Fred Young, the Kentucky Headhunters’ drummer, comes strolling down the hallway of the Executive West Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. He is here to play Floodfest ’97. Curiously checking the place out, wearing an old pair of Levi’s, a gray T-shirt, work boots, and suspenders, he looks more like a farmer in town for a tractor-pull than someone who has eight of the most prestigious music awards under his belt. Fred’s laid back demeanor epitomizes the secret of the Heads success. These home boys have not forgotten where their hearts are. Although they hit the world like a whirlwind in 1990, and are getting geared up for a ride in the twister once again, they just seem to take it all in stride.

Now, just in case you took a leave of absence from the planet, or you were still in the monastery around 1989-91, there was a little ole band from Metcalfe County, Kentucky, that blew the boots off the country music establishment in Nashville. Those cool calm country boys that crawled out of the woodwork and carved their notch in music history are back. They’re not only back — they’re better. Doug Phelps, part of the legendary line-up that made the historic Pickin’ on Nashville album is back in the fold as lead singer and third guitarist. Their new album, Stompin’ Grounds, hit the shelves on April 29. The boys are doing what they do best, writing great songs and riding the stage like a wild bronco.

“This band has much more of a foundation. We’ve all spent more time together. You build a house without a foundation and when the wolf comes and blows on the door, the house is gonna fall. But this band is solid,” says Greg Martin, who seems to be the conscience of the group. “I think this new album is a definite maturity in the band’s playing, writing, and singing. This album is more song oriented. Lyrically, it’s the most right-on album. The songs are just more radio friendly.”

“The band is the smoothest internally that I can ever remember it being,” says bass player Anthony Kenny. “Everybody is on the same wavelength. We’re all seeing things eye to eye.”

Anthony has worked with Greg, and brothers Fred and Richard, since 1968 but he had never worked with Doug until now. “After you’ve been on the road a week or two with somebody you really get to know their actual personality. He’s just a great guy.”

The band was formed in the late sixties, and developed an avid regional following as The Itchy Brothers, with Mark Orr as lead singer. After a deal fell through with Swan Song records, the guys were disheartened and each sought work elsewhere. Fred got a gig with country singer Sylvia, and landed a role in the Patsy Cline movie, “Sweet Dreams.” Richard became a staff songwriter for Acuff-Rose Publishing in Nashville. Greg Martin got a gig playing guitar for Ronnie McDowell.

“I look back at the puzzle and I believe God has things divinely mapped out and sometimes we have to mess things up every now and then,” said Martin. “The very day I started with McDowell, Doug Phelps auditioned for the bass and got the gig. About five years into that we were wanting to stretch out. Richard, Fred, and I started talking about putting The Itchy Brothers back together. Anthony had just got married and didn’t have time to do it. So I said, ‘Man, why don’t we bring Doug up and the four of us get together.’ We had three or four rehearsals and we said, ‘Yeah, Doug will work.’ Doug suggested bringing in his brother, Ricky, and the line-up for the first two albums was complete.”

What is it about these guys that caught everyone’s attention? Well, unbelievable song writing and killer performances, no doubt. But there’s more to it than that. They were being themselves, having a good time and it showed. For the first time the rest of the world was hearing that Southern Kentucky mix of Bluegrass, Rock, Boogie, Blues, and Country and seeing it played the way it’s supposed to be played. Real people performing real music without the Nashville glitter suits and fake cowboy hats. The world saw the real deal and loved it. David Barrick, the engineer on the new CD, Stompin’ Grounds, said it like this, “They’re real people. Richard gets up and takes hay out to the cows. Man, they’re the real thing.”

Like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, these guys have been playing music together since they were teenagers. “Me and Richard have a chemistry, we grew up playing together and you just can’t buy it….the chemistry between the four of us as well,” Greg Martin said, recalling the early days when the band consisted of himself and his cousins, Richard, Fred, and Anthony.

Not only do they have longevity going for them, they have a streak of luck a mile long. The way they teamed up with their manager, Mitchell Fox, sounds as miraculous as how Brian Epstein met The Beatles. Greg Martin tells the story like this, “We were all snowed in the winter of ’78. We looked at a Swan Song label and thought, ‘That’s where we need to be.’ They had Zeppelin and Bad Company, two bands we loved. Richard got the number to Swan Song. He calls the number and normally the secretary would answer, but everybody had left but Fox. The phone rang and Fox picked it up, and Richard started in on his spiel about the band. Fox was intrigued by the Kentucky accent and the spiel. So we started developing a relationship with Fox. The summer of ’78, he flew to see us at Sound Stage in Louisville, and that was that.”

When asked why he left Swan Song, Fox explained, “Swan Song gave me a choice, drop the boys [Headhunters] or stay with us. So I left Swan Song. I’m in the music business because I love music. Who wouldn’t do this? Hang out with a bunch of guys you really like and play music. Now we’re here to tell the history.”

