COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday January 26th, 2017
Email: djdclassics@gmail.com
STORY BEHIND THE SONG
Most recording artists remember their first recording session as the time and
place where it all started. For Marty Robbins - it was in Dallas, Texas.
Marty commented "I recorded my first session in Dallas, Texas. It was a song I
wrote titled "I'll Go On Alone." That was in 1953 and was my first chart song.
Webb Pierce
was hot back then and he recorded it too. His record went to number four and
mine went to number one."
"I liked the studio in Dallas and recorded several sessions there before I
started recording in Nashville."
"I later re-recorded "I'll Go On Alone" for an album. I think that version
sounded better because my voice was more mature."
Marty Robbins Columbia single "I'll Go On Alone" came on the country charts
December 20th, 1952 and went to number one. It was his first charted song and
was on the
charts for 18 weeks.
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MORE STORAGE ROOM FINDS:
MORE STORAGE ROOM FINDS
328 page oversize "COUNTRY MUSIC" – covers eight decades of country music –
featuring each years debut artists – hit records – and award winners – over 200
exclusive photos – a year by year survey of 70 years of country music – PLUS:
192 page oversize hardback "AUSTIN CITY LIMITS" – the authorized tribute to
"Austin City
Limits" 25th anniversary – a timeline chronology of programs and songs plus 250
full color and 50 black & white photos – both books shipped postpaid for
$30.00-
CHECK – MONEY ORDER – OR PAYPAL – reply to djdclassics@gmail.com
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: Whatever happened to Waylon Jennings wife Jessi Colter?
A: Jessi Colter will release a new album "The Psalms," in March and
contains the her musical interpretations of the Bible's Book of Psalms. Her
autobiography, "An
Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life With Waylon, and the Faith that
Brought Me Home," goes on sale April 11th.
Q: The radio guys were talking about a Willie Nelson song about the election.
Do you kow anything about that?
A: Willie Nelson has written a satirical song about Donald Trump and the 2016
presidential election titled "Delete and Fast-Forward." The track is included in
his
upcoming new album.
Q: I heard on the radio that Kristofferson is getting some kind of special
award in Texas. Do you have any information?
A: Kenny Rogers and Kris Kristofferson will both be presented with Texas Medal
of Arts awards at a special event February 21st and 22nd at the University of
Texas in
Austin,Texas.
Q: I have been hearing about a "luck reunion." What is that?
A: Willie Nelson is reviving his annual Luck Reunion on March 16, 2017 at his
Luck, Texas, ranch. The event will feature performances from more than 40
artists,
including Margo Price, Brent Cobb and Aaron Lee Tasjan. Parker Millsap, Big
Thief, Lillie Mae, Andrew Combs, Wild Reeds, Valley Queen, Paul Thorn featuring
the
McCrary Sisters, Frankie Lee, Bee Caves, Devon Gilfillian, Indianola, the
National Reserve, Red Shahan and Willie Nelson.
Q: According to my son-in-law, Loretta Lynn inducted Crystal Gayle into The
Grand Old Opry. Is that true?
A: Crystal Gayle was recently inducted as a member of The Grand Old Opry by
her sister Loretta Lynn.
Q: I remember hearing a song about "a tiny drop of sadness" on the radio years
ago. Do you know who sang that song?
A: "A Tiny Drop Of Sadness" was a track in Jimmy Dean's 1967 "Jimmy Dean Is
Here" album
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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
1946
You Will Have to Pay - Tex Ritter
1954
Bimbo - Jim Reeves
1962
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke
1970
Baby, Baby (I Know You're a Lady) - David Houston
1978
What a Difference You've Made in My Life - Ronnie Milsap
1986
Never Be You - Rosanne Cash
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TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY
Courtesy: Bill Morrison.
1928 - James O'Gwynn, "The Smilin' Irishman of Country Music," born Winchester,
Minnesota.
1937 - Patsy Montana recorded "I Wanna Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart."
1942 - Dave Rowland "Dave & Sugar," born Sanger, California.
1945 - Bob Willis recorded his hit "Rolly Poly."
1958 - Buddy Holly & The Crickets appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.
1962 - Leroy Van Dyke's single "Just Walk On By," topped the charts.
1963 - Skeeter Davis' biggest hit of her career "The End of the World" made
Billboard's Top 100.
1971 - Tammy Wynette, George Jones, and Billy Jo Spears were featured guests on
"Hee Haw."
