Eddy Arnold

Eddy Arnold died yesterday. He was 89. He recorded one last album a couple of years ago, which some people criticized, but I love to hear old people sing. He was coming from a vantage point many of us will never achieve. I loved his early stuff. When I was a kid I had some 78rpm records by "Eddy Arnold, the Tennessee Plowboy and his Guitar" -- Molly Darling, Bouquet of Roses, I'd Trade All of My Tomorrows (For Just One Yesterday), Don't Rob Another Man's Castle, It's A Sin -- all of them featuring the ting-a-ling non-pedal steel of Little Roy Wiggins. In 1947 he had a massive hit with an old Emmett Miller song called "Anytime." Two years later, brash newcomer Hank Williams had a massive hit with an old Emmett Miller song called "Lovesick Blues." Eddy was that influential. Before he came on the scene, country singers sang mountain style. He was the first one to sound as if he might have heard a Bing Crosby record. He knocked off the edges and paved the way for Red Foley and Jim Reeves. He took some flack for going uptown in the 1960s with his "world" songs, all of them done to the nines with orchestra and chorus, but he was resolute. He was in the business of selling records. "I've been poor," he said, "and I don't ever want to be poor again." He made me a little richer with his wonderful music. Rest in peace.

125 Years of Experience

Backing Dub Purvis at a Fiddling Contest

I badgered Dub Purvis into entering a fiddling contest in Horizon City sometime back in the 1970s. "I'm doing this to teach you a lesson," Dub admonished me. It worked -- I've never gone to another one.

Pickin' and Grittin' at the Border Folk Festival

Applejack with Robin & Linda Williams and Jim Watson

left to right: Linda Williams, Robin Williams, Buddy Winston, Charlie McDonald, Jim Watson, Cleo Bell, Zoomer Roberts (click on photo to enlarge)

These were taken at The Connection -- way out on Dyer Street. I don't remember which group I was with. It doesn't matter. You're up there playing "Silver Wings" -- three! four! one! dow-dow-dow-dow-dow-dow-boom! -- and everybody hits an E chord. Then you swill some beer. If you're lucky, somebody's blouse will fall off. Then it's Cotton-Eyed Joe and the Schottische. The other guys can't spell it. You're at the mic shouting "bull****" and a line of dancers comes at you backwards. They plow into the bandstand and knock the mic into your teeth. Then you swill some more beer...

With Ernest Tubb ~ 1980

Jamming with D.L. Menard