As I mentioned earlier, I met up with them at Floodfest ’97, in Louisville, Kentucky. True to their small town values, they played this concert for free, to help raise money for victims of the worst floods up and down the Ohio River since 1937. Richard Young told the NBC correspondent, “It’s good to know we’re going to help Kentucky, but it’s also good to know we are helping people in Ohio, Southern Illinois, and Indiana. I like to see people pull together. Sometimes I think I live in an era where nobody really cares. It’s always when things like this happen, you see people are the same as they were in the 1900’s or 1800’s. They still come together and come together fast.”

As the network affiliates took turns talking to Richard and Doug, I settled into a chair at the hotel restaurant to wait. I was sitting there peacefully sipping my coffee when Richard, Doug and Lisa (Fox’s assistant) burst in, laughing in disbelief. Richard said, “Man, you missed it. This man wanted his picture made [with us] and his wife was holding the camera, and she started fainting. She was saying, ‘Purse… purse.’ So I went and got her purse and started digging through it for heart pills. Her husband said, ‘Man, don’t worry about her, I want to take a picture.’ “

After a few moments we regained composure, and began to chat about the 1991 split between the Phelps Brothers and the Headhunters. With a wisdom reminiscent of the Colonel in 101 Dalmatians, (the boys in the band call him the Country Buddha), Richard reasoned, “If it hadn’t happened the way it happened all the other things that did happen would not have happened. Mark Orr got to sing on the Rave On CD, and the album with legendary Bluesman Johnnie Johnson, That’ll Work, might never have come about.”

“All that split wasn’t about somebody really being mad at each other,” explained Richard. “We got caught up in a major political scheme in Nashville and there wasn’t a thing we could do about it. Everybody was looking at The Headhunters as being the game to play today. At the same time there was…unbelievable political pressure from the industry. We had been given The Key to Nashville, but at the same time we got a pitch-fork in the ass for being different. We had to fight to keep doing what we were doing. Everybody became weaker and weaker.” Doug finished his thoughts, “Ricky just couldn’t take it any more, if we had stayed together at that point it would have become very negative.”

On the day of that split in 1991 the band got a fax of remorse from President Bush. Richard jokingly added, “Bush probably said, ‘What’s the matter with them idiots?’ “

The Headhunters got on the horn, called former bandmates Anthony and Mark Orr, and headed out in a blues-rock direction. Ricky and Doug began recording as The Phelps Brothers and had a hit single, “Let Go.” It seemed they were going their separate ways, but fate had another course charted for the boys.

Doug said, “We started hearing rumors that we were getting back together in July of ’95.” Richard got on the phone and called the Phelps Brothers. “It was the perfect time for this to happen,” Richard said. “Neither one of us was burning up the airwaves.”

Doug said, “We met about once a month from July through December. The best part of that was we got to look back at our past mistakes and misunderstandings. When you’re in the middle of a turmoil you can’t really see what’s going on. Now that we’ve got past it, you can look back on it and you can go, ‘Well you know what? Now I understand why you did what you did.’ “ Doug said Ricky thought about it long and hard, and after about six months of consideration, he decided not to rejoin, opting to follow in his father’s footsteps and go into the ministry. “Ricky told me, ‘If it was you guys and the music I’d love that, but I don’t want to deal with the rest of it.’ “

“If it had just been me, I never would have left the Headhunters,” Doug added as he went on to tell how he likes the unique way the band does business. The Headhunters are one of the few bands that reserve the right to pick their own songs for their albums. Most other groups in Nashville have their image and songs picked for them by some fellow who, nine times out of ten, is more concerned with dollar signs than putting out real music. Fred said, “We can’t do that because we love music. Anything we do on our albums we pretty much play like we want to play, from the heart.”

“People seem to be tired of what’s going in country music again. We came out and kinda helped start a rockin’ country thing and a lot of guys and gals took it somewhere else. I think it’s time for another Headhunter record. That’s a machine [in Nashville]…they’re making those plastic cowboy soldiers. We’re different than that.”

That’s not the only thing different about the Heads. If you look at the song credits on their CD, none of them take individual credit for song writing. “Well, that’s a business move we do,” says Richard. “Everybody has developed a style and developed things they can add to those songs….like, who am I? Am I gonna come up with the riffs Greg Martin comes up with? Am I gonna come up with some kind of roll that Fred does? Am I gonna come up with those things Anthony does? NO. It’s always been one of the greatest downfalls where the song writing is centered around one or two people…every body wants to be appreciated and compensated for their abilities. I think to take away from that is wrong.”

Doug adds, “You may think you’ve written a whole song, but a lot of times an idea will come to mind and it’s Greg Martin all the way. So you’ve actually started the whole idea from his signature licks.”

