If you buy us a round / We won’t turn it down / Come on people / Give a hand / To the boys in the band.

The boys in the band are older now. Several have boys of their own.

But with a stage under their feet and musical instruments in their hands, Southern Ashe dreams of recapturing a moment when the brass ring seemed in their reach.

Thirty years ago, they signed a major record deal in Nashville.

Their headquarters was the old Chickasaw Club on Macon Road where rowdy fans lined up outside, groupies pushed against the stage and people put down their beers long enough to tackle the mechanical bull.

They opened for some big name acts and, taking to the road, they sold out bars up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

But stardom never came. In what amounted to a divorce, Southern Ashe disintegrated.

Their self-destruction was never explained. Lifelong friends from Phenix City put up their guitars and went their separate ways.

“We blew it,” says Jeff Fredrick, 53, a vocalist in the original band. “We had a record deal but we were tired of the road. We were young and we blew it.”

They were also tired of each other. They had been friends since grammar school.

They went to high school at Central, Smiths Station and Chavala and as teenagers formed their first group, The Blues Band.

From that ensemble came Southern Ashe.

The lineup occasionally changed but the core of the group was Fredrick, Mike McLain, Jimmy Pope, Allen Hussey, Tony Stephens and Rudd King.

They were long-haired rockers until “Urban Cowboy” came along. This 1980 film turned John Travolta into a cowboy and the Chickasaw into a country nightclub where girls really did look better at closing time.

Southern Ashe played the songs and people on the dance floor did the two-step. As the crowds grew so did the band. The music expanded and their harmonies got sweeter.

They were on their way to somewhere.

But they never got there.

Sometime last year, Stephens and McLain remixed “Legacy,” an album the band put together years ago. This led to a reunion of the band at a motel in Phenix City.

“We wanted to see each other but I guarantee you the thought of making music was inside each one of us,” Fredrick says. “We started laying out music and the harmonies were still there. Things just clicked.”

A reunion concert was discussed but the next time the fellows got together was for McLain’s funeral in February 2011.

A seed was planted, however.

On April 7, at the Frogtown Hollow Jam in Columbus, Southern Ashe will make music together for the first time in more than 30 years.

It will be a tribute to McLain and their dreams.

The old guys will be there, minus Pope and McLain.

Joining them will be their original soundman, Robert Earl Lowery, as well as Scott Singer, Tony Skahan and Jeff Greer.

“You wouldn’t believe the buzz,” Fredrick says. “I’m shocked. It makes me regret giving it up. But I promise you. We won’t give it up this time.”

Richard Hyatt is an independent correspondent. He is also found at www.richardhyattcolumbus.com