Bar Chords

Alumni pull off sweet harmony of legal and musical vocations

by Rebecca Lauck Cleary

THE IMAGE OF THE STEREOTYPICAL STRAIGHT-LACED lawyer putting in a grueling 80-hour work week and that of the laid-back rock ’n’ roll musician picking up gigs here and there couldn’t be more at odds. That may be why the successful blending of these two pursuits by three UM law graduates is so intriguing. From Hank Williams Sr. to the Beatles to their own creations, the music these attorneys love has become a nonnegotiable part of their lives.

Bankruptcy specialist takes off in Rocket 88

“My mom gave me a J.C. Penney guitar, and I went around my dorm playing ‘Skip to My Lou,’” said the Vicksburg native, the memory lighting up a smile. Wanting to do more than just amuse her college friends, she took guitar lessons and practiced.

After graduating from Ole Miss cum laude in 2000 with a BBA in marketing and a minor in music, she decided to attend law school. Her schedule was rigorous but not enough so to keep her away from her guitar. In fact, she and her husband, Jamie Posey, who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ole Miss, founded the band Honey Blonde during this time and toured regionally.

They found being in a band is not all parties and fun.

“I can remember while performing in Birmingham, Jamie and I were doing homework backstage before and after the show because of assignments due Monday,” she said.

In 2003, with her Juris Doctor in hand, she started working in the Office of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Tennessee. At that point, Honey Blonde had folded, and music was on the back burner. Still, Posey says she definitely missed it. “I was working in Memphis and commuted. I worked in criminal defense and wrote briefs for the Sixth Circuit and got trial experience, but I quickly found I did not want to do that. I wanted to be in Oxford instead.”

That goal became reality in April 2004, when she was hired at Mitchell McNutt & Sams, formerly Mitchell McNutt. She primarily practices in the firm’s bankruptcy and creditor’s rights section, as well as in the areas of business/commercial litigation and general litigation.

In 2005, she and her husband, along with three friends, started the band Rocket 88. Described as everything from juke joint gospel to straight rock ’n’ roll, Rocket 88 is influenced by the music of the Mississippi region.

The band’s sound draws from a veritable melting pot of influences that include gospel, traditional country, ’70s rock, ’90s alternative country, and Delta and hill country blues. The group has original songs, including “Tombstone” and “King Moonshine,” but also plays covers of Hank Williams Sr., Gram Parsons and Buck Owens. Posey’s voice has been described as a cross between Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams, and her strength shines through on stage. Rocket 88 mostly plays gigs in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, with the occasional jaunt to Georgia or South Carolina.

“Mostly we follow the football team around. If we know [the Ole Miss Rebels] are playing LSU, we’ll say, ‘OK, let’s go to Baton Rouge,’” Posey said with a laugh.

Her schedule is such that a little bit of touring works out, but she knows it wouldn’t be like that for every attorney.

“I have friends who may be gone for weeks working on a trial, and that definitely wouldn’t work for me,” she said.

In the spring of 2008, Rocket 88’s original CD Full Circle was released with 10 songs that showcase the band’s abilities both as songwriters and musicians.

“After working all day 8 to 5—or more than that—it’s nice to go play music by yourself or with people,” she said.

Alternate personality comes out in music

“I thought it was boring to go by my real name,” said Wilkes (JD 00). “I was inspired by Hound Dog Taylor, and I liked three-nickname blues artists. When you put Moon Pie Curtis on a flyer, it’s more memorable.”

Wilkes said he started playing “goofy” songs in high school, then learned to play and write in college and got more serious about songwriting later.

After graduating from Ole Miss in 1994 with a journalism degree, he worked briefly at Oxford Publishing and then the Ramey Agency in Jackson before he decided to attend UM law school.

After law school, he moved to Hilton Head, S.C., and worked as an attorney for two years, but he never abandoned his musical interests.

“I had this growing, nagging desire to do more with songwriting, and I thought of going to Nashville to pursue that dream,” he said. “But I knew my style wasn’t commercial enough, and I had bills to pay. So Oxford seemed like a good place for a career and to work on music. I loved Hilton Head, but the only music going on there is guys covering ‘Margaritaville’ in tourist bars—not that there’s anything wrong with that. But I missed the liveliness and creativity that’s in this small little community here in Oxford, and it keeps you inspired.”

After moving back, he returned to Oxford Publishing and took the Mississippi bar exam in 2003.

“I didn’t feel rushed to look for a legal job yet because I enjoyed what I was doing at Oxford Publishing with national trade magazines and working with a creative group.”

