Garland Burnette - Songs and Stories / Stories

The King Bee

It happens to everybody. One day you're a kid kicking around the playground and the next day you become interested in music. The radio (or iPod or whatever) becomes your best friend and confidante offering your fragile psyche both entertainment and understanding.

Anyway that's how it was for me in Macon, Georgia.

Segregation ruled in those days and Macon wasn't different from any other city in the Deep South . “Separate but equal”, they used to say. I don't think anyone really believed that. I know I didn't. Don't get me wrong-I'm not trying to say I was enlightened or anything. I was just a kid who was living smack dab in the middle of the state of Georgia …and trying to learn to pick the banjo. I wanted to be Earl Scruggs.

Like I said, in those days there was two of everything: water fountains, churches, schools and radio stations. The white stations were playing Teresa Brewer, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Fabian. The black stations weren't much better, playing gospel and community announcements. One black station, however, stood out-WIBB. There you'd find Jackie Wilson, Ernie K-Doe and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Now this might have been separate, but it sure as hell wasn't equal. It beat the other stations hands down. Every kid in town, black or white was listening to it. This was some cool stuff!

The man in charge of cool at WIBB was a DJ called the King Bee. His real name was Hamp Swain; he picked his own music to play and generally acted as a mentor for black musicians in the area. An unknown James Brown recorded an acetate disc of “Please, Please, Please” in the WIBB studio. A King Records executive was traveling through Macon and heard it on WIBB and offered a contract to James Brown.

Hamp Swain was also a musician, his band, the Hamptones played throughout the southeast. Richard Penniman got his start as a vocalist in that band. He helped launch Otis Redding's career with his weekly “Teenage Party” at the Douglass Theatre.

The King Bee was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

So there you have it-bluegrass and soul music. Two unlikely influences co-existing rather nicely. In my mind Lester Flatt and Fats Domino will always be joking and shooting a game of pool down on Cherry Street .


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		The King Bee It happens to everybody. One day you're a kid kicking around the playground and the next day you become interested in music. The radio (or iPod or whatever) becomes your best friend and confidante offering your fragile psyche both entertainment and understanding. Anyway that's how it was for me in Macon, Georgia. Segregation ruled in those days and Macon wasn't different from any other city in the Deep South . “Separate but equal”, they used to say. I don't think anyone really believed that. I know I didn't. Don't get me wrong-I'm not trying to say I was enlightened or anything. I was just a kid who was living smack dab in the middle of the state of Georgia …and trying to learn to pick the banjo. I wanted to be Earl Scruggs. Like I said, in those days there was two of everything: water fountains, churches, schools and radio stations. The white stations were playing Teresa Brewer, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Fabian. The black stations weren't much better, playing gospel and community announcements. One black station, however, stood out-WIBB. There you'd find Jackie Wilson, Ernie K-Doe and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Now this might have been separate, but it sure as hell wasn't equal. It beat the other stations hands down. Every kid in town, black or white was listening to it. This was some cool stuff! The man in charge of cool at WIBB was a DJ called the King Bee. His real name was Hamp Swain; he picked his own music to play and generally acted as a mentor for black musicians in the area. An unknown James Brown recorded an acetate disc of “Please, Please, Please” in the WIBB studio. A King Records executive was traveling through Macon and heard it on WIBB and offered a contract to James Brown. Hamp Swain was also a musician, his band, the Hamptones played throughout the southeast. Richard Penniman got his start as a vocalist in that band. He helped launch Otis Redding's career with his weekly “Teenage Party” at the Douglass Theatre. The King Bee was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2008. So there you have it-bluegrass and soul music. Two unlikely influences co-existing rather nicely. In my mind Lester Flatt and Fats Domino will always be joking and shooting a game of pool down on Cherry Street .