COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
OUR BEST WISHES FOR A SAFE AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Email: djdclassics@gmail.com
STORY BEHIND THE SONG
A lot of songs were written from telephone conversations - or from remarks made
over the phone and according to Billy Walker - his 1954 top ten hit "Thank You
For Calling" was one of those tunes!
Walker commented, "I called Cindy Walker to ask her if she had any songs because
I had a recording session coming up. She told me "No I don't have anything but I
thank you for calling." And I told her "okay - just write that." So she called
me early the next morning and told me she had my song. So I went out to her
house and she had written a verse and a chorus. She recorded me a home demo tape
and I left. When I got home I made a tape of me singing the song and mailed it
to her. Then she got an idea and wrote more lyrics to the song and sent it to
me. So I recorded it and it was my first chart record."
Billy Walker's Columbia Records single "Thank You For Calling" came on the
charts June 26th 1954 and peaked at number 8. It was on the charts for 13 weeks.
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F I N A L L Y H E R E !
The E-book version of "1001 MOST ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CLASSIC COUNTRY MUSIC"
– the book I published several years ago and finally have an E-book version
available!
186 pages full of questions and answers – taken from "Country Music
Classics" newsletters – from 1998 thru 2002
This new E-book is on a single CD – just put in your computer and read the
entire book! "1001 MOST ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CLASSIC COUNTRY MUSIC" – on a
single CD – shipped postpaid form $25.00 - PayPal – Check or Money Order –
reply to djdclassics@gmail.com
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: I heard the radio guy talking about the man who wrote Ronnie Milsap's "She
Keeps The Home Fires Burning" passed away. Do you have any information?
A: Seventy eight year old Don Pfrimmer recently passed away. He wrote Ronnie
Milsap ("She Keeps the Home Fires Burning"), Diamond Rio ("Meet in the Middle"),
and Sylvia ("The Matador," "Drifter"). He co-wrote "Mr. Mom," a No. 1 single for
Lonestar. He also co-wrote "Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey," which was
recorded by Hank Snow and Marty Robbins.
Q: My daughter was telling me about a John Hartford library being donated to a
school. Do you know which one?
A: The family of John Hartford has donated his collection of books to the
Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The
2,500-book collection includes biographies of musicians,
histories of Southern music, and collections of fiddle tunes.
Q: Do you know anything about Bonnie Lou passing away? I remember her from the
old Midwestern Hayride days.
A: Singer, guitarist, yodeler and TV personality Bonnie Lou passed away
recently in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was born Mary Joan Kath in Towanda, Illinois.
She joined The Midwestern Hayride in 1945 and became Bonnie Lou. She had two
top-10 country hits in 1953, "Seven Lonely Days" and "Tennessee Wig Walk,"
before transitioning to rockabilly with "Daddy-O." In the 1980s, she became an
Ohio country radio disc jockey. Bonnie Lou is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of
Fame.
Q: Do you know anything about Waylon Jennings' widow writing a book about him?
It was on the TV news.
A: Jessi Colter - Waylon's widow- will release a memoir in 2017 titled "An
Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life With Waylon, and the Faith That
Brought Me Home." The book is due out on April 11, 2017, and will share
Colter's life story, from her time performing in church as a child to her work
with her first husband, Duane Eddy; her role in the outlaw country movement of
the 1970s; and her marriage to Jennings.
Q: I saw Lynn Anderson sing the song "Paper Mansions" during a concert years
ago. Did she record that song?
A: Lynn's version of "Paper Mansions" is in her 1968 "Promises Promises"
album.
Q: Years ago my grandfather sang a song about "Too Late To Worry - Too Blue To
Cry." He said it was very popular back in the 40's but has no idea who sang it.
Do you know?
A: "Too Late To Worry - Too Blue To Cry" was a number one for Al Dexter in
1944, a number three for Texas Jim Lewis later that same year and a number six
for Ronnie Milsap in 1975.
