{"id":24326,"date":"2022-12-27T05:30:13","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T10:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24326"},"modified":"2023-01-30T08:13:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T13:13:54","slug":"it-came-from-asheville-wnc-garage-rock-in-the-60s-part-two-the-fabulous-wunz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/27\/it-came-from-asheville-wnc-garage-rock-in-the-60s-part-two-the-fabulous-wunz\/","title":{"rendered":"It Came from Asheville! WNC Garage Rock in the \u201960s, Part Two: The (Fabulous) Wunz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wunz and onlys<\/b>
\nAs the first wave of teenage rock combos spread across the mid-\u201960s U.S., the craze wasn\u2019t limited to major metropolitan areas. Even Asheville \u2013 then with a population of just over 70,000 persons \u2013 had a vibrant scene. And at the top of that scene were The Wunz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great time in Asheville,\u201d says Jim Stover, who played rhythm guitar. \u201cLots of bands sprang up, and we were all kids. I was not quite 16 when I got asked to join The Wunz.\u201d He auditioned for the group at the Kimberly Avenue family home of drummer Bob Garner; once he was in the band, practices were held in the West Asheville garage of lead guitarist Bruce McTaggart\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The (Fabulous) Wunz. L-R: Coleman Ramsey, Bob Garner, Bruce McTaggart, Jim Stover. Photo by Juanita Wilson<\/p><\/div>\n

With Stover on board, the group quickly put together a solid set list. \u201cI would say that 80% of our repertoire was Beatles,\u201d he recalls. The Wunz earned a well-deserved reputation for their ability to sing and play \u201cPenny Lane\u201d and some of the Fab Four\u2019s more challenging material. \u201cSome people called us the \u2018Asheville Beatles,\u2019\u201d Stover says with pride. \u201cMcTaggart’s guitar was a driving force, and three of us sang, so we could harmonize.\u201d The group learned how to play \u201cNowhere Man\u201d before the record had even received airplay on local radio.<\/p>\n

The Wunz played regular gigs at their high school, Lee Edwards (now Asheville High) as well as shows at North Buncombe High and Asheville Catholic. \u201cEighty dollars seemed to be the going rate for us in those days,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

But things took off from there. Stover recalls a ballroom gig at the top of the Battery Park Apartments and in the penthouse of the Northwestern Bank Building (now The Arras). \u201cOur manager was at Clemson, so we played fraternity parties, too,\u201d Stover recalls.<\/p>\n

In the 1996 film That Thing You Do!<\/i>, Tom Hanks\u2019 cinematic love letter to the garage rock scene, drummer Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) works at an appliance store in Erie, Penn. And the band he joins initially calls itself the Oneders. And while Stover doesn\u2019t claim that Hanks drew inspiration from his Asheville quartet, the parallels are striking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked in an appliance store in West Asheville, Demos TV and Appliance,\u201d Stover recalls. \u201cAnd it looked just like<\/i> the store in the movie.\u201d And just like Hanks\u2019 character did, changing the fictitious band\u2019s name to the more conventional The Wonders, The Wunz\u2019s manager Gary Garner (older brother of Bob) rechristened the Asheville foursome The Fabulous Wunz. And that\u2019s how they would be credited on their only release, a 7\u2019 single, \u201cIf I Cry\u201d b\/w \u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stover wrote both sides of that 45 r.p.m. single, released on Pyramid Records, a tiny, short-lived singles-only independent label out of Burlington, N.C. The Wunz were primarily a live group, but Stover\u2019s most treasured memory of his time with the band is \u201cthe experience of going in that studio and cutting those tracks.\u201d He recalls the band riding to Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte for the session. \u201cIn front of the studio there was a placard saying that James Brown had recorded \u2018Papa\u2019s Got a Brand New Bag\u2019 there,\u201d he says. The producer\u2019s control room was situated up high, looming over the recording studio.\u201cIt was a big thrill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equally thrilling (or perhaps more so) was the band\u2019s next gig at Lee Edwards High. \u201cWe played in the cafeteria, and sold our records for a buck apiece,\u201d Stover recalls. (There are currently no copies of the record for sale on record marketplace discogs.com, but the median price of previous sales is $40.)<\/p>\n

The Wunz were together from \u201865 until 1968. Stover went on to further success as a songwriter and solo artist; former Monkees vocalist Davy Jones cut one of Stover\u2019s songs (\u201cI\u2019ll Believe in You\u201d) in 1971, and Stover went on to record two singles (\u201cThanks For The Smiles\u201d and \u201cCountry Feelin\u2019s\u201d) that were released by Big Tree Records, and co-produced by hit songwriter Kenny O\u2019Dell, pop artist Bobby Goldsboro and longtime Nashville record executive Bob Montgomery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cool to join up with The Wunz,\u201d Stover says. \u201cI wish it could have lasted longer, because we had more songs.\u201d But he has no serious regrets about opportunities missed. \u201cEverything runs its course,\u201d Stover says. \u201cAnd that certainly did.\u201d<\/p>\n

[This story has been revised and updated for historical accuracy.]<\/span><\/p>\n

To be continued…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wunz and onlys As the first wave of teenage rock combos spread across the mid-\u201960s U.S., the craze wasn\u2019t limited to major metropolitan areas. Even Asheville \u2013 then with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,33,41,49,62],"tags":[5005,5004],"class_list":["post-24326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-garage","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-psychedelic-states","tag-the-wunz","cat-19-id","cat-33-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24326"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24840,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24326\/revisions\/24840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}