NOISEMAKERS DAVE GRIFFIN

DAVE GRIFFIN

WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON PHOTOS BY TAMARA GIBSON

FFor as strong a musical career as Dave Griffin has had, he considers himself a late bloomer. After all, he didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 17. But once he did, the Waycross native never put it down. Griffin’s love of music, however, began before he was a picker himself. “As far as knowing about music, that dates back many years before that. I remember listening intently to my daddy’s records from the early 50s ... Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins. That was my play time for my imagination,” he says. “I would lay down in front of the big stereo cabinet. I remember Marty Robbins, ‘El Paso,’ which was this cowboy epic. In my mind, I could see the guy riding his horse and all of it. It was like one big movie in my head.”

As he got older, Griffin started adding some pop and rock music to his growing list of favorites. The Beach Boys and the Four Seasons were particuarly influential. But in 1964, he discovered one group that would leave a lasting impression on his life.

“ ... The Beatles. That just rocked my world,” he says. “I first heard them in 1964 when they were on the Ed Sullivan Show. I’ve loved them ever since.”

Like the imported Fab Four, Griffin has also always been a fan of different genres and styles.

“I can appreciate all music … I try to find something to like in everything because you can cut yourself off from an entire genre, which you can learn from, which will make you a more rounded musician,” he says. Griffin’s openness likely stems from his vast cultural experiences as a child. As the one of three children in a military family, he moved around a great deal. In fact, he lived in Tripoli, Lebanon, when he was four.

“I say my wading pool was the Mediterranean and my sandbox was the Sahara,” he says with a chuckle.

Growing up stateside, he also was open to various instruments. He started with a snare drum in high school, but was a little overwhelmed when trying to tackle a set.

“I really didn’t have the coordination to do it. But my son, Connor, is actually a drummer with the Pine Box Dwellers. He was born on Ringo’s birthday,” he says.

After the drum, he decided to pick up the bass, but eventually settled on rhythm guitar so that singing became easier to do. While Griffin never considered himself a great singer, he was tapped to be up front when he started playing with bands.

“I had to get over the shyness ... which I think all singers do,” he says. “But it was much easier to sing while playing rhythm guitar rather than bass.”

Griffin traveled with a band from 19751978 but settled down to raise his two children, Megan, who owns Megan’s Boutique in Waycross, and Connor, who followed in his dad’s musical footsteps. gion. He’s also hosting a podcast titled “Something in the Water” with Caution Light Media that posts to YouTube. There, he talks music and another of his greatest passions — songwriting.

“The idea was to basically get some of our songwriting buddies around the state of Georgia, north to south, and have real laid-back, informal interview about songwriting, then let them play their original songs,” Griffin says. It’s a subject he truly adores, and he says that writing one’s own songs is a reward unlike any other.

“Just transforming a blank sheet of paper into something ... getting a concept and stringing words together — it seems simple, but it’s really not. You also have to try to do it with emotion. You’re creating a story within the rhyme and meter,” he says.

While there’s certainly a challenge in taking an idea, putting it into verse then adding the music, Griffin feels that it’s truly a place to let one’s creativity run wild.

“There are rules, and books have been written about writing songs and the structure of it. But at the end of the day, there’s really no rule book. And even if there were, I like to think you’d just want to throw the rule book out the window and write it from your heart,” he says.

“It’s a pride that’s almost like birthing a baby ... and if you can play it for a crowd and someone starts singing along — that’s so rewarding. It always makes me realize how fortunate I am to be able to do this.”