Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

The Snakestretchers

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Bobby Gregg, Roy Buchanan, Jimmy Nolen, Dale Hawkins, Merle Kilgore

The Snakestretchers band featuring Roy Buchanan on guitar was originally organized by Danny Gatton to play a PBS documentary on WNET in New York City, hosted by Bill Graham. The original band was Roy Buchanan (lead guitar), Dick Heintze (keyboard wizard), Michael "Pokey" Walls (drums & vocals), Chuck Tilley (vocals & rhythm guitar) and Danny Gatton on bass. Danny Gatton and drummer "Pokey" Walls left the group before the show was taped and teamed up at Gus N' Johns Restaurant, also in "suburban MD". (Peter Van Allen '72-74 Bass)

Origin of the band's name

The name originated in the band room at the Crossroads Nightclub in Bladensburg, Maryland. Every break the band sojourned to the band room, drank beer and told "road stories". Chuck Tilley said one night he “dreamed he was hired as a snake stretcher”.

The band itself had no name at that time. When queried "What's the name of your band?" - "Pokey" quickly replied once - "Roy Buchanan and The Snake Stretchers" (two words). Thinking up nutty names for the band turned out to half the fun of any given night.

This name was never intended to be serious. It was “officially applied” when the group played a politically connected event at a Wash, DC PBS station and one band member casually answered the “ever popular question” with "the Snake Stretchers" - to someone who turned out to be a Washington Post reporter. It was just in fun, but once published in the Washington Post, it was accepted as fact and "coined" into a single word.

References

The Snakestretchers Wikipedia