Macon Magazine

74 | M A C O N M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 9 Bragg Jam board member and president of the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative. Bragg Jam's most recent donations helped to construct the south river access at Amerson, allowing thousands of people every summer to tube along the river. "Since the beginning of the festival, Bragg Jam has used proceeds of the event to build and enhance the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail, providing space for the next generation of Macon musicians to meet, exercise and get inspired," said Josh Rogers, president and CEO of NewTown Macon. Bragg Jam's tie to the Ocmulgee River is no accidental thing. It's a continuous reminder of Brax and Tate Bragg. eir mother, Julie Bragg, said the boys loved the river: "ey grew up wandering behind their grandparents' house on Delano Drive, in front of the water works, which is now Amerson park, and they also loved the old cemetery." During the winter of 1998, Julie Bragg said Chris Sheridan gave a presentation to the Vineville Garden Club, drumming up enthusiasm for a greenway along the river. She left the meeting with a brochure about the Ocmulgee Heritage Greenway. "Then, when the boys died the next July, and we were filling out their obituaries, we thought of how donations to that fabulous future project could be a way to remember them in lieu of flowers," she said. "Twenty days later that first bittersweet concert was held at the Rookery. John Wood created and donated T-shirts to sell as some of the first donations for the greenway. e concert gate was donated, too. Tate's young friends couldn't go into the bar, so they sold shirts and handed out brochures on the sidewalk. Russell Walker organized that event and loads of artists played. e place was standing-room only all night long; the last Saturday in July, 1999." When Bragg Jam first started, it was a small group of friends grieving the loss of two brothers. "Brax and Tate were brothers to each other, but they were also brothers to a community of friends who loved them," said Russell K. Walker, one of the Bragg Jam founders. "Back then our lives were so intertwined that when we lost those boys, we, like the Bragg family, lost part of our family. Bragg Jam started as a way for our little community to hold on to family just a little longer. Now, the grieving has subsided. Now, we come together in celebration, and as the years go by, Bragg Jam caters to an ever-widening audience. But it is still a community – and Brax and Tate are still central figures." In September 1999, there was a groundbreaking for the greenway project and Sheridan's group thanked Bragg Jam friends for helping put the word out for a project that would take many millions of dollars and years to complete. ere's been a connection ever since. "ree years later, Russell and Kirby Griffin published a 383- page compilation of Brax's writings in 'e Bullet Proof Bible,'" Julie Bragg said. "We'd never read any writings – and there, on page 190, was a three-line poem Brax had written in his journal the fall of 1991, when he was 19 years old: 'e old Ocmulgee's not the scene but a great view nonetheless If we laid cafes around her banks and strolled in fancy dress We could turn the sludge-mud into beauty on her breast.'" Bragg Jam Bragg Jam's two-day concert crawl happens July 26-27 in downtown Macon. For updates, band listings and tickets, visit braggjam.org.

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