1974 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, Jody Miller, Tommy Overstreet, and Larry Scott
were featured guests on "Hee Haw."
1979 - The CBS-TV series "Dukes of Hazard" debuted, featuring the hands and
voice of Waylon Jennings. The final show aired July 26, 1985.
1981 - Barbara Mandrell's ABC album "The Best of Barbara Mandrell" was certified
Gold by the RIAA
2001 - Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut with the starring role in "Annie
Get You Gun."
2005 - Roy Clark announced that he will be taking a medical leave of absence
during the first six months of the year, to recuperate from hip surgery
scheduled in
February.
Courtesy: <http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalendar.html>
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A LETTER FROM AN OLD FRIEND.
By: Jack Blanchard
I get mail from amateur songwriters,
many of them past acquaintances
who feel something is due them for associating with me
before I was of any practical use.
I got one like this a while back.
Notes in parentheses are mine.
"Hi, Jack! Sorry about taking so long to answer your letter
(Note -- Eight Years),
but we've had company from out of town.
We were just talking about you the other day
after we noticed your albums in the stores up here.
You look great, even with the long hair and strange clothes.
Have you put on weight?
(Note - He just killed any chance of a favor.)
"Do you remember the cold winter night
I gave you a lift down to the gas station
to get kerosene for your heater
after the gas and electric companies had shut you off?
And I'd have run you all the way back home through the blizzard,
except for the smell of the kerosene.
You know I would have.
"Well, you finally made it, didn't you?
Everybody up here always knew you would.
We were just kidding
when we used to call you a no-good bum.
HA -- HA. We were just trying to put some spunk into you,
and you'll have to admit -- IT WORKED!
"Since you are an old friend
I am giving you first crack at the enclosed original song.
If you don't record it I'll have to send it to Johnny Cash,
so let me know right away, and don't worry, it's copyrighted.
"Your old kerosene buddy,
Robert."
The following is the hit he enclosed:
"WHEN I'M GONE (or THE GOODBYE SONG)
"When I'm gone - you'll find that I won't be here anymore
When I go - I'll say goodbye and walk out thru the door
Then you'll see it won't be me that's with you as before
When I'm gone - you'll find that I won't be here anymore.
"When I'm gone - if you're alone,
you'll know that I'm not here
When I go - if I am far away,
you'll know I won't be near
Then you'll see it won't be me
that's with you as before
When I'm gone - you'll find that I won't be here anymore.
(CHORUS)
"Goodbye - Goodbye - I think you ought to know
It doesn't mean I'm going to stay
It means I'm going to go
Goodbye - Goodbye - The sun comes up at dawn
You'll find I won't be here no more,
Honey, when I'm gone."
Here's the answer I wrote to my dear old friend:
"Dear Robert,
"In unbiased critical appraisal
I must admit that your lyric has a certain steadfastness,
not leaving the slightest worry in the listener's mind
as to the protagonist's departure.
"It drives home the point and makes its title known
with a repetitiveness highly valued in the commercial field.
Its simplicity is to be complimented
as well as its portrayal of a situation
in which each of us has found himself
at one time or another.
"The first-person style and identifiability of the characters
only strengthen the argument
that you have invested the total of your talent
in this one grand effort.
"In consideration of the above,
and in sincere gratitude for the kerosene you took me to get,
I cannot, in good conscience,
stand in the way of you and Johnny Cash.
Please send it to him and take all the credit for yourself.
Don't mention me at all.
Heaven knows you deserve it.
"Your old friend,
Mr. Blanchard"
Jack Blanchard
http://www.jackandmisty.net
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View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock
It was the year 1950, early December and colder than a jilted lovers heart.
There had been no snow in the Ozarks yet that year, just cold, dreary days and
colder nights that
left frost a half inch thick on the windshields and farm equipment. That Friday
night, late, a drizzle started and immediately froze on everything not under
shelter, by
Saturday morning there was ice about 2 inches thick on the trees, grass,
buildings and equipment parked outside the shed where we usually kept them under
cover, but
this one sneaked up on us. In those days, before weather radar was as close as
our computers and television, we, in the country, did not have television and
the word
computer was not in our vocabulary yet and the radio weather was sporadic at
best. So, when we woke to the ice structures on all the trees and everything
else in sight,
we knew we had to get feed to our cattle. We were running about 100 head of
white face cattle, about 40 horses and other assorted farm animals and while the
grass was
still pretty good in the permanent pastures, the ice prevented the cattle from
getting to it.
