By Glenn Galau, assembled from several sources
Mojo Mark Wilmot had a large impact on No. 3 Railroad Street and on many of the members of its diverse audience. This was mostly through performances, beginning in 2016, of the "Redstone Ramblers" and his hosting each month, beginning in 2018, of two local songwriters who showcased their original songs and the stories that inspired them and sometimes stories of how they were written. There were others that showed Mark to be a skilled, gentle and caring man. He will be missed here and beyond.
Mark was an Athens-area native who grew up singing the songs his Granny taught him on their rides through the hills of Northeast Georgia. He fell in love with her stories about growing up and living life. When he left the South for New England in 1987 he was a photographer but fate stepped in and he returned as a singer songwriter in 2002. Inspired by the American Songbook, he found a voice for his own stories. He has been plying his songs in the Athens area since his return.
According to his standard bio, his "Redstone Ramblers" was a Country Delta Blues band out of Jefferson. Mixing originals, Delta and Country Blues, Bluegrass and Gospel, the "Ramblers" was a multifaceted band with many different musical voices. Since 2015 they have been regulars in Northeast Georgia, playing the Live Wire, the Foundry and the Georgia Theatre Rooftop in Athens as well as regular gigs at the Stillwater Taproom in Augusta, Shenanigans in Dahlonega, and a monthly gig at Blind Willies Blues Bar in Atlanta. The "Redstone Ramblers" played his original songs during nine concerts at No. 3 Railroad Street. He often said that 3 Railroad was his favorite venue. We appreciated this and learned to respect this and other opinions of his.
In 2015, the "Redstone Ramblers" released their only album. It was entitled "Graveyard Gospel." With one exception, all of the songs were written by Mark and featured guest artists in their performances. These and other local professionals contributed to the album, in particular Fester Hagood and Brandon "B Mo" Morris, according to it's acknowledgements.
In it's acknowledgements, the album jacket also pays tribute to blues master Robert Johnson through Mark's unannotated photograph of Johnson's gravestone. Mark occasionally mentioned Robert Johnson during his concerts. He was obviously a hero to Mark, and probably for reasons beyond Robert's music about which Mark did not talk.
Many of Mark's songs had to do with booze or women or both. Apparently, as his songs tell it, he had more experience with these topics than was really necessary to subsequently write interesting songs about them. Although these were described as being in the distant past, the way he talked and sang about them commanded a respect for him that transended the details in any particular song.
Some trace of the booze remained; he sometimes had moonshine for the songwriters he hosted and for the audience, if anyone chose to partake of what to most was a novelty. Leftovers were stored in our refrigerator. No trace of the women remained, outside of his songs, at least that I could tell and remember.
In his commentary during concerts or in his hosting of the songwriters, he said nothing was said the craft of performing. He did say a small bit about the craft of songwriting. This reluctance was surprising because he clearly had a kean, practical, and near-evangelical interest in fostering at least songwriting in others and had the opportunity with captive audiences when hosting the songwriters. He appeared in public to choose to have the performance itself provide any lessons in these crafts, should they be needed. Perhaps he respected each performer too much to do otherwise.
He occasionally did something unexpected. In the middle of an original song about a women, he would sometimes do the riff in the last half of "Down Hearted (How Blue Can You Get?)" by Leonard and Jane Feather, made famous by B.B. King in 1963. And if I was in the audience, Mark would let me shout out the second line of each of the four couplets. Perhaps he did it because I clearly enjoyed doing it. More likely, I reminded him of an opportunity for some levity which was otherwise in limited supply in his own material.
I gave you a brand new Ford
But you said: I want a Cadillac
I bought you a ten dollar dinner
And you said: thanks for the snack
I let you live in my pent house
You said it was just a shack
I gave you seven children
And now you wanna give 'em back
I sent him some eight or so new couplets I enjoyed writing, keeping the rhryme, meter and complaint, but with no response of any kind from him except silence. I prefer to think he thought the original four did not need any embelishment, and taught me that by example rather than by a more blunt lesson.
Mark convinced many local and some regional songwriters to play No. 3 Railroad Street on Sunday afternoons every month in what he called, a mouthful and a webful, "Mojo's Sunday Afternoon Songwriters' Revival." And he did it for twenty-two consecutive months! The artists ranged from well-known veterans to those really needing the experience, the exposure, and an audience. Check out the Events Pages, below, for descriptions of these artists who were willing to go out of their way, and perhaps into peril, for Mark. I think every event was worthwhile for the artists and they certainly were enjoyed by the audiences.
The last time we saw Mark at No. 3 Railroad Street was on August 18, 2019, when he hosted songwriters Julie Gribbel and Damaris Drewry. He finished Damaris Drewry's set, in the last row of photos below, as he did on some other occasions, preaching in a chant a rendering of the 35th verse of Mark 13. I have no idea where the last line came from, perhaps it belonged to Col. Bruce Hampton, Ret., who sang this lyric in "Mark 13:35" on "Graveyard Gospel."
Watch!
For you know not when the Master of the House cometh.
Not in the evening,
Not at midnight,
and not at the crowing of the rooster in the early morning
in the early morning light.
Watch!
For the Hoodoo and the Conion!
On that afternoon, he and the "Ramblers" were scheduled to play here the following week, a gig he would not make. The Master of the House came instead. A memorial concert was later held at the Live Wire.
Please consider contributing your own stories or photos to this remembrance of Mark Wilmot. Mary and I would really appreciate it
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Photos are by Glenn Galau © 2016-2019
These images are from many Events. Full-size versions are assembled in their own Photo Album. Clicking an image above returns the Photo Album image with links to the Event Page and Photo Album of the Event beneath the 780 pixel thumbnail
Redstone Rambler and Songwriter Concerts at No. 3 Railroad Street
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