Super Grit Cowboy Band Plays
“Country Music with an Attitude”

Clyde Mattocks’ Super Grit Cowboy Band has been playing to the delight of audiences across America since February 1975, “and at about 200 performances a year, that makes more than 6,400 times we’ve been on a stage somewhere.”

The group’s next stage is Pride of Kinston’s Sand in the Streets concert set for 6:00 pm Thursday, July 12, 2007, entertaining crowds in downtown Neuseway Park on the banks of the Neuse River. The public is invited to enjoy the free concert made possible in part by the concerts’ co-producers Realo Discount Drugs, the Free Press and Pride.

The Super Grit event sponsor will be King’s Restaurant.

Counting Mattocks, the band consists of five seasoned musicians who play what he calls County Rock which is “country music with an attitude.”

Mattocks, who plays the pedal steel guitar, is the original member of the band, but fiddle player Mike Kinzie runs a close second: he joined the group a year after Super Grit was founded. Other members of the band are Mark Galladay, guitar; Carroll Wade, bass; Bill Norton, drums, and the sound man is Doug Bradshaw.

The veteran leader of the band scoffs at main stream country music practitioners. “It tries to be country. Tries to be rock but it ain’t good enough to be either,” he says.

He credits the band’s longevity to its devotion to integrity in performing country music. “We’re not ashamed of country music and lots of people seem to appreciate that,” Mattocks said. “We don’t pander to the lowest common denominator.”

Super Grit has performed in nearly every section of the US and in parts of Canada. “We’ve played the Lone Star Café in New York. The largest honky tonk in the United States, Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth Texas, and performed a number of times on the Nashville Network when it was still around,” Mattocks said.

Over Super Grit’s 32 years, he added, “we never got hot enough to burn out nor cold enough to have to quit.”

Mattocks joined Pride director Adrian King to invite area residents to come to the Thursday concert. “We had a great start with Spare Change, and we’ll step up the momentum with Super Grit Cowboy Band,” King said.

King also announced a new series sponsor Woodmen of the World, joining with Wachovia Bank, R.A. Jeffreys Distributing Company, Perry Management, King’s Restaurant, Bojangles, Lenoir Memorial Hospital, Corporate Resources, Minges Bottling Group/Pepsi, m3 Consulting and Services, and Alison and Company.

Remaining concerts in the largest series yet in Kinston are:

• July 26 Band of Oz
• Aug. 9 Craig Woolard
• Aug. 23 Mustang Sally
• Sept. 6 Dick Knight
• Sept. 20 The Embers

All concerts begin at 6:00 pm in Neuseway Park, entrance at the intersection of Gordon and Mitchell Streets in downtown Kinston.

Spare Change Concert - June 28, 2007

Spare Change, a group of talented singers and musicians, entertained a large crowd of concert-goers June 28, 2007 at the first Sand in the Streets outdoor concert for the 2007 Summer Series. The series runs through Sept. 20 when The Embers closes out the summer line up.

Kinstonian Kelli Stroud (left), wife of local attorney Stuart Stroud, chats with Celebrity Emcee Heather King, WITN TV morning news anchor during the Spare Change concert held in Neuseway Park.

Taking stock: “Pride in good shape…”

Pride Elects New 2007-2008 Officers

Pride of Kinston's Board of Directors elected new 2007-2008 officers at its recent annual meeting, adopted a new budget for the year and received a report detailing a full year of activity during the organization's 2006-2007 program year.

Alison Merritt, proprietor of Alison and Company, was promoted from vice chair to chairperson for 2007-2008 succeeding Hardy Creech who had held the post for three years. White & Allen attorney Mark Herring was elected vice chair. Professional photographer Isaac Hines was elected secretary, and CPA Angie Johnson was re-elected Pride's treasurer.

Filling out slots on Pride's seven-person executive committee were local businessman John Marston; Neuse Regional Librarian Agnes Ho; and Creech, as immediate past chair. Pride has a 22-person board of directors. (See www.downtownkinston.com for complete list of Board of Directors.)

A 2007-2008 budget of $443,000 was adopted by the Board, showing an increase of $93,000 over the $350,000 enacted for the 2006-2007 program year. Pride director Adrian King pointed out that anticipated increases in the rents at the Kinston Enterprise Center, and earned and donated income for special projects such as Sand in the Streets concert series and Run for the River account for the budget growth.

In his annual report to the board, King noted several accomplishments, including a growing number of community volunteers who assign up to help with various projects such as the Downtown Clean Up days, Run for the River and Sand in the Streets concert series.

He also listed as accomplishments the donation of land at Gordon and Herritage Streets to be the site of the CSS Neuse II replica, Pride's assistance in securing two buildings to make adequate space available for the planned Civil War Museum on Queen Street, payment of the fee to an artist to paint a mural on the side of Christopher's Restaurant, development of a new major parking lot to accommodate customers of businesses and the Community Health Center, sale of 120 Gordon Street to the developers of the Chef and the Farmer restaurant, an expansion of the Facade Grant program so that when funds are available, Pride can help building owners renovate interiors of buildings as well as the exterior, successful staging of the Kinston 8000: Run for the River, and Sand in the Streets concert series, and providing grant assistance to new business owners on Queen and Herritage Streets.