Album Notes

The idea of The Cleveland Grease-Pit Orchestra was conceived by Jimmy Tawater, Tommy Rayburn, Donnie Jenkins and Paul Stone. The idea was to showcase the musical talent that is so abundant in and around the Cleveland, Tennessee and Chattanooga, Tennessee area. There is a unique sound to this neck of the USA just as Muscle Shoals and Memphis had a unique sound in the 60's and 70's. There are no "Big City" studio players on this CD. All musicians performing on this CD live in the Chattanooga / Cleveland area and the recording and mastering was done locally as well. All the music on the CD is original except for "At Last" performed as a tenor sax solo by Paul Stone.

Try to imagine ..... Joe Tex and Delbert McClinton meeting Ray Stevens. What do you get?
You get Elmo T. Hoodenpyle. Elmo performs most of the vocals on "Two-Dollars and a Half-Pint". Gene Norman (the engineer on the project) performs vocals on his original tune: "Someone to Stay with Me". Spoken word vocal on "Jubie's Back!" is by local legend Jimmy Harris.

The artistry of Shannon Wickline (keyboards) and Paul Stone (Tenor Sax) shows up in various solos on the various songs.

The world class talent of Donnie Jenkins is showcased on the instrumental "Meet Mr. Tweed" an original song written, arranged and performed by Donnie. No hi-tech electronic tricks on this song. Donnie played all the guitar parts and the bass part. Tommy Rayburn played the drums.

Jimmy Tawater and Tommy Rayburn, co-producers of the CD "Two Dollars and a Half-Pint", worked together in "The Jimmy Tawater Show" back in the mid-seventies-early eighties. Paul Stone joined them in Cleveland, Ohio (not Tennessee) for a stint while the J. T. Show was touring the Rust Belt in '75. Check out Paul Stone's web page for some more history on this friendship. (www.paulstonesax.com).

Jimmy, Tommy, Paul and Donnie put a "much live" edition of "The Cleveland Grease-Pit Orchestra" together in June of 2002 to play the annual Riverbend festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Crowd went nuts, had a ball, laughed and danced their ass off!

Elmo had'em goin' that night for sure!

Anyone that likes to chuckle and sometime laugh out loud and at the same time enjoy great musicianship will like this CD. New songs, nostalgic sound.