Sam Collins Band at The Hopp

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• published: 13 Feb 2014
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Sam Collins is a true survivor of the Nashville TN music machine. At one time a signed and touring recording artist, he came down sick once on the road and had to cancel two weeks worth of gigs. His label, true humanitarians that they were, promptly dropped him like a hot potato and emptied his accounts. He took what little money he had left to square accounts with his band, and returned to Indiana to rethink his life. Music was his way, though, and he formed a new band in Bloomington, IN. Various pickers from every walk of life rolled in and out of his lineup, including the guitar player you see in this video, a young David Grissom, who went on to considerable success as an Austin-based guitar slinger. This video is a performance at one of Sam's regular venues, a bar that used to exist down on 3rd St across from the IU Music School called The Hopp. Several Bloomington musical luminaries are playing: Sam, Jerry Minger, Dave Grissom, Rex Hunt, David Lappin, Tim Noble and old George Adams, who couldn't play much but Sam kept him in the band anyway just because. That's the kind of guy Sam is to this day. I did a lengthy stint with Sam myself. One Friday afternoon he walked into Tom Pickett's Guitar Gallery in Bloomington, where I was working at the time, and said, "Jeff, I've got gigs this weekend at The Hopp, and I need a bass man... any ideas?" "What's it pay, Sam?" "Twenty-five dollars and all the beer you can drink." "Meet your new bass man, Sam", and we shook on it. I borrowed a bass and an amp from the store, and thus began my career with Sam Collins, first on bass, later on lead guitar. It was during that time that Dave Grissom first joined the lineup, and Dave and I had great fun ripping those old country tunes a new ass. Anyway... the quality of this old video leaves a lot to be desired, but we're lucky it survived at all... much like Sam, it's seen better days, but is still kickin'.