If there is a quintessential Southern Kentucky sound it is the Headhunters. There is a certain groove in this area that is different. I asked the guys their opinion on where it originated. “That Buster Brown boogie!” was the unanimous response. All the guys said they owed a lot to Buster Brown — Kenny Lee, Rico, Steve Holmes, and Bobby Richy. Greg said, “I think this is the neatest area there is. Southern Kentucky has it’s own thing. It is very special. Where we live is in the country, but we’re affected by Nashville and Louisville. We owe a lot to Slick Rock, of Bowling Green. But, we owe a lot to Louisville groups like Elysian Field, Soul Incorporated, and The Rugby’s too.”

Richard said, “One of the most gratifying things that has came from the success of the Headhunters is to see which of your peers like your music.” Actors Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda are Headhunter fans. Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are among the musicians who have gone out of their way to express their admiration of the Headhunters

One thing that’s for sure, the accolades are not going to stop anytime soon. When their peers and the public hear Stompin’ Grounds, they’re going to realize these boys are not just back. They are here to stay. This new CD should put an end to earlier comparisons to bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd. If Stompin’ Grounds proves anything it is that the Kentucky Headhunters have come into their own. Sure, they have been influenced by The Beatles, The Stones, Merle Haggard, Otis Blanton, and so on. Who hasn’t? But now they have a sound that will be influencing others for years to come.

It only took two songs to convince Joe Galante, the president of RCA, that this was true. Greg said, “We had been shopping around for a deal and initially we were going to go back to PolyGram. Then Galante called us. We walked in his office. He was very cordial. He took the tape, went over to his desk and put it in. He played two songs and he wasn’t looking at us, and then he turned the machine off. I thought, ‘Man, he is going to throw us out.’ He rolled his chair over and said, ‘I love this stuff, I want to sign you guys.’ That very week we had an offer from Epic and Arista, but we said, ‘Joe’s the guy.’ “

Stompin’ Grounds is a milestone for The Kentucky Headhunters—a shadow of things to come. David Barrick recorded the album at his studio in Glasgow. “The Headhunters are like a big engine, they know what each other is going to do before it happens. Fred throws his head back and they fall into that groove,” Barrick said. “Making this album was a lot of fun,” said Fred, “We recorded it down here in Glasgow, just went in there whenever we wanted to and enjoyed ourselves.” One of the keys to the band’s sound on this album is that they’re back to analog. They recorded on a 24- track analog tape machine that was originally part of Ardent studios in Memphis. “The machine had the magic in it, too,” said Anthony. “The feeling is like when we were kids again.”

Stompin’ Grounds is without a doubt the Headhunters’ best album to date, a CD full of hits just waiting to climb the charts. It has more continuity than their previous releases. The melodic guitar at the beginning of “Private Part” brings to mind the beautiful chord structure of “I’ll follow The Sun,” by the Beatles. “See Rock City” is as pretty as a Patsy Cline number with a lot catchier lyrics. When Doug says, “She don’t know it, and don’t y’all tell her,” you feel like he’s talking right to you. “Kentucky Wildcat” is a video waiting to happen. This magical mixture of musicianship and memorable melodies is bound to make a mark.

The Headhunters believe that their local following is largely responsible for their worldwide success. Richard said, “When the Headhunters first came out I think that everybody in the eight or ten surrounding counties were some of the first to know about it, and I think they had something to do with our success. I hope that they do the same thing they did the last time…All these people, they got on the phone and called people they knew in Texas, Oregon, California, and so on. The record company couldn’t figure why the CD was selling all over the country. All it was, was Southern Kentucky selling records.”

You can catch the guys in person at Disc Jockey music store in Greenwood Mall in Bowling Green on May 1 for an autograph session. Upcoming local concerts will be the Adair County Fair in Columbia on June 28, the Catfish Festival in Morgantown on July 5, the Southern Kentucky Fair in Hopkinsville on August 8, and the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville at Cardinal Stadium on August 19.

The Headhunters are everything that country music is about. Plain ordinary people that are down to earth. They didn’t act like the other “stars” at Floodfest. While other performers had security escort them on and off stage, the boys from Metcalfe County mingled with backstage fans throughout the show, signing autographs and posing for snapshots. Just like Fred said, “We do this cause we love music….a lot of these people in country music today are just trying to be big stars. We’re not in it for that. My idea of glamour is sitting down here in the garden, you know, working on a tractor or something like that. That’s my idea of big time…”

That might be Fred’s idea of a big time, but for the people at Floodfest ’97 it was seeing the Kentucky Headhunters hitting the stage full force, with Doug Phelps back where he belongs. Freedom Hall burst into a frenzy when the Headhunters hit the stage. Halfway through the set, the crowd was singing louder than the band.

History has a way of repeating itself. Judging from the performance at Freedom Hall, the Headhunters are getting ready to launch another all-out offensive on country music’s status quo. Welcome back boys.

Mitchell Plumlee is a writer and musician. His blog can be found at www.blindbutnowisee.blogspot.com