo lead to performances at such highbrow Charlotte institutions as The (Legendary) Milestone, Amos', Jack Straws, and the Aardvark. None were rousing successes. Remarkably, a couple of Gray's songs began to find their way into the sets, though none of Kevin's managed to do so.

As '93 turned into '94 the band members sequestered themselves in the practice warehouse to do some actual recording on the 8-track of doom. The band recorded 16 of (surprise!) Henry's songs (the 17th track is simply some tape winding noise and faint harmonica tacked on as a "bonus"). Surprisingly, Kevin's suggested title "Christmas With Major Nelson" was selected for the cassette-only release. As there were no actual Christmas songs on the tape, this bit of Dadaist nonsense caused some confusion in the press. Never-the-less, the tape received uniformly good reviews. "Take Me Down" got some airplay on the local music program of 106.5 WEND-FM. "No Home Outside This House" was a hit when played over the PA at a junior high field day, as well. Gigs continued to be problematic, though.

Ah, the classic brick wall pose!

5 "Strange/Still Here" 7"

 6 Bizarre Gardening Accident

After nearly six months of unrelenting rehearsals to try to whip this version of the band into some kind of competent shape, the band set up in Kevin's house in Monroe, where a small but flexible recording studio had been set up. Endless reels of tape were sacrificed to the cause of competence, but to little avail. Of the many recordings attempted, only two were deemed salvageable, and those required considerable editing and some surreptitious drum replacement by Kevin. Somehow Henry got a burr under his saddle to release those two tracks as a 7" single, and nothing could dissuade him. Thus, a couple of hundred vinyl singles sit in someone's closet to this day. Kevin did get to do the artwork (based on Henry's concept, of course), as he had the only computer with Photoshop (at work, natch). The biggest surprise, though, was that the B-side of the single was a Gray composition!

What with the recording fiasco and falling asleep on stage at a gig in Alabama, the decision was made that Leon must needs move on to explore new opportunities. Surprisingly, given his otherwise, um, strong leadership, Henry deferred when the time came to pass on the news to Leon, instead badgering Kevin into being the hatchet man. Again an ad went out, and again a number of drummers were auditioned. Luckily, Buddy Dukes answered the call. His nuanced pop-rock drumming was a good fit for the more varied direction in which the band was heading.

7 Big Stir

8 Dropping Like Flies

A month of rehearsals followed and the band felt ready to try recording again. They again convened in Kevin's house in Monroe, but with a decent-sounding drum kit this time. Ten tracks were recorded, and ten tracks proved eminently useable. In addition to two Barker songs, the resulting album also had two (two!) songwriting credits for Crothers. Beyond the two songwriting credits, Kevin's influence was felt in the addition of between-song found-sound nonsense and production touches such as backwards guitar solos, flushing toilets, and fake ragas. The ten new songs, the two tracks from the single, as well as a previously- unused recording featuring Jimmy made up the 13 track CD "Big Stir." Again Kevin provided the title and cover art inspiration, as a play on the oft-cited comparison of the band to Big Star. Sadly, the album was called "Big Star" in the press as often as it was called "Big Stir", which is either terribly disappointing or part of a larger performance art piece/joke.

Shortly after the release of the Big Stir CD certain differences began to become obvious within the band. Henry wished to continue the practice of booking crappy out-of-town gigs (Myrtle Beach - 4 people, Spartanburg - 8 people) on weekends and weeknights while insisting on twice a week practices. The band had been forced out of its warehouse practice space due to sale of the building, and Henry decided that the optimum rehearsal space was a 12'x12' brick room with full backline and PA. One band member was at that time making his living as an audio engineer, so that environment was not one that boded well for future ear health. Disgust over the touring schedule and practice facilities eventually led to the departure of bassist Kevin, though not without some amusing twists along the way. Henry surreptitiously placed an ad in the Creative Loafing seeking a new bass player. Ironically enough, the day the ad went to press Kevin was sitting in a local diner with his other band Candy Coated Brick letting them know that he was planning to leave Major Nelson so as to devote full time to recording an album with them. While having a band lunch they were perusing the band classifieds and as a group noticed Henry's ad, which, though it listed a phone number that did not belong to any of the Major Nelson  members, never-the-less was recognizable by Henry's heavy-handed style. A quick phone call from a pay phone confirmed the identity of the mystery band seeking a bassist. When confronted about the ad Henry had the audacity to ask whether Kevin would be playing that weekend's gig with the band. In a fit of apparent mental illness Kevin agreed to drive to freakin' Spartanburg for another crappy gig. Not a soul in the band mentioned his impending departure during the entire time of the road trip. After some legal wrangling to retrieve his fair share of the band materials that he helped pay for (although what he wanted with 250 CDs of a band he wasn't in anymore remains to be determined) Kevin moved on. Major Nelson now entered the era where there would forever be more former members of the band than founding members.

Kevin went on to release albums with Candy Coated Brick and Glaze, and has also put his studio talents to use with various artists including The Faults (former members of the V-Roys), The Swamiis, Bob McCluskey, and Sea 7 States.

Gray has seemingly disappeared from the music scene.

A Few Compilation Appearances