I was lucky enough to have planned a trip to Atlanta (not Dallas!) on OU-Texas weekend this year.  By coincidence, my friend Greg Cook and the now-famous Swon Brothers were there, too, so I spent Saturday night at Wild Bill’s country bar in Duluth, Georgia.

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As last season’s finalists in NBC’s “The Voice,” the Swon Brothers (whose dad, Kelly, went to my tiny hometown high school in Oklahoma) probably now need no introductions from me.  They’re talented; they’re young; and now the brothers (Zach and Colton) are well on the road to country music fame.  They put on a fine show late Saturday night just outside Atlanta.   Colton Swon is the blonde; Zach has the beard; the third face in some of those pictures is their lead guitarist, Eric Gillette.

I’ve mentioned my friends, Greg and Heath, and their band, Ricochet (of 1996 “Her Daddy’s Money” fame), many times.   Greg has recently taken on a new role, as tour manager for the Swon Brothers.  Those young guys are lucky to have him — a smart, sensible hometown friend who just happens to have 20 years experience in exactly the same (tough) business.  Their odds of success just got even better.  That’s Greg, mostly in silhouette, in the foreground of the shots below — shown in his new role literally outside the spotlights.

Finally:  Yes, of course I have a gratuitous picture of the prettiest girl in Wild Bill’s saloon.  Don’t worry:  my chatting up  of young Riley the Beertender (college senior and future grade school teacher) quickly moved to half-serious inquiries whether she and her mom look much alike — and whether her mother was single.