I was 14 years old, in 1950, and my job on the farm was hauling the corn silage
out to the fields and fork it into the feeders….a job I did, mostly without a
whole lot of
thought, my 14 year old mind on a lot of other seemingly more important
ventures. When I looked out my bedroom window and saw the ice, I started
dressing for the cold
days work, long johns, wool socks, levi's, sweat shirt, heavy jacket and watch
cap, work boots and cotton work gloves. I headed out for the barns, silos and
equipment
sheds across the road from our house. Well, stepping out the door I found out
just how slick it was….almost slipping and falling on the steps, finally having
to go down
the concrete steps off the side porch, on the seat of my pants and then slipping
and sliding over to the barns. I got the ice cleared off the seat of the WD45
Allis Chalmers
tractor, got it started, and then started around the barn to go hook it up to
the silage wagon. However, I underestimated just how treacherous this ice was.
As I went
around the corner of the barn, which was on a small slope, the tractor started
sliding sideways, then one of the big back wheels caught on a rock and instantly
the
tractor flipped over and I was pinned under the seat. Those old WD45 Allis
Chalmers had an engine that just wouldn't quit…as I soon found out. I was laying
on the ice,
under the tractor, the seat pinning one of my legs and my head was under one of
the big back wheels, which kept turning because the engine just wouldn't quit.
Those
wheels had big lugs on the tires and they whopped me in the head with every turn
of the axle, which was about like getting hit in the head with a rubber baseball
bat.
Through the fog of my 14 year old, tire bashed brain, I realized that I was
lying in something real wet and soaking…then the gas smell hit me…the gas tank,
upside down
and leaking had created a nice pond of gasoline all around me on the ice. Just
then, my dad, who had been inside the barn working with a sick horse, heard the
commotion and came sliding out to help me. He took in the sight of me lying
there getting my brains bashed out, the tractor motor still running and the gas
pond I was
stuck in…he reached down and got a'hold of the tractor frame and just lifted
that huge weight off my leg long enough for me to slither backwards out of the
gas and from
under that catastrophe waiting to happen, put the tractor back down and reached
under to shut the switch off and kill the engine. I stood there, shivering in
the cold,
almost overcome with the gas bath fumes and the excitement. I ended up with just
skin knocked off my forehead from the spinning tire, and a good sized piece of
me torn
loose by the tractor seat…but, Thank God, I lived to have many more adventures
in the years to come.
A couple of years after I left the farm for the Navy, my younger brother Danny
was driving a tractor and it turned over on top of him also, pinning him under
it. Different
this time, the tractor gas leaked out, hit the hot manifold, and burst into
flame. He was burning up, when my dad, and his brother Bud, grabbed the burning
metal and
again lifted the tractor weight off my brother enough for him to roll out from
under, clothes burning and the smell of burning flesh heavy in the air. They
rolled Danny in
the grass and put out the fire, but his legs were horribly burned and he spent
many days in the hospital, and many months in recuperation…but, he too lived to
have
many more adventures. Dad and Uncle Bud both had pretty bad burns on their hands
and arms, but, one dad, with strength from God, was able to save two boys from a
very painful death.
Fathers are like that. They'll go through the fire for their family. My dad had
three sons, me being the oldest, five years later my brother Danny and my
brother Sam, 15
years after me, and all of us, in our young years, brought our share of worry to
him, but he never gave up on any of us. He was always there, stalwart in his
belief that we
could be anything we wanted to be, could accomplish the impossible if we just
stuck it out. The three of us, in our own separate ways, have continued on,
accomplishing
the impossible on several fronts, all three of us entrepreneurs in different
fields.
Our Heavenly Father is just like that. He has pulled me out of the fires and
troubled times again and again. …..and, He gave my dad the strength of a giant,
to reach down
and pull a WD-45 Tractor off me and another tractor off my brother when it was
burning. Everything in life will either weaken you, or make you stronger,
depending on
how you handle the situation. But, just know, when you make the wrong choice, it
is going to hurt, but also know, He is always there to wrap you in His arms and
make
the hurt go away.
Lessons learned the hard way are really hard to forget, and you seldom make
those same mistakes again.
www.hitchcockcountry.com -
http://www.hitchcockcountry.com
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as
faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they
should do so as
one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with
the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through
Jesus
Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
– 1 Peter 4:10-11 (NIV)
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