By Lenore Vickrey
Kurt Caldwell, 16, has an unusual range of music tastes, from metalcore to soft jazz. And on Thursday nights, youโll find him, bass trombone in hand, playing hits from the 1940s like โSatin Dollโ and โDonโt Get Around Much Anymore,โ tunes that are a popular part of the repertoire of the Dothan Moonlighters, a Big Band-era band that has been entertaining crowds since 1976.
A junior at Rehobeth High School in Dothan, Kurt, and his trombone-playing brother, Trey, 26, are among the younger members of the group that plays gigs throughout the Wiregrass area.
Seated on the same row of trombonists are men six decades older: John Belcher, 77, and his cousin, Byron, 81. When they begin to blast out the notes of โNew York, New Yorkโ or โIโll Fly Away,โ however, the years that separate them fall away. โWe are a family,โ says John Belcher. โThe camaraderie of being with that group of folks once a week and performing with them is something you just canโt put a price on.โ
The Moonlighters are one of the only big band orchestras in the state that plays a wide range of music from the 1930s to the 2000s.
In November they played for an outdoors, 1940s-themed evening for donors on the terrace of the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. In December, they opened for the Atlanta Pops Orchestra at a holiday concert in Dothan, and Feb. 5 they will play for the Southern Alabama Regional Council on Aging (SARCOA) at the Enterprise Civic Center. On Feb. 13, theyโre booked for a Valentineโs Dance at Abbeville Methodist Church.
Not only does the group play for civic and professional groups, but it has an impressive record of community service, raising $33,000 for the Vivian B. Adams School in Ozark and a high of $110,000 overall in 2016, according to manager Terrell Glover. He has been with the band for all of its 50 years, has recruited many of the current members, and provides rehearsal space in his warehouse. Glover, with the help of Mary McLean, keeps the bandโs books, its music, and has binders full of programs from all its concerts going back decades.
โThe band now has 20 musicians, two vocalists, two set-up men and one sound man, totaling 25 members,โ says Glover, 73, who plays trumpet. While some groups that call themselves a band may have only a lead guitar, bass guitar, a drummer and piano player, โWell, thatโs our percussion section,โ he says. โWe have five saxophones, six trombones and five trumpets.โ
For some of their concerts, the band plays for free, Glover says, including fundraisers for SARCOA, the Houston-Love Memorial Library, the Elba Theater, Honor Flights and more.
โThereโs something almost every month,โ Glover says.
The Moonlighters are a special favorite of students at the Vivian B. Adams School in Ozark, which serves individuals with intellectual disabilities from six Wiregrass counties. โWe love the Moonlighters,โ says school Resource Coordinator Susan Owens. โTheyโve played probably four or five times for us. Our students as a general rule just love music, and to have a group that will interact with them, that means a lot. They encourage them to clap and sing along. They are just so encouraging to us and we love that.โ
Abby Royal, 16, has been playing saxophone with the Moonlighters since October 2024 and says performing at the school is the most fun sheโs had with the group. โIt was very lively and I enjoyed seeing the people dance,โ she says.
โIt is a joy to play for those folks,โ adds Belcher. โIt just warms your heart.โ
The group has two vocalists, Tim Willis, a retired minister of music and worship at Ridgecrest Baptist Church who also serves as emcee, and Maria Speight, a retired social worker who has sung professionally with nationally known musicians for more than 30 years. Speightโs nephew is a student at the Adams School, so the connection there is personal.
โEveryone, no matter what their age, commits to doing this music and creating an atmosphere for the people who come to hear us play,โ she says. โWe all have a great time, we love the music and itโs a pleasure to work with people who bring professionalism to the gigs as well as great music.โ
World War II-Era Origins
Glover says the bandโs origins date back to the pre-World War II days when Richard Shill, a Pittsburgh, Pa., native with musical training who was stationed at Dothanโs Napier Field, was sent to Europe without a specific assignment. Instead, his commanding officer learned heโd played with some of the better known big bands in college and asked him to put together a band for his fellow soldiers to boost their morale.
โThat was the thing that kept them together, that music from their time and knowing that their girlfriends and their wives and friends back home were listening to the same music as they were,โ says Glover. โThat brought tremendous comfort to those soldiers over there.โ
When Shill came back to Enterprise after the war, he took over his father-in-lawโs business and put his horn in the attic, Glover says. โIt stayed there for 45 years and when he retired, he got his horn back out, started practicing and joined the civic band in Dothan. Heโd been working with some of the local high school bands, exposing them to Big Band music, and got the idea to form a big band out of the civic band.โ
Glover was playing French horn in that band, but since dance bands donโt have a French horn, he switched to trumpet. โIโve been playing trumpet ever since and thatโs how we got started. We had the first meeting at Honeysuckle Middle School in February 1976.โ
They settled on the Moonlighters name (other ideas were โThe Foot Liftersโ and โThe Peanut Vendorsโ). โThe band was kind of up and down and had different managers until I took over in 1991,โ Glover says, โand weโve been playing steady ever since.โ
Members range in age from their 80s to teens, and include an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot, two retired ministers, a retired contractor, college instructors, and real estate, insurance, and phone company executives, and more.
Conductor Joe Daughtry, 72, who earned a degree in music education from Auburn where he played in the marching band and with the Auburn Knights band, had a successful career in the telecommunications industry in Texas. Family responsibilities brought him back to his hometown of Dothan in 2011. That Christmas, he attended a Moonlighters concert and spotted his old Dothan High School band mate, Terrell Glover, in the band.
โI told my wife, Iโm gonna go over there and speak to Terrell,โ Daughtry says, โso Iโm walking across the floor and Terrell looks up and sees me coming across and he sticks his finger out at me and he said, โJoe Daughtry, I will see you at rehearsal Thursday night.โโ
Daughtry told Glover he hadnโt picked up his trombone in 20 years and it would take six weeks for him to get back in shape enough to join them. But he agreed, playing every day for six weeks until he was ready. โI worked my butt off,โ he says. Now he conducts the band, as well as playing first trombone.
John Belcher had a similar story, playing in his high school band and then not picking up his trombone for 20 years before joining the Moonlighters in 1990. He took a 10-year break when travel with Blue Cross kept him from being able to rehearse, but came back eight years ago.
Now, he says, โItโs the highlight of my week.โ
Follow The Dothan Moonlighters on Facebook and watch their concert videos on YouTube. The Moonlighters can be reached through Facebook Messenger or contacting Terrell Glover at 334-618-6845.
