Braeton Reynolds (196X- November, 1992) -- Braeton was a guitarist/singer and a founding member of the Yardapes. To know the Yardapes was to love them, they were a roots-rock band informed by punk and hardcore, fun-loving and completely unpretentious. Their shows were always a good time and they usually played with bands like Satellite's Gone, Die Trying, Hoppin' John and Naiomi's Hair. Like bassist Greg Carlson, Braeton was six-foot six, hard to miss in a crowd. He was a real shirt-sleeves guy, given to loud humor and mischief, but he was also a very compassionate person. He was instrumental in promoting the Gainesville punk scene in the mid-80s, writing occasional pieces for the UF student newspaper, the Alligator, and generally encouraging other bands and musicians.

Braeton was an excellent songwriter, as evidenced by the one demo tape the Yardapes released to the public, "Ain't No Yankees Here, Yardapes." The title of the cassette came from something a heckler kept yelling at the band during a rare out-of-state 'Apes gig in Georgia. There are a couple of other unreleased Yardapes demos, one earlier with guitarist Tom Legrone (who got a job and left town in about '86) and one later, that showed a more varied songwriting approach.

The Yardapes were great people to hang around with, all of them very easy-going and generous to a fault. I hung around with them at all kinds of parties and barbecues and nights of beer-drinking. They were always turning me on to new punk bands. In November, 1986, the Red Hot Chili Peppers played an infamous gig at the Rion Ballroom in the Reitz Union student center on the UF Campus. The gig was booked largely through Braeton's efforts as a member of the Reitz Union Programming Committee. The gig ended in a near-riot situation, when the band was forced to stop playing due to the overblown safety concerns of namby-pamby administrative types. Braeton, Greg, and a few others transported the band's PA system to the downtown bottle club The Vatican, where the band played a complete set to an appreciative crowd. As I understand it, the Chili Peppers gave Braeton and Greg a hard time about "accommodations," meaning they were demanding cocaine, something the Yardapes would never have messed with, and probably didn't even know how to get.

In 1993 Braeton suffered what appeared to be a grand mal seizure and went in for medical testing. The news came back as bad as it could be - -- he had a brain tumor and the prognosis was that he might not survive long. Braeton promptly married his longtime girlfriend, Sarah Van Beck, and went on living life, hoping for the best. In November Braeton's health took a sudden turn for the worse and he was hospitalized and passed away almost immediately. His funeral in Tallahassee was attended by many of his friends from the Gainesville band scene, who had grown to love this exceptional human being. Rest in peace, Braeton. From your friend, Tom Nordlie, 9/28/99.