Macon Music Revue Releases Self-Titled Debut Album Out Today via Terminus Records

The Macon Music Revue's debut album shines as a love letter to Macon and its musical past, present, and future.

MACON, GA, UNITED STATES, August 29, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- LISTEN HERE / WATCH GARDEN & GUN BACK PORCH SESSION HERE

This isn’t nostalgia–it’s renewal, sung loud and played proud, from our hometown to the world.
-- Justin Cutway, Macon Magazine

Macon Music Revue releases a self-titled homage to its namesake city on August 29 on Terminus Records. Fueled by Charles Davis' gospel shouter of a voice, the ferocious guitar and slide work of Dustin McCook, the church-honed organ and piano of Ethan Hamlin, and the laid-back, locked-in rhythms of drummer Caleb Melvin and bassist Evan Bentzel, the album shines as a love letter to Macon and its musical past, present, and future. Recruited by the Georgia Music Foundation and Visit Macon nearly two years ago to form a "preservation band," the musicians began a Wednesday night residency at historic Grant's Lounge, where each week, they dig deep into Macon's musical DNA with reverence and a genuine sense of reinvention. Drawing from the Grant's repertoire of nearly 130songs, the album includes five cuts by Macon legends –Little Richard("Greenwood, Mississippi"), Otis Redding ("Mr. Pitiful" & " These Arms of Mine"), Allman Brothers Band ("Stand Back ") and Gregg Allman ("Queen of Hearts")–plus five by artists with strong Macon roots including Percy Sledge ("Out of Left Field"), R.E .M. ("Losing My Religion"), Sea Level ("Shake a Leg"), Wet Willie ("Grits Ain't Groceries") and Swamp Dogg (" Total Destruction to Your Mind"). Recorded at Capricorn Sound Studios and featuring frequent collaborators, Atlanta's Terminus Horns, the debut album by Macon Music Revue captures the grit and groove that has long been a signature of one of America's most influential music cities.

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Macon, Georgia, has an extraordinary track record when it comes to cultivating groundbreaking artistry. Little Richard Penniman–the Architect of Rock 'n' Roll–and Otis Redding–the King of Soul–both grew up in the Southern city, where they sang in church and honed their distinctive musical styles on local stages. Time spent in Macon under the tutelage of local R&B influencers led to the career breakthrough of James Brown, whom the Smithsonian calls the "progenitor of funk music." When Phil Walden established Capricorn Records in his hometown and imported the newly-formed Allman Brothers Band to live there and serve as the first of the label's many acts, Macon became ground zero for Southern Rock. Inspired by that lively 70s music scene, two Macon high school students¬–Mike Mills and Bill Berry–graduated, moved to Athens, and co-founded R.E.M., a band whose originality ushered in the era of alternative rock.

Two years ago, inspired to tell those stories as a live music experience, Visit Macon and the Georgia Music Foundation recruited five homegrown musicians to form a preservation band and institute a Wednesday night residency at historic Grant's Lounge. "None of us really knew what to expect," said Caleb Melvin, drummer for Macon Music Revue. "There are so many artists and styles and nuances and languages of musicality that originated in Macon. There are so many great songs connected to Macon. We just dug in, the band got tighter and tighter, our two-hour sets at Grant's started bringing in more people every week."

The immersion in the songs and history has also led the band to speculate what has made their city's musical contributions so prolific. "This Macon thing goes way back to the indigenous people who were here first," said Charles Davis, vocalist for the Revue. "Their descendants say the vibrations are still here. And it's been said that there are more churches per capita in Macon than any other Georgia city–think about all that joyful noise. Then think about Little Richard pounding his piano at the Tic Toc Room, and Otis blowing away everybody at the Douglass, the Allman Brothers playing in the parks, the music being created at Capricorn. That's a whole lotta generational energy, and as one writer once described it, a whole lotta 'interracial synergy.' That is the soul of this town, and that's what we try to tap into."

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themaconmusicrevue.com

For more information, please contact:
Lisa Love | Georgia Music Foundation | Lisa@georgiamusicfoundation.org

Marisa L Rodgers
Visit Macon
+ 14787431074
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