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JULY 4 - JULY 10, 2018
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your weekly connection to local news & entertainment
Local musician returns from Indigo Girls tour
COURTESY OF DINA REGINE
Doug Kees takes center stage to play guitar during a show. Kees is a guitarist in the Michelle Malone Band. The band toured with the Indigo Girls throughout May.
BY MELANIE RUBERTI
melanie@newnan.com Life is slowly returning to normal for musician and local business owner Doug Kees. During the month of M a y, K e e s l i v e d a n d breat hed a rock-n-rol l
lifestyle as a g uita rist in the Michelle Malone Band. T he ba nd sta rred as the opening act for the Indigo Girls on the New Engla nd leg of t hei r tour. Michelle Malone and
the four-member crew rented a van and drove 1 8 h o u r s to c a t c h u p with the Indigo Girls. Kees sa id t he tou r wa s a n eye- open i ng experience. “ T he f ive of u s h ad never be en a ny where
to ge t h e r, e xc e pt i n a recording studio. Then, a ll of t he sudden , you f ind yourself in a van, sitting 5 feet away from each other for hours on end ,” K e e s s a id . “ We dealt with each other’s personality during the
day and then musically at night when we were on stage. But we worked well off each ot her. If given the chance, that’s the crew I would want to go back out w it h again.” Michelle Malone and
the band promoted her recently released record “Slings and Arrows,” on which Kees played guitar. The bluesy, rock-nroll album was recorded
KEES, page 2
Tom Price says persistence, prayer needed to get America back on course BY W. WINSTON SKINNER
PHOTO BY REBECCA LEFTWICH
The Coweta County African American Alliance received a $300 donation in support of its African American Heritage Museum. At the museum are, from left, Clifton Fisher, alliance president; Russell Campbell, who presented the check on behalf of the donors; and Monique Bentley, alliance vice president.
African American museum benefits from neo-Nazi rally BY REBECCA LEFTWICH
becky@newnan.com When neo-Nazis converged on Newnan, they weren’t here to build up the black community. Regardless of its intent, the National Socialist Movement’s April rally in Greenville Street Park has resulted in a financial boost for the Coweta
County African America n A llia nce, which received a $300 donation in support of its African American Heritage Museum and Research Center. “That’s not a worldcha ng i ng a mou nt of m one y, but it s how s something good coming from the hate the
Nazis tried to bring to our town,” said Russell Campbell, who delivered the check to the museum l a st we ek . “ It show s that people will stand up to protest and put their money where their mouth is to combat that
MUSEUM, page 3
winston@newnan.com Tom Price, the Geor gia physician turned politician, says Americans may have ceded too much of their liberty to the government. Price was the speaker for the annual Freedom Celebration on Sunday evening at First Baptist Church of Newnan. Price cited 1962, the year the Supreme Court outlawed directed prayer in schools, as a turning point in American society. He urged the crowd at First Baptist to persevere in their efforts to return the United States to a Godly course. He recommended “cheerful persistence,” a willingness to honestly speak up about the problems facing the nation, and education as answers to the problem. “Young people are the key. They always are,” Price said. If moral education is not going to take place in schools, then concerned Americans must make sure it happens in church, home, neighborhoods or clubs. “All of this is aided by prayer,” Price said. Price, 63, served as HHS secretary from FebruarySeptember of last year. He previously served as congressman for Georgia’s Sixth District from 2005 until he became a member of Pres. Trump’s cabinet. The Freedom Celebration combines patriotic and sacred music. This
PHOTO BY WINSTON SKINNER
Tom Price, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and a former U.S. Congressman from Georgia, speaks from the pulpit at First Baptist Church on Sunday night.
year’s program also featured a rousing presen tation of the Gettysburg Address by Cynda Pierce. The church’s choir and orchestra performed, and Dr. Leo Day, dean of music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, used his powerful vocal gifts in several of the musical pieces. Price was introduced by local businessman Ernest Taylor, who is a longtime member at First Baptist. Taylor and his wife, Jan, have been friends with Price and his wife, Betty, for 25 years.
“It’s a real honor to have one of the most outstanding people in our country in our church,” Taylor said. At the end of the service, Dr. Jimmy Patterson, pastor at First Baptist, told Price he could add “gospel preacher” to his already extensive resume. Patterson called Price “a treasure to our state and our nation and our world.” P r ice , who l ive s i n Roswell, said it was “great to be back in Newnan,” noting that he staffed the
PRICE, page 3