The Night Mist came from Newport, Tennessee, east of Knoxville. A tremendous distortion sound distinguishes the psychedelic “Last Night”. The drummer pounds the toms throughout and the lead solo is cutting. Very few people have heard the flip side, the slow and dense ”Janie” which has more good fuzz and some wah as well. A promising solo gets cut by the fade out. Both sides were written by Michael McMahan.
Mike Markesich tells me it was released in December 1967, much earlier than I thought.
The Night Mist recorded at Vibrant Studios, which I thought was in either Cosby, TN, south of Newport, or Crosby, TN, half an hour north of Newport on the Dixie Highway (Rte 32, Interstate 25E) along Cherokee Lake, but Terry Ottinger says the studio was in Newport.
I had very little info on the Night Mist until I heard from bassist Terry Ottinger, who sent me the photos included here. As it turns out, the Night Mist were originally known as the Shags:
This 1965 photo [above] shows the original members of the Shags practicing in the basement of Terry’s home in Newport, Tennessee. Derry James on the sax and vocal, Terry Ottinger playing bass and vocal and Mike McMahan playing rhythm & lead guitar and singing lead.
The Shags of Newport, Tennessee started with original members:
Derry James (sax, lead vocals, drums)
Terry Ottinger (bass and vocal)
Mike McMahan (lead singer and guitar)
Frankie Gorman (drums and vocal)Later Bobby Burgess (lead guitar and vocal) and Jerry Burgess (keyboard and vocal) became members.
We played school proms, parties, dances, fairs, clubs and shows from 1965 through 1968. Competing twice, 1966 and 1967 for the Tennessee State Championship, the Battle of the Bands finals held in Oakridge, Tennessee.
Our managers were Gene “Wompo” Laymen; Frank Gorman Sr. and Dennis Burgess; Clinton Francis; and our last managers, Matt Osborne and Jack Brockwell, for both the Shags and Night Mist.
The Night Mist members were as follows (“M-F-T Record”):
Mike McMahan (lead singer and lead guitar)
Frankie Gorman (drums and vocal)
Terry Ottinger (bass guitar and vocal)Terry Ottinger, May 2011
