{"id":24338,"date":"2022-12-29T05:30:56","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T10:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24338"},"modified":"2025-06-15T11:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T15:19:38","slug":"it-came-from-asheville-wnc-garage-rock-in-the-60s-part-three-orange-purple-marmalade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/29\/it-came-from-asheville-wnc-garage-rock-in-the-60s-part-three-orange-purple-marmalade\/","title":{"rendered":"It Came from Asheville! WNC Garage Rock in the \u201960s, Part Three: Orange Purple Marmalade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Theresa Crouch (now Justus) of Orange Purple Marmalade<\/p><\/div>\n

Orange, purple, pink and green<\/b>
\nIn Western North Carolina, Orange Purple Marmalade was an especially groundbreaking band. The group featured Theresa Crouch (today, Theresa Justus) on drums and vocals, Terry Justus (Crouch’s then boyfriend and future husband) on lead guitar, Bobby \u201cHobby\u201d Pruitt on rhythm guitar, Adrian Rouillon on bass and Chuck Carter on organ. As the band name suggests, the band played a psychedelically-tinged sort of rock. Theresa didn\u2019t play a tiny White Stripes-styled kit; hers was a massive setup, with lots of toms and cymbals.<\/p>\n

Crouch got her start as a drummer while in ninth grade at Hendersonville High School; the band director recruited her to the school band. \u201cI didn\u2019t get a kit until 11th<\/sup> grade,\u201d she says. Crouch bought the kit from a guy who was getting married and needed the cash. \u201cThis was 1966,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cSo 50 bucks went a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theresa worked hard to develop her drumming skills, and people noticed. Before long, Terry Justus\u2019 mother encouraged her son to let \u201cthe little Crouch girl\u201d audition for his band. Crouch\u2019s debut with Orange Purple Marmalade was at a Hendersonville sock hop in 1967. In short order, gigs became plentiful for the tight, accomplished band. Not yet the legal age to play bars, the group had no shortage of gigs in front of younger audiences at scout cabins and teenage canteens.<\/p>\n

The band developed an extensive repertoire, with enough songs for three sets per night. \u201cWe\u2019d do a whole set [of cover songs],\u201d Theresa says, \u201cand then for the second set we\u2019d play all originals.\u201d After a break, Orange Purple Marmalade would return for a third set. \u201cWe\u2019d end that up with a drum solo,\u201d she recalls with pride.<\/p>\n

Theresa and her band mates had some sense of being part of a larger musical movement, but they didn\u2019t get too philosophical about it. For her it was mostly about \u201cplaying good music and playing to a good fan base.\u201d One of Orange Purple Marmalade\u2019s highest-profile local shows was in summer 1969, an opening slot at the Asheville City Auditorium (now the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium). \u201cThat was the biggest crowd I believe I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d Crouch says. After she took a lead vocal turn, a fan approached the stage and handed her a rose. \u201cI about fell to my knees,\u201d Theresa says.<\/p>\n

Orange Purple Marmalade secured management and embarked on a tour. Crouch vividly recalls a gig in Portland, Maine. \u201cDuring the drum solo on \u2018In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,\u2019 I moved the stool and fell off the back of the stage!\u201d Unfazed, she quickly jumped back onstage, and called out to her band mates: \u201cLet\u2019s take it from the organ solo: 1, 2, 3\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The band entered Galaxie III Studios in Taylorsville, N.C. sometime in 1969, recording basic tracks for a pair of songs written by rhythm guitarist Bobby Pruitt. But in a sequence of events common to the music industry of that era, when the record came out, the band\u2019s name was nowhere to be seen on the label. \u201cI don\u2019t know the story on that whole shebang,\u201d says Theresa.<\/p>\n

But music historian REDACTED* knows. \u201cThe band was playing a string of beach clubs in New England, so they were out of the loop,\u201d he explains. \u201cProducer Dave Smith decided that their song \u2018Pink and Green\u2019 would be the next single on his Bandit label.\u201d With Orange Purple Marmalade unavailable for vocal overdubs, Smith instead brought in a Weaverville singer, teenager Shirley Hughey. The record went out with her name on the label; Theresa and her band mates didn\u2019t learn of all of this until much later. \u201cIt was kind of a shady deal,\u201d REDACTED* admits. Today, used copies of the rare 45 change hands for an average of $300.<\/p>\n

The band eventually changed its name to Justice, altered its style and went on to a successful career touring the Eastern seaboard through the 1970s and beyond. Terry Justus passed away in 2010; Theresa still owns her big drum kit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* The name of the individual has been removed. Revealed as a neo-Nazi, he was convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison. I don’t want to give him any publicity at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orange, purple, pink and green In Western North Carolina, Orange Purple Marmalade was an especially groundbreaking band. The group featured Theresa Crouch (today, Theresa Justus) on drums and vocals, Terry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,33,41,49,62],"tags":[2950,5005],"class_list":["post-24338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-garage","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-orange-purple-marmalade","tag-psychedelic-states","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\/24338","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=24338"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29617,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions\/29617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}