A Visit to “Vintage Athens” with Armistead Wellford

Image: Love Tractor: (l to r) Armistead Wellford, Mark Cline, Mike Richmond, Kit Swartz. Photo by Liwkram, licensed under Creative Commons.

By Tara Davis.

Most of our readers and RadioRadioX listeners are familiar with some of the bands that were originators of the wildly creative music scene that was Athens, Georgia in the ‘80s, such as the B-52s and R.E.M. But how many of you have heard of Pylon, the Side Effects, or Love Tractor?

Recently, Kaleidoscope host Jim Barrett and I had the pleasure of spending a lovely summer afternoon in conversation with Armistead Wellford of Love Tractor, learning more about the musical crucible that was Athens in the early ‘80s. Armistead, who was in town working as a carriage driver for “The Gilded Age” production, hails from Richmond, Virginia, but a large part of his heart will clearly always belong to Athens and the scene he created there with friends and fellow bandmates.

Wellford arrived at UGA (University of Georgia) Art School to study Graphic Design in 1978 with the intent of going into cartooning or animation. He cites his favorite artists as Rembrandt, R. Crumb, and Max Fleischer. We sat down with Armistead and his “cousin-in-law,” filmmaker James Rasin, to continue a conversation that began in the River Street Beat Shop the last time “The Gilded Age” was in town to learn more of the backstory of ‘80s Athens, and were rewarded with a rock and roll history lesson and so much more.

Wellford shared anecdotes of happy memories and lasting close friendships with many of the other musicians and creative co-conspirators such as Jerry Ayers (who had much more than his share of 15 minutes of fame – including penning the lyrics for the B-52’s “52 Girls”), people who were integral to the development of the fertile Athens scene. Seeing the B-52s take Saturday Night Live by storm in January 1980 inspired others around them to form or put renewed effort into their own bands. Armistead played bass, as well as guitar and clarinet, for Love Tractor, a band known for their largely instrumental songs, unusual for pop music at the time. “I’m afraid of lyrics,” he laughs. When asked if there was a common thread between bands that seem worlds apart sonically, such as R.E.M. and Pylon, he noted that there was some competition among the bands, which may have contributed to each of them developing their own unique sound. Still, he remembers, “we all wanted to make each other proud.” It strikes me that another common thread was the sheer danceability of much of the music, whether it was the freaky punk frolic that was the B-52s, the angular, disjointed urgency of Pylon, or the rhythmic, rollicking romp of Love Tractor. Armistead remembers he was told, “Your job as a bass player is important, to keep the dancers on the dance floor.”

The scene he describes of those days is of young people spending their waking hours almost entirely on creating – attending art school during the day, writing music at night, performing on the weekends, and creating their own style with vintage clothing and accessories procured from Potter’s House, “the go-to place for hipster fashion.” They sought out locations to host touring bands such as the Cramps or Gang of Four, as there weren’t yet venues for the bands to play. One of these spaces was a friend’s painting studio (belonging to Pylon drummer Curtis Crowe) that became an early version of the now legendary 40 Watt Club (eventually to become a proper club in a building across the street), so named because of the 40-watt lightbulb hanging in the studio. He described Athens as a “small town with a SoHo feeling,” where “all the buildings were empty.”

“Oh,” he adds with a roguish grin, “and we had a lot of sex.”

A musician from a young age, Wellford started playing violin at age 5 and studied the Suzuki method, and even met Suzuki himself a couple of years later on a school trip. His father, also a musician, began teaching him to play guitar at age 7. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Armistead plays guitar, bass, clarinet, and piano largely by ear in addition to writing music. He notes that although he came from a family of “great literary minds,” he has always been a musician. In Athens, while attending art school where he became friends with classmate Michael Stipe, he was writing and performing music with Love Tractor, who eventually toured with New Order, the Psychedelic Furs, 10,000 Maniacs, and opened for the B-52s at Radio City Music Hall. Dave Schools of Widespread Panic is a friend and cites Love Tractor as an influence, as evidenced by their song “Love Tractor.” The Love Tractor song “Fun to Be Happy” has been frequently covered by the Feelies.

Love Tractor reissued two of their six albums in 2022 and 2023 (a good place to start is their album “Around the Bend”) with plans to revisit others, but typical band differences prevented them from completing that project. In the meantime, he toured the Gutterball album “Weasel” (a side project of Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate) and started writing and recording his own new material under the moniker “Armi and Friends,” eventually settling on the name “Armistead’s Armi.” We were treated to a preview of a few unreleased demos and are looking forward to them seeing a proper release. These songs, rhythmic and funky, yet full of shimmery touches, feature delicate nuances (such as the addition of harp and strings) and deliberate musical references, as in the song “Start,” which integrates the melody of the starting horn for a horse carriage into the mix. Check out the single, “Turbulence of Love,” on Spotify (featuring/produced by Bill Berry with lyrics by Fred Schneider).

Due to his lifelong love of and expertise with horses, he became a carriage driver, which has resulted in him being involved in the series “Lincoln” and “The Gilded Age,” among others. In “The Gilded Age,” Wellford plays the role of coachman to Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), and he describes the sensitivity required to drive a carriage as being similar to playing music. Truly a Renaissance man (in addition to being a musician, composer, and actor, he is a painter with an interest in historical renovation), when asked how he balances all of these different creative endeavors, he simply replied, “They all work together.”

Armistead shared a recent encounter with a staff member of “The Gilded Age” shoot, Patrick, who, upon getting deeper in conversation in a moment of kismet, turned out to be none other than the son of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, whom Armistead has long admired. Coincidentally(?) he had just purchased a Byrds album at the Beat Shop, a record store that reminds him of Wuxtry Records in Athens – still in business today. Troy has always been a magical place for me, a place where it seems like anything can happen, and I know there are others who feel the same way. For many, having “The Gilded Age” film in our small town is a kind of recognition of some of the aspects that make it so special. I’ve enjoyed many magical moments at the Beat Shop, and this connection with Armistead was one of them.

Enjoy Troy, and watch this space for updates from Armistead’s Armi!