This article was in the Kingsport Times-News.. The Scat Cats are the featured band for the 2007 Douglass Reunion Events. STILL GOING STRONG AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!
There were chill bumps on those of us in line at the Red Room Friday night. And it wasn’t just the weather. It was the Scat Cats, Kingsport’s legendary rock and soul band from the 1960s, who are back on the performing circuit. While waiting to get in, several of us were comparing notes. The lady in front of me said the last time she saw them a year or so ago they were great. I told her the last time I saw them they were great. Unfortunately,the last time I saw them was in 1966. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the seventh-grade prom at Robinson in 1960, and David Good reminded me that it was the Scat Cats who played that soiree. So when I read in the Times-News last week that they would be playing in Blountville, it seemed like the perfect convergence. David couldn’t locate his seventh grade prom date from RNR days, so he and I decided to go stag. We pretty much went stag in seventh grade anyway,with the boys congregating on one side of the Civic Auditorium and the girls on the other. We ended up with a group of 12, all unapologetic fans of 1960s music in general, and the Scat Cats in particular. Then all we had to do was find the Red Room. Do not use MapQuest for directions to the Red Room. It directed us up Carolina Pottery Road then left on Stratford. If there is a Stratford Road, we never found it. We were halfway to the airport before turning back and improvising. It’s really easy if you don’t use MapQuest. From Kingsport go past Sullivan Central High School, turn right on Shipley Ferry Road, keep left at Shadowtown, then left on the oddly named Industrial Private Drive. And there it is. The Red Room is a party hall that sponsors public dances on Friday night and weddings and private parties the rest of the time. The Scat Cats kicked off at 8 sharp with Booker T and the MG’s “Green Onions” then rocked the house for three hours, alternating between ballads, mid-tempo numbers like “Love Train,” and get-up-and-dance songs like“Mustang Sally.” They even played “Rocky Top.” The highlight of the night was when lead singer Kenny Springs took the microphone and waded into the crowd to belt out a set highlighted by JerryButler’s “For Your Precious Love.” It was like it was 1960 again and I was at the Robinson prom. Only this time I was dancing. It almost made me wish I were a teenager again. Almost.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The Scat Cats are taking the next couple of months off. Their next date is May 13 at the Red Room.