While there, he worked as vice president of publishing and stayed out of the field of law for seven years, but the country’s economic downturn has had some unexpected side effects. Questex Media purchased Oxford Publishing and then laid off about 60 people at divisions around the country. Wilkes was one of them. Since then, he has done freelance work and worked as the part-time managing editor of Hotel Food and Beverage trade magazine.

Now he has decided to return to the world of law and has opened his own practice on North Lamar in The Edgar Building.

“I’ve missed doing legal work, and I missed the rewards of helping people with problems,” he said.

But he is not hanging up his guitar yet. “I realized when I turned 30, when I left law, that in order to make a living as a musician I would have to tour, but I knew I wanted to start a family.”

Wilkes said that, at heart, he’s a homebody.

“Oxford is a good fit for that; I could work and still play solo somewhere in town. I didn’t want to be a touring artist. I just wanted to be a songwriter and play bars to try out my songs.”

To help hone his craft, Wilkes recently attended a songwriters workshop in Nashville.

“It was something I couldn’t have found the time to do in my old job, so it worked out for me this summer when I had some free time.”

The feedback he received on his John Prine-like country style was positive.

“I write for myself, and I try to keep improving on the craft of telling a story in a song,” Wilkes said. “I like having a career that is satisfying, and then I can be creative with writing. I don’t have to pay the bills with it.”

Even though it will be a challenge to return to law, Wilkes said he is excited about it, and he believes his time at the UM School of Law was well spent.

“I had great professors who were passionate, and that passion transferred into learning the nuts and bolts and nuances of the law. It also prepared me in life because I started to approach everything by looking at every contingency and being prepared.

“I don’t think I’m a rock ’n’ roll lawyer so much as a songwriting lawyer,” he said, smiling. “But the fun of it is that, even if you play in Oxford on a Wednesday night, it’s still show business and you’re still involved. That’s the way I like to look at it.”

Music can’t buy you love — just a lot of fun

Little did he know, one day he would take on the persona of Liverpool icon Paul McCartney.

But first, he had to learn to play.

“Learning instruments came easy to me, and I sort of drew the straw to be the bass player,” Speed said. “In 1964, when I was about 12 years old, I opened at a Christmas party. We all got paid $25 apiece.”

He was hooked.

“I was in a horn band in high school that played soul music,” Speed said. “But then I decided to go to college and relegate music to a hobby.”

After earning political science and law degrees at Ole Miss, he earned his LL.M. at Southern Methodist University and then moved to Meridian, where he worked with a firm of certified public accountants until 1982, when he opened his law firm.

In 1990, he merged with C. Scott Edmundson Jr. to form Edmundson and Speed.

But even with the law practice, Speed’s love of music didn’t release its hold on him. In 2001, Speed and three others formed Rubber Soul, named after the Beatles’ sixth album, which is often cited as one of the greatest albums in pop music history.

Rubber Soul started out playing just Beatles music. The original lineup even included a female vocalist for the high parts.

“We’ve now evolved into a bona fide tribute band with costumes and correct instruments. Authenticity is key,” Speed said.

To further the illusion, Speed, who is right-handed, learned how to play the bass left-handed, as McCartney does, and even on the same Hofner violin bass. The band also has an accurate reproduction of the Fab Four gear, including Rickenbacker guitars, Vox amplifiers, an original ’60s drum set and British accents.

Speed has found that the love affair people have with the Beatles has not diminished over the years, and he said Rubber Soul gets a wonderful reception wherever the band goes.

“We play about once a month. We rarely practice, but a tribute band is like theater. You just learn a part. Ironing out the harmonies is tricky, but it’s a labor of love,” he said.

Although Rubber Soul has had a rotating group of performers, bassist Speed and drummer David Zettler have remained constant.

“None of us are at a point where we want to quit our jobs and go on the road,” Speed said. “But you can leave early in the morning and get on the road and play a long way away. It’s definitely more fun when you’re 19. The lifestyle is not conducive to stability or long-lasting relationships. But it’s a great hobby, and we have a world of fun with it.”

In the end, being a lawyer in the day and a “Beatle” at night has more similarities than one might think.

“If you are engaged in problem solving, then that is creative thinking. If you have creative thoughts, you don’t just turn it off when you go home,” Speed said. “A Beatles tribute band is extremely detail-conscious: We have the exact same straps; we have a Liverpool accent, not just a British one. And lawyers who are not detail-oriented don’t practice long.”

Playing music is also a great escape from the daily grind, he said.

“If I am trying to figure out how Paul McCartney is playing on a certain record or thinking about how to do a riff in ‘Day Tripper’ and how to do the vocals, I am not thinking about what’s going on at the office.”