Article published Jan 25, 2008
Moose and Company to rock the house at Waterfront
By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff
It's the classic story - boy makes first foray into the world of music and is seduced by the awesome power of rock 'n' roll.
It's been told a thousand times, and all of those boys grow up to be men who still harbor secret rock 'n' roll dreams. Not many,
however, continue to play what they love more than 40 years later, as David "Moose" Collins does.
Collins - a boisterous, friendly guy who sells real estate and makes music on the side - will bring his band, Moose and Company,
to the Waterfront Grill in downtown Maryville tonight. And when the band takes the stage, he'll be doing what he fell in love with all of
those years ago.
"I grew up in Jefferson County in a little town called White Pine," Collins told The Daily Times this week. "I played trumpet in the
school band, and my parents started me out taking piano lessons. I wanted to rock 'n' roll, though, so I taught myself how to do that
on my own, and I've been playing ever since. I don't want to tell you my age, because it would scare you, but I've been playing since
the early 1960s."
As a kid, Collins would tune in to the radio stations broadcasting out of Nashville, riding the A.M. bands at night and delivering the
soulful sounds of rock's forefathers into his bedroom. As he grew older, he gravitated toward R&B and soul, favoring musicians like
Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett.
"I used to listen to that on the radio, and I've just liked it ever since," he said. "In fact, at my first recital, the teacher asked, 'What do
you want to play?' She gave me a list of songs, and one of them was 'Blue Boogie.' It had a left-hand beat to it, and ever since then,
I've hung onto it."
His parents weren't exactly thrilled, but they encouraged his developing musical talent, and after high school - during which he
earned the nickname that follows him to this day due to his stature and athleticism on the baseball diamond and basketball court -
Collins rotated in and out of dozens of local bands over the years, playing fraternity parties while attending Carson Newman College.
At the same time, the other members of Moose and Company were pursuing their own musical destinies - guitarist Gordon Sharp
is perhaps Collins' oldest friend in the band, but his friendships with bassist Phil Senseny and drummer Bud Nellums go back several
years. Senseny, a native of Vidalia, Ga., met Collins on the road, joining him in a touring band for a string of gigs; Nellums, a native
of Kentucky, is a maintenance technician who first played with Collins at a house party several years ago.
It was during their tenure in a previous band that Collins and Sharp formed the basis of Moose and Company.
"We were both playing in a band that decided to bust up, and the guy who owned all the equipment said he wanted to sell it so he
could buy an antique car," Collins said. "Gordon and I decided to buy the trailer, the sound system, the drumkit - everything. Both of
us already had garage-fulls of equipment to start with, so our wives were real happy when we bought this extra equipment.
"After that, we figured we had to keep playing now, just to pay for the equipment! So we decided to keep going and just put this band
together, and we've been going ever since."
They key, he added, is the chemistry among the band members. There are no oversized egos - everyone has a day job and has
been playing so long that dreams of record deals and super-stardom are nothing more than fantasies. It's about enjoying a hobby
and gathering together with friends and fans on the weekend, and when Collins settles in behind his Hammond B-3 organ and the
rest of the guys plug in and start to rock, the venue in which they play becomes the setting for a laid-back party among close friends.
"We do a lot of classic rock and a lot of good old dance standards, but it really depends on the crowd," he said. "If they want to hear
some Skynyrd, we can throw that out. If they want to hear just some funky-type dance music, we've got a mixture of that, too. We
can go whatever way the crowd wants, but we do a good mixture of classic rock and funky, old dance music.
"It's just a lot of fun for us. We don't make a whole lot of money, but every little bit helps, and we've got a lot of people who follow us
around. All of us have been friends for a long time, but we've never played in the same band until now. All the personalities fit, and
we just have a good time."