Ex-Lawton biker, blues music in Tennessee provide focal points of documentary ‘Iron City Blues’
Ode to a lawless town

Comments 0

BY DAVID ZIZZO

Published: January 11, 2009
Modified: January 13, 2009 at 8:46 am

Make music and ride motorcycles. That’s pretty much all Mike Griffin does or wants to do.

"I’m not a, quote, normal person,” explains the musician/singer/songwriter/biker raised in Lawton.

So when "Big Mike,” as he is known, probably because he’s 6-foot-10, heard of a place that was not a, quote, normal town, he ended up riding there. And writing a song about it. The idea started when a friend who is a videographer, Scott Jackson, talked about doing a documentary film about Iron City, a small, isolated Tennessee town as close to the Alabama border as it is far from law enforcement.

"They pretty much run wild down there,” Griffin said of the reputation of the little town abandoned by the steel industry decades ago and by local police later. "I had always heard tales about that.”

The roots of Griffin’s "Iron City Blues” reach back decades earlier to the hills of Lawton. "My dad played fiddle, and when I was a child, we always had a guitar around the house,” said Griffin, who now lives in Nashville, Tenn., "I just fell in love with the guitar.”

Big Mike taught guitar and worked in a music store. Eventually, his successful country band would play across the region and open for Hank Williams Jr., John Conlee and other Nashville acts that came through.

Griffin drifted toward the blues scene in the Dallas area, hooking up with brothers Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"My country bands definitely had a blues tint,” he said. "Blues was always my first love.”

Griffin headed for Nashville, where he played with David Allen Coe, Warren Haynes and a string of other serious blues musicians. Griffin formed his own group, becoming a hit at pizza parlors and honky-tonks before venturing out on tour.

"One thing led to another,” Griffin said, and he landed his first recording contract in 1992, completing four albums for Malaco Records.

It was time, Griffin decided, to merge his two passions. "I wanted to do a motorcycle record,” he said.

Malaco wasn’t interested, but a buddy in Lawton who ran a custom bike shop was. Griffin found his niche, catering to hard-core bikers with albums and live performances. "We have done really well with it,” he said.

Embarking on trip, film

Which brings us to Iron City. As Griffin and filmmaker Jackson talked, they decided the documentary would focus on Griffin’s road trip to the town, guided by fellow biker Jason Neese, a cigar-chomping ex-Marine familiar with the Tennessee backwoods and the local ways.

Griffin packed his .40-caliber folding semi-automatic in a saddlebag on his Harley Road Glide ("I usually don’t go anywhere on my motorcycle where I’m not armed”), and the bikers and film crew hit the backroads.

Their visit to Iron City — with its casket-manufacturing plant, tales of lawlessness and hopes for a better future — wove a good DVD yarn. It also gave Big Mike inspiration for his "Iron City Blues” tune.

Some ripped the results as a formulaic slam on a peaceful place with a creek running through — "yet another stereotypical redneck view of Tennessee trotted out to the world.”

But the film also won awards and raves.

It generated a subculture buzz that has drawn curious bikers and other travelers, rejuvenating the town’s tourism business. And it was a good excuse for Bike Mike to do his thing.

Or his two things.

"The only thing I’ve done is play music and ride motorcycles,” Griffin said. "It’s very liberating.”