Will Dockery

See also Will Dockery (1865-1936)

Will Dockery (born May 7, 1958) is an American poet, minicomic artist, performance poet, and singer-songwriter.

"Will Dockery's voice is unique and fantastic to me in a Spacerock context, some ambient type Spacerock is a riff that builds and changes sometime ever so slightly and is hypnotic. Psychedelic/Spacerock is not for everyone, Will always picks up on the flow of the song and slowly changes with us and spews a poetic beat vibe to it. The T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) album will be a acquired taste, kinda like an Alien stew with wierd stuff in it and unrecognizable shapes and textures. Or like a Alien child coming out of a human and the suprised looks on the family and medical staff as they realize that this aint no ordinary baby. Basically this album is for the Lava lamp and the Colorwheels..." -Brian Fowler

Early Years
The son of, a World War II and Korean War veteran, later a Howard bus and taxicab driver, and Mildred Whitley, William Abraham Dockery was born in LaGrange, Georgia on May 7, 1958, where he would visit frequently during childhood, being the home of his maternal grandparents. He lived in Columbus, Georgia, forty miles south of LaGrange, and both areas meld into the alternate universe of Shadowville in his various works of art.

He started playing music in 1961, when he got his first guitar. This early phase in music was cut short, though, when he smashed the guitar over the head of his father, who was napping. He remembers he was emulating a scene he'd seen on an episode of the television series Bonanza or another of the westerns popular in that era. Hank Williams was an early hero, especially after watching Your Cheatin' Heart, the 1964 film of Hank Williams' life story with George Hamilton playing Williams.

He attended Waverly Terrace Elementary school, where he won first prize in kindergarden in a school-wide competition for a crayon drawing of a witch, obviously influenced by his early exposure to comic books and film noir, which everything on television resembled in the pre-color era of the 1960s.

The next year, in May of 1965, his family moved to the east side of Columbus, where he attended Edgewood Elementary school. There, he wrote his first poetry, influenced by reading Edgar Allan Poe and combining that with ideas influenced by popular music such as The Beatles.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the poetry was written and published at an untrackable level, while in real life Dockery married Kathy Strickland with whom he had two children, Clay Dockery in 1978 and Sarah Milam in 1986.

Minicomics
Also during this time he created hundreds of hand made, unpublished minicomics, which included over 500 issues of the adventure serial Uncle Jim, Uncle Jim Comics and Stories had a spinoff comic strip called Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim, which filled many episodes in which guest hosts filled in for Uncle Jim in a parody of Johnny Carson's television series of the time. In May of 1970 Dockery made his return to music, performing a cover of the Tiny Tim song Tiptoe Through the Tulips.

Video appearances
Dockery was a part of documentary film-maker Truman Bentley, Jr.'s multi-part video cassette observation of the poets, artists and oddballs of Columbus, Georgia from the years 1996-2000. These have not been transferred to DVD and are at present out-of-print.

Later Years


Will Dockery currently resides in western central Georgia, pursuing his lifelong passions for art, music, poetry and performance art, recently appearing with Henry Conley and Gene Woolfolk at Pat's Place in Americus, Georgia June 14, 2008 and performing with the Shadowville All-Stars at music festivals such as Hogbottom and Doo-Nanny.

A new collection of songs written with Henry F. Conley, Shadowville Speedway Blues was released on compact disc on April 18, 2009.

T.O.T.M. (Theatre of the Mind)
Dockery has a Spacerock album called Flying Saucer Mechanic with the band T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) with Brian David Vaughan and Brian Fowler, released in 2011. T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) are an American rock band, usually considered one of the space rock groups, but often delve into an eclectic music variety. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes, and spoken word excursions. Founded by Brian Vaughan (Synthesizers, guitar, loopers, a lot of various effects, software workstation, sound engineering) the current group consists of Vaughan, Brian Fowler (Guitar, bass, theremin, percussion, drums, violin, mandolin, rhodes piano, lyrics & vocals, sound engineering) and Will Dockery (Resident space poet, lyrics & vocal performances).



Known Associates

 * - Jim Pontius
 * - George Sulzbach
 * - Tito Wals
 * - pd wilson
 * - Gene Woolfolk, Jr.
 * - Henry F. Conley
 * - Wes Sprunger
 * - George Buck
 * - Brian Fowler
 * - Dan Barfield

Hangouts

 * - Majestic Diner (Atlanta, Georgia)
 * - Ken's Tavern (Atlanta, Georgia)
 * - Dinglewood Pharmacy (Columbus, Georgia)
 * - The Alley behind Rhino's on Broad (Columbus, Georgia)
 * - SoHo Bar and Grill (Columbus, Georgia)

Poetry Chapbooks

 * Red Zeros - Summer 1983
 * Topaz Cube - Summer 1984
 * Blood Skeleton - Summer 1984
 * Green Ringlets - 1989
 * felt -1990
 * To The Magic Store -1993
 * April Bullets -1995
 * Secret Madrigals -1997
 * Problems In Time -1997
 * Hard Return -1998
 * Opera Positions -1998
 * Sea Weed Fox -1999
 * White Irony -2000
 * Ice Cream From Venus -2000
 * Brain Green - 2001



Minicomics

 * Uncle Jim's Comics and Stories (1969-1970) unpublished minicomic.
 * Various unpublished comic strips including Splut, Virtue Peak, Vulture's Beak, The Assemblers and Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim (1967-1970)
 * Terror Time (1970-1974) unpublished horror anthology minicomic.
 * Le Glass Dildo (1978) mixture of minicomic and poetry.
 * The Torchbearers (1979-1980)
 * Shaman Newspaper (1984-1996) minicomic anthology
 * Demon House Theatre (1985-1988)
 * River Mutants (1985-1988) Romancer2.jpg

Discography

 * Bag of Groceries (1982) material written and recorded with Jim Pontius and P.D. Wilson, possibly lost and/or deteriorated tapes.
 * Shadowville All-Stars(2006-11) material written with Dennis Beck and Brian Mallard and others, including:
 * Red Lipped Stranger (Written by Will Dockery & Brian Mallard)
 * Black Crow's Brother (Written by Will Dockery & Gini Woolfolk)
 * She Sleeps Tight (Written by Will Dockery & Brian Mallard)
 * Silver Blazing Sun (Written by Will Dockery & Brian Mallard)


 * Dockery-Conley (1998-2011) material written with Henry F. Conley, including Ozone Stigmata, Fadeaway Encounter and others.:
 * Shadowville Speedway (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley)
 * Truck Stop Woman (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley)
 * Twilight Girl (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley)
 * Ozone Stigmata (Written by Will Dockery & Henry Conley)
 * Waking Up Now (Written by Will Dockery, Henry Conley, Gene Woolfolk & Sandy Madaris)


 * Shadowville Speedway ep A five song sampler compact disc released June 11 2008, 1.) Shadowville Speedway 2.) Twilight Girl 3.) Fadeaway Encounter 4.) Ragpicker Joe 5.) Surgeon General. All songs written by Will Dockery and Henry Conley.
 * Shadowville Speedway compact disc album, released April 18, 2009.

Video appearances
Various peformances of Will Dockery are available on YouTube, including


 * Ozone Stigmata, written with Henry Conley.
 * Truck Stop Woman, written with Henry Conley.
 * Last Dream Today, written with Brian Mallard.
 * The Ride/Combat Zone, written with Dennis Beck.