(Macon, GA) As the late owner Edward Grant Sr. said, “Over One Million people have come through these doors, and I thank You All for the Wonderful Memories.” With that in mind, “The original home of Southern Rock” Grant’s Lounge celebrates its 40th anniversary with four days of music, old friends and lots of memories from March 2-5, 2011.

The event kicks off Wednesday, March 2, 6 p.m., at Grant’s Lounge, one of the oldest and most historic nightclub and lounges in Georgia, located at 576 Poplar Street in downtown Macon, Ga. The evening begins with a reception celebrating the people and characters who span the history of Grant’s – from the blues and southern rockers of the seventies and eighties, the big show bands of the nineties to the dancing disco queens of the 20th Century, all will be invited and honored. Music begins at 8:30 p.m. with one of America’s finest African-American sacred steel ensembles, The Lee Boys from Miami, Florida. The show will also include a live performance from the soulful rock artist, Davin McCoy of Atlanta, Georgia.

• Thursday, March 3, Grant’s Lounge will host an open house, starting at 6 p.m.
• Friday, March 4, Grant’s Lounge welcomes back for the first time in over 30 years, Macon’s own Harold Thomas and the Danger Zone, playing R&B, blues, jazz and soul.
• The celebration concludes on Saturday, March 5 with another open house from 6 p.m. until.

Why is Grant’s Lounge Legendary?

Macon’s Grant's Lounge first opened its doors on February 16, 1971 at 576 Poplar Street with a seating capacity of 75. From the beginning, it was more than just another nightclub. When Mr. Edward Grant, Sr. decided to open a nightclub, he and Eddie Grant, Liz Graham and Mainland Webb wanted an atmosphere in which people from all walks of life would feel safe, comfortable and welcome.

Its existence made a loud statement about people and the oneness of human beings. And it was from this modest establishment that much of what the world now knows as southern rock was conceived.

Between 1971 and about 1976, guests at Grant's would be exposed to over 100 rock and jazz bands. Most of these bands were looking for that "lucky break." Grant’s performers like the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wet Willie and Charlie Daniels were among the lucky ones and are honored on Grant’s “Wall of Fame” located in the legendary lounge. For more information, or to schedule an interview with Ed Grant and Cheryl Louder, call Yolanda Latimore at (478) 719-2054 or e-mail Yolanda at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Friday, February 25, 2011 at 9:00 PM

Doors open at 8:00 pm - Tickets available at the door

Grant’s Lounge, the Original Home of Southern Rock

576 Poplar Street

MACON, GA. Music Matters Entertainment and Grant’s Lounge present a very special evening with Jimmy Hall (lead singer and co-founder of Wet Willie), Tony Bowles (Hank Williams Jr.’s guitarist), Wendell Cox (Travis Tritt’s guitarist), and special guests on Friday, February 25, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. at Grant’s Lounge Open House to kick off the week-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of Grant’s Lounge, the Original Home of Southern Rock.

Jimmy Hall moved to Macon, Georgia when he was 20 with his newly formed band, Wet Willie, and was signed by Capricorn Records. Hall shared the studio and stage with artists such as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jeff Beck Group, Grand Funk Railroad, and a host of others while Wet Willie gained the reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the road. Gregg Allman once said that Hall “…is the hardest man to follow on stage that I ever worked with”. As Wet Willie helped to create the Southern Rock genre they scored a major radio success with Keep on Smiling. Hall has gone on to record many other records with Wet Willie, as a solo artist, and has worked with many others in the studio and live, including Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks (Allman Brothers Band), and Chuck Leavell (Allman Brothers Band, Rolling Stones) in BHLT. It was, however, his featured vocals in 1986 on the critically acclaimed Jeff Beck album Flash that Hall received his greatest accolade: a Grammy nomination for Best Male Vocalist. Hall performed as a special guest with The Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theatre in New York on March 27, 2009 in celebration of the Band’s 40th anniversary. Hall continues to perform with Wet Willie, Jimmy Hall & Friends, Hank Williams, Jr. and many others.

www.jimmyhall.com

Hall will be joined by Tony Bowles, guitarist for Hank Williams, Jr., Wendell Cox, long-time guitarist for Travis Tritt and special guests.

Tickets are $15 at the door and $10 with a ticket stub from the sold out Travis Tritt solo concert at the Cox Capitol Theatre that evening. Doors open at 8:00 p.m., and the show begins at 9:00 p.m. For other information, please contact Terry Reeves (404-734-6168), Ed Grant (478-746-9191) or John Griffin (478-474-2078). To arrange interviews or receive bios or hi-res photos of the performers, please, contact Terry Reeves with Music Matters Entertainment.

www.grantslounge.com

www.musicmattersentertainment.net

Musical memories fill Wall of Fame at Grant's Lounge

The Georgia Music Hall of Fame may not be open in time for the Olympics, but the Grant's Lounge Wall of Fame is up and ready for visitors, both domestic and international.

The Wall of Fame is tastefully advertised by a plaque mounted outside the door of Grant's Lounge, located at 576 Poplar St. It's been up since February, the 25th birthday of the venerable nightclub.

Owner Edward Grant made the display, covering about 40 feet of wall with promotional photos, snapshots, press clippings and other memorabilia. Some of the clippings are about the two movies filmed in Grant's: a BBC feature on Little Richard and "Bubba's Tavern", starring Burgess Meredith.

"I've been saving that junk for a long time, and it finally came in handy", Grant said. Fittingly, he's also adorned the wall with old vinyl records.

Legend of the Lounge

Published by The Eleventh Hour and Written by Kenneth Rollins

Edward Grant, Sr. ought to be a Georgia Music Hall of Fame nominee. That’s no editorial comment, but a statement that upon examination of his role in etching the city’s public face, let alone Georgia music history, rolls off the tongue, logically and cool.

Such pronouncements come easily, of course, in light of Grant’s death on March 17 at the age of 76. There is a tendency to shroud the deceased in a gentle hue, downgrading the essential matter that all people are flawed and vulnerable, with feet stuck in “the mire-y clay,” as the old hymnal goes, all needing redemption. In the face of death, triumph is preferred, perhaps, more for the living, than the newly departed. So here it goes:

In truth, Ed Grant was an earth-bound pioneer in post-segregationist Macon during the 1970s, when he became an independent businessman, which meant that he was no stranger to danger or peril.

As proprietor of Grant’s Lounge, he was a general, a behind-the-scenes tactician not unlike Eisenhower, Davis, MacArthur and Patton. Grant’s Lounge was the battlefield that helped determine Macon’s contemporary profile, the public image of a city that ultimately chose to issue its raucous, celebrated musical heritage as its calling card, not its racist, mean-spirited, Jim Crow-sodden underbelly.