Musical Journey | David Earl Edwards Sr

The Beginning

When I was young my family would watch The Ed Sullivan Show. I loved seeing the bands on the show. When The Beatles came out that did it for me. I wish I had more pics of those years but here are the ones I have.

Savage Hag

In high school a couple of buddies and I started a band called Savage Hag. We played at parties and did a concert at our high school. The band consisted of Glenn Scott, Coogie Rigdon, and myself.

Photo 7Savage Hag at Deep Creek High School

Drew Foxx

After Savage Hag Coogie departed the band and Glenn and I got a new drummer, Mike Bennett. He wasn’t one of our school friends. He lived in the adjoining city. Mike was, and still is, very professional. He lived his music and his drumming. Like Savage Hag, Drew Foxx was a 3-piece rock and roll band. We stepped up a notch and played some outdoor shows and lots of local dances.

Red Bud Band

Red Bud Band was made up of Vernon Martin, Kevin Gilbert, and me. At one point we had a girl in the band, Debbie Sherwood, to sing girl songs and background vocals. She played guitar good too. We opened for national bands here and there. We also played several of the local clubs.

Photo 10Me and Vernon at Cheech and Chong show

Herndon-Edwards Band

Right after the Red Bud Band, I played Disco music with a couple of bands just for the money. That didn’t last very long. After some introductions Gerry Herndon and Robert Sweitzer came over to my house to discuss starting a band. We got together and I met Steve Fletcher, the drummer. We got together and it clicked. As a matter of fact, it was a perfect match and continued over the years to be a connection that many never find. The good thing about the band was that the original material that Gerry and I wrote fit very well with all of us. The band tried to stay in the country rock and pop styles. Then along came Donnie Satterwhite who played pedal steel. Adding him to the mix made it more magical. Not long after that we recruited Tom Farley as our acoustic guitar and backup vocalist. Tom came from a more folk/acoustic area but fit in well.

The band was doing well locally, and we wanted to expand our presence on a regional level. Being a little impatient, we got the money together and formed our own record label and self-funded the recording of an album titled “The Herndon- Edwards Band” “Travelin’ All Over”. That album was well received. It was being played on Heavy, Medium and Light rotation on several of the local and out of state radio stations. The record was recorded at Track Recorder in Silver Spring, Maryland. That studio produced recordings for Linda Ronstadt, Jimi Hendrix, Fats Domino and others.

After a few years I moved to Nashville to write songs. After a year or so I moved back home and it wasn’t too long before I decided to move back to Nashville. The Herndon-Edwards Band did a few reunion concerts over the years.

Nashville

I moved back to Nashville in 1995. My goal was to write songs. I came in at a level that many spends years to get to if they ever can. I was working with Austin Roberts (George Robertson). I met Austin through a mutual friend in Virginia. We became very close friends immediately. I eventually had many connections in several areas of the music business. Writing with Austin taught me a lot. I was introduced to the good and the ugly of the music business. I was writing with hit song writers, plugging other hit writer’s songs to record companies and became a part of the Nashville music community.

Around 2000 I went through a divorce that wasn’t pleasant. I had 3 young children, and their welfare was my top concern, so I dropped out of the music scene for several years. I wrote when I could and just stored them away for the future. During that time, I was so lucky to have met and become friends with so many respected and prominent people in the music business, from writers, producers, other musicians, and stars. I wish I would have gotten more pictures with all these people but that wasn’t on my mind at the time. They were just like normal people to me.