Music INSIGHT
featured band
BRINGING IT BACK
THE AMBERSON-BAGGETT BAND
S
By Ben Nunnally
By Ben Nunnally
outhern rock is more like a way of life than a musical genre. The kind of guys who play it and love it come
from hard-living, working-class worlds. They put in time at factories and furnaces during the day and spend
their pay on ice cold beer at night. Southern rock knows the playfulness of country music, the partying of
rock and roll and the heartache of the blues.
Amberson-Baggett Band plays Southern rock. Singer Ted
Amberson is a strapping man with the an iron handshake,
the beard of a lumberjack and a strong, gruff singing voice.
Guitarist Michael Baggett plays crunchy grooves and
screaming leads, and built the foundation for his songs
out of past pain and heartbreak. When Amberson sings
Baggett’s words in “Shoes for My Pillow,” a song about a
night spent in a car with nothing but the clothes on your
back and shoes to lay your head on, he’s not speaking hy-
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pothetically - it really happened to Baggett.
“We paid a lot of dues to get here,” said Amberson.
The two teamed up only about a year and a half ago. They
met at the Anniston Army Depot incinerator, where they
found they each had a passion for music and a history of
knocking around in different bands, always looking for a
perfect fit but never finding a comfortable group to settle
into.
November 2013
INSIGHT