June 16, 2008

Just a few short years ago we were down to the last of the five singing cowboys, Eddie Dean, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Rex Allen & Monte Hale and then one by one we were down to one, Monte Hale.

There are, and were, others but none ever as famous as those above even though few think of Monte Hale as a singing cowboy the truth is he had a great voice and was (Is) one of the sweetest people you would ever want to meet, it was Monte and his pretty wife Joanne that did most all the ground work for the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles.

Monte and Gene were side-kicks right up to the time Gene said goodbye, they would go to the ball games together to watch Gene’s L.A. Angels play and I think ole Gene wanted that team to be number one more than anything,

When the TV camera would pan the stadium there would be Monte and Gene up there in Gene’s box eatin’ chips and drinkin’ root beer.

So thanks to “The WESTERNS Channel” Gene Autry will ride forever (well, how long forever is) and all the rest of those ten cent movie cowboys we all loved as kids.

