GUADALCANAL DIARY

Guadalcanal Diary: twangy guitars and
tribal rhythms from Georgia
from December 1986 Guitar Magazine

Marietta, Georgia is "like Mayfield in Leave It To Beaver according to lead guitarist Jeff Walls, "at least it used to be when we grew up." From the Atlanta suburb, 60 miles east of Athens, Walls, 30, and Murray Attaway, 28, formed Guadalcanal Diary in 1981, with former high schoolmates Rhett Crowe, 28, on bass and John Poe on drums. Originally setting out to play a combination of "Civil War ballads and Johnny Horton-style epics," according to their bio, the group took their name from the identically titled war movie and called their debut EP Watusi Rodeo {E.O.D. Records, out of print], to describe their fusion of twangy, country/folk-tinged guitars and African-inspired rhythms. Their 1983 LP, Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man (produced by Don Dixon of R.E.M. &Let's Active fame) was released on the independent DB label, but was picked up by Elektra a year later [60249-1]. Their follow-up, 1986's Jamboree [60478-1], was produced by Rodney Mills (who had previously worked with .38 special, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, and Cruzados), with Steve Nye (of XTC, the Cure, and Bryan Ferry fame) at the helm for two tracks.

Comparisons with other groups of the catch-all "New South" phenomenon seem inevitable, but as Jeff stresses, "We're constantly pointing out to people that Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, and Little Richard are all from Georgia, too. "Everybody acts like Athens is the first thing ever to happen to Georgia."

"I swear it's because people from other parts of the country are always so amazed when southerners do anything," says Attaway. "Especially northerners think we're all an inbred race of mongoloids."

As for bands that they feel any stylistic/regional kinship with, Walls shrugs: "I can't say any ‹ though we're constantly being racked up against R.E.M. I can't say that we'd be doing a thing differently if they'd never come along. Each of us has different influences, and what Guadalcanal sounds like is what everybody agrees on long enough to play together."

"I like contemporary southern bands," allows Murray, "but I would never elevate any of them to the level of influence. Definitely older southern artists ‹ Little Richard, Ray Charles and those guys ‹ but not Let's Active."

"The southern attitude and perspective is real different from other places in the United States," he adds. "For instance, you can go to New York and see how people dress and act ‹ still into a lot of black clothing and stuff like that ‹ and then you can go to L.A., and they're all decked out in wild things, the Spandex capitol, and in San Francisco there doesn't seem to be any one big trend. With us in Georgia, the cool thing has always been you don't care what you put on."

Guadalcanal Diary is definitely not into trappings of any sort. It would be hard to imagine any of them hurriedly changing outfits, be it for a concert, a photo session, or a trip to the supermarket. Asked if a concept or identity began to evolve after the band's formation, Walls, Attaway, and Crowe laugh in unison: "More of a non-concept."

Guadalcanal is in fact Crowe's first band; she's been playing bass for five years ‹ the same amount of time the band has been together. Walls had previously played in "British-Invasion type bands" with Poe, and in one band with Attaway, Jeff played keyboards. "We wouldn't let him play guitar, because he was so much better than us," says Murray. "So I played lead guitar, if you can believe that."