{"id":37118,"date":"2016-12-20T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=37118"},"modified":"2016-12-20T19:44:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T01:44:30","slug":"will-griffith-oxfords-favorite-bartender-and-guitarist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/will-griffith-oxfords-favorite-bartender-and-guitarist\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Griffith: Oxford’s Favorite Bartender and Guitarist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Griffith<\/strong> is, at this point, a staple of Proud Larrys\u2019<\/strong> and Oxford<\/strong> Music. When you step through the doors, the long beard and ever-worn glasses are there to greet you. His current project, The Great Dying<\/strong>, has been steadily playing around town and will soon record an album. We met Griffith for a drink at The Blind Pig and chatted about how he got here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up listening to country and nothing but country,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cThen I discovered punk rock and heavy metal and immediately wanted to play drums. My parents wouldn\u2019t let me play drums, so instead I played bass.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After picking up the bass guitar, Griffith played in a metal cover band ranging from The Misfits<\/strong> to Slayer<\/strong> and Metallica<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was perfectly terrible, but it was so good,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cPlaying for five people felt like an arena.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That sensation of stepping off the stage after a great show has stuck with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was stoned on that feeling,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cI\u2019m still high on it, and I\u2019ll always have that with me. You can do all the drugs you want, but if you play a good show you\u2019ll ride that buzz for weeks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His time with the cover band continued until a friend started writing songs on an acoustic guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlt-Country was really popping at the time,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cIt was this movement that really grabbed a hold of me and I just haven\u2019t stopped. I\u2019ve been immersed and enthralled by that since.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Griffith comes from a bit of a music background. His father played in the band Joe Frank and The Knights.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI came from a musical family, so that was always there,\u201d said Griffith.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Oxford, he is now best known for his newest project, The Great Dying. The act is typically Griffith with vocals and guitar accompanied by Kell Kellum<\/strong> on slide guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to call it man,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cPeople keep calling it country. It\u2019s kind of songwriter, but I think Americana would be the best way to put it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting New Year\u2019s Day The Great Dying will be going into Dial Back Studio<\/strong> to record an album with Matt Patton<\/strong> of Dexateens<\/strong> and Drive-By Truckers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of it is gonna be garage rock and half of it is what you\u2019re used to hearing when you see Kell and I,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna try to marry these things\u2026so that there\u2019s a balance. I\u2019ve toyed with the idea of doing one side as garage rock punk and the other side as the sound that Kell and I do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He is tentatively titling the album Bloody Noses and Roses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t told anyone yet,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cBut I think I want to call it Bloody Noses and Roses. It\u2019s got a little bit of violence and a little bit of romance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Griffith\u2019s time in the service industry is less so the family tradition that his musical gifts are.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 21 I was working at a real estate office in my hometown, Cleveland, Mississippi,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cIt was my family\u2019s real estate office and I hated it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The clerical work ultimately proved too monotonous for Griffith.<\/span>
\n \u201cOn a lunch break on a Tuesday I decided I was gonna pack my truck up with as much stuff as I could fit in it and drive to Colorado.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Griffith was living with his friend, John Lewis. After a time Lewis decided to move back home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to go back to Mississippi so for a while I was homeless there, but homeless in the most beautiful place,\u201d said Griffith \u201cIt was the happiest time of my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This left Griffith in a real need for a job.<\/span>
\n \u201cI\u2019d never worked at a restaurant in my life and I got hired on the spot,\u201d said Griffin. \u201cI was a busser then became head host. I didn\u2019t even serve or bartend there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually Griffith came back to his home in the Delta where he began waiting tables and bartending. Along the way he cooked in grill houses and white cloth restaurants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was looking for a job [in Oxford], it was Proud Larrys\u2019 or nowhere,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cI knew that was where I wanted to work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From his time in Colorado to pouring drinks at Oxford\u2019s favorite Venue, the people he\u2019s met are what make the job for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it all man and I love it. The characters you meet in Restaurants are not unlike the characters you meet in bands,\u201d said Griffith. \u201cEveryone is an artist, even if you\u2019re not painting or singing or writing. They\u2019re artists because they\u2019re dealing with people\u2026they\u2019re observing the world from a different perspective.\u201d\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Griffith is, at this point, a staple of Proud Larrys\u2019 and Oxford Music. When you step through<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":37120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[2482,705,9621,9623,9624,1137,3032,9625,516,9622,8675,1603,4561,5,642,2854,4,53,9627,2111,7964,3,9626,753,2620,7094],"class_list":["post-37118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","tag-artist","tag-bartender","tag-bloody-noses-and-roses","tag-dexateens","tag-dial-back-studio","tag-drive-by-truckers","tag-guitarist","tag-joe-frank-and-the-knights","tag-kell-kellum","tag-local-favorite","tag-local-musician-spotlight","tag-matt-patton","tag-metallica","tag-mississippi","tag-ms","tag-musician","tag-oxford","tag-proud-larrys","tag-slayer","tag-songwriter","tag-the-great-dying","tag-the-local-voice","tag-the-misfits","tag-tlv","tag-townies","tag-will-griffith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/2016-12-15-Will-Griffith.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}