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A T T E N T I O N: R A D I O S T A T I O N S:
Our short form daily radio feature, "Story Behind The Song" is now
available to radio stations at no
charge.
For information, email me at djdclassics@gmail.com
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NUMBER ONES ON THIS DATE
1947
I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy
Arnold
1955
Love, Love, Love - Webb Pierce
1963
Love's Gonna Live Here - Buck Owens
1971
Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man) - Merle Haggard
1979
Come with Me - Waylon Jennings
1987
I Won't Need You Anymore (Always and Forever) - Randy Travis
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TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY
Courtesy: Bill Morrison
Tom C. Fouts "Captain Stubby," of Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers, born 1918.
Frenchy "Stoney" Edwards born Seminole, OK 1929.
The Carter Family recorded "Lonesome Valley"/"Wabash Cannonball," for Ralph Peer
and Victor Records 1929.
Johnny Carver born Jackson, MS 1940.
James Bryan, Bluegrass/fiddle, born Mentone, AL 1953.
Sonny James released "Young Love," 1956.
Tom T. Hall recorded "Me And Jesus/Turn It On, Turn It On, Turn It On" 1971.
Marty Robbins released "The Best Part Of Living/Gone With The Wind" 1971.
Asher Sizemore, age 69, Grand Ole Opry, died in Arkansas 1975.
"Wanted, The Outlaws," the first million selling Country album in history,
certified platinum 1976.
Waylon Jennings' single "Come With Me" topped the charts 1979.
Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed released their duet albums "Me & Chet/Me & Jerry" 1998.
Glen Campbell, age 67, was arrested by Phoenix police for Drunken Driving, Hit
and Run, and Aggravated Assault on a Police Officer 2003.
Courtesy: <http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalendar.html>
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THE SUNSET TRAIN.
By: Jack Blanchard
He headed for the cashier's counter,
hoping that the curtain rods he was carrying were the ones she wanted,
when he saw it for the first time.
Funny! He'd been in this store dozens of times,
but he had never noticed those wall pictures before.
He wasn't much of an art critic,
but he did know he'd never seen anything quite like that train picture.
The surface of the picture was textured to look like a genuine oil painting,
and somehow that scene looked more real than life!
The silver steam from the old engine glowing in the sunset,
billowing against the yellow-blue-orange-pink sky,
the brightly colored, but weather worn railroad cars,
the red caboose so real you could almost step right into it.
Each piece of gravel along the track,
each clump of vegetation on the prairie
was clearly defined and casting a long late afternoon shadow.
The mountains were a bluish haze against the distant horizon.
It was a painting you could stare at for a long time,
finding details previously overlooked.
A bell rang. The store was closing.
On impulse he hurried to the customer service desk
and put the picture on layaway with five dollars
that should have gone toward overdue bills.
He didn't know when he'd be able to manage the eleven-ninety-five balance.
He paid for the curtain rods and went home, feeling a little guilty.
She stood back and looked critically at the curtains she'd hung.
He told her that they made a big difference in the little apartment.
She smiled and said that at least the curtains looked better
than the view of the trash cans in the alley.
He held her and said he wished he could provide her with a better home
with enough furnishings,
and she said that they weren't doing too badly for newlyweds,
and that she believed in him.
He didn't mention the money he'd foolishly spent on a picture of a train.
Payday again, and another losing battle with arithmetic.
If only a tree or a patch of grass could be seen from their window,
it might raise their spirits by interrupting the drabness of their low rent
apartment.
He felt sorry for her, being stuck there all day.
At least taking the bus to the factory everyday gave him a change of scene.
These were his thoughts as he paid the cashier
and waited for the large picture to be wrapped.
He centered it carefully on the wall over the chair with the broken spring,
and called her to come in from the kitchenette and take a look at the surprise.
Wiping her hands on her apron,
she glanced around the room until her eyes stopped at the explosion of color.
She almost cried!
It was like having a window to a lovely valley locked in sunset.
They held hands and stared at the painting until dinner almost burned.
Years struggled by,
and the broken spring chair was replaced by a new living room suite,
complete with payment book.
They moved several times in the course of their lives,
first to a couple of larger apartments,
then to a house in a suburban development
and finally back to another cheap apartment,
where they were to spend their autumn years.
The infirmities of old age often require a tightening of purse strings,
but they weren't complaining.
They'd been through rough times before.
Through the years they'd managed to hang on to two treasures:
the Sunset Train painting and their love for each other.
Maybe they weren't so poor after all.
It hit him hard when she passed away.
Somehow, he'd always imagined he'd be the first to go.
He wasn't prepared for the emptiness. Nobody ever is.
He took the habit of talking to her, even though she was gone.
He'd stare at the painting and go over old times.
Sometimes he'd sit for hours in front of the television
but his eyes would wander back to the Sunset Train.
He'd imagine that they were together in that valley,
or riding on the train itself.
The neighbors, aware of his condition since her death,
often dropped in to check on him.
Conversations always gravitated to the unusual painting.
Several days had passed
before anyone noticed the junk mail and newspapers
accumulated outside his front door.
Fearing the old man had died,
and after receiving no answer to their knocking and calling,
the neighbors set their shoulders to the door and the old wood gave way.
Finding no one in the apartment, all clothes intact in the closets,
and the television left on,
the neighbors notified the police of the old man's disappearance.
They arrived shortly after.
While the premises were being inspected,
an officer casually commented to a neighbor,
"Unusual painting in there! So real, I mean!"
"Yeah," replied the other, "everybody remarks about that train picture."
"No," said the policeman,
"I'm talkin' about that picture of the valley and the sunset.
There's a track runnin' through it, but no train."
And he was right. The train was gone.
Jack Blanchard
http://www.jackandmisty.net
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View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock
Ya'know, old age is faster than the speed of sound…all those sounds I made for
so many years with a guitar and a mournful hillbilly voice…well, old age come
whooshin' up behind me, knocked me on my butt and left me lying there, an old
man. I'll admit I did not hear it coming…you just keep puttin' it off and
thinking "old age ain't gonna stop me"….uh-huh, that's right…I'm
unstoppable…tougher than whet leather…shoot, it ain't gonna whup me. So, after
thinking it over…I decided to embrace it…yessirreebob, I sure enough embraced
Youth…why not embrace ANCIENT? Why just look at the benefits…I've got my
Lifetime Senior Fishing License and I can fish as often as I want to and can't
nobody stop me…you become Invisible in Public…nobody want to look twice at an
old codger…I been expectin' some Boy Scout to offer to help me cross the street
at any time…all of a sudden folks add "Sir" when talking to you…I'm the oldest
one in our Sunday School Class and Ray, the Teacher brings up a lot of Sins that
only seem to happen to Younger Men and I sit there feeling pretty dang relieved
to be mostly past that stage of life. Your friends that are about the same age,
finally got past that place in life where the conversation went like this: "Aw
man, did you see the legs on that beauty…" now it goes like this: "Hey buddy,
how's the back?" or…"Uh, have you ever had a kidney stone…man, I think I got
one"…or, they leave you standing there in the middle of a sentence while they
head for a bathroom. But, it's alright cause you share a lifetime of friendship,
and it's enough just to hear their voice on the phone, or meet them at Krogers
in the pharmacy aisle picking up some stomach medicine or a new bottle of Aleve.
So, you can see there are lots of benefits to embracing where you are in life.
Once you get past the Pride thing, trying to hold on to youth…by golly it ain't
half bad just enjoying where you are in the journey. Wild Adventure used to be
the norm for me…now it is enough to sit here and have my coffee, listen to the
birds and remember all the good times I have been blessed with. Peace outweighs
glory every time…the Front Porch is just fine. stan
www.hitchcockcountry.com -
http://www.hitchcockcountry.com
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.
– Psalm 16:5 (NIV)
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