March 29, 2012

The Rolling Stones formed 50 years ago next month and still tour occasionally. The Who banded together in 1964, and the remaining members still consider themselves an active group.

And now the Men in Black are back.

No, not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, but rather Stokes County’s own Men in Black — Brad Dunlap, Keith Farmer, Larry Hincher, Bob Norris and Joe Terrell. They may not have the 

long track record of the Stones or other old rockers, but the Men in Black are still around after forming in 1991.

May 20, 2012

My longtime friends from high school brought their reunion rock show to a club in Mebane on Saturday night. In all honesty, I wasn’t too sure how good they might be. After all, I hadn’t seen some of them in more than 20 years. Of the five, I had truly only personally witnessed one play an instrument of any kind. And while he was always great, I had no idea how much game the rest of the Men in Black might have.

When I arrived at Fourth Street Bootleggers shortly after 9, they were waiting for me to get there before starting the show. “We were going to wait until 9:30 if we had to,” Brad Dunlap told me with Joe Terrell concurring immediately.

Friends are great, aren’t they?

May 16, 2012

I always knew Brad Dunlap thought a little differently than most — and didn’t mind letting people know it. But a moment in one of our high school English classes sealed the deal.

We were probably sophomores — maybe juniors — at South Stokes High School. Our English teacher was Elizabeth Snyder. She was a formidable but not a scary woman. We had frightening teachers but she wasn’t one of them. She was hardly one of the gang either. No one wanted to hang out with her after school is what I’m saying. And you didn’t trifle with her, not too much anyway.

November 1, 2012

Long before Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith were known as the “Men in Black,” a Stokes County-based band went by the moniker. Brad Dunlap, Larry Hincher, Joe Terrell, Bob Norris and Keith Farmer have performed together in various formats since 1977. More than a decade later the musicians, now all in their 50s, not only still wear the signature black clothing in one form or another, but they still rock. Men in Black, which was formed in 1991, took a hiatus from 1996 to early 2011. It was Terrell’s youngest daughter who reinvigorated his desire to play. “I had my old guitar still and well, I just caught that fire again, that passion was reignited,” he said. “She’s responsible for getting me back out there.”