This year marks the 250th birthday of the United States of America. In honor of this, Milledgeville Main Street hosted “First Friday: Hometown Celebration” last weekend. The downtown area was filled with vendors, community representatives, and live music in the middle of it all.
The bands that were featured include both Reunion and The Bomb Chewy Band, who took center stage throughout the event and members of both bands have strong ties to the community.
Reunion lead singer Greg Stephens has been in the band for 42 years and all seven members bring a different sound to it.
“We have been based out of Milledgeville the whole time. We got guys from Houston County, guys from Twiggs County that’s with us. We do basically music from the ’60s, ’70s, some ’80s. Pretty much songs that everybody knows and everybody can get into it and have a good time,” said Stephens.
Jon Joiner is a member of The Bomb Chewy Band. The group started as a jam band from downtown Milledgeville. Joiner studied music at Georgia College & State University and is now the owner of Amici. He has done tours with the band all over the Southeast; however, this past weekend marked the first show the group has done together in 17 years.
“The music scene downtown when I was in school was just great. There were always bands playing. Well, there’s so many great memories of this band in particular because it really did come from a lot of just people that were working in the area,” Joiner said.
“I mean two people from The Brick, somebody from Buffington’s, somebody that was working at Chops down there, and me at Amici. It’s just kind of a downtown community that come together from different restaurant business just to have fun.”
On top of celebrating America’s history, this First Friday celebrated Milledgeville as a whole. The city in 2014 was awarded the national title of a Great American Main Street City by the Main Street America organization. This award recognizes the community’s efforts to preserve and redevelop historic districts.
“You know the history of Milledgeville; It’s a very old community. It goes way back. So, there’s always upkeep and always things you want to do to make it look fresh and nice. Which benefits the whole community,” said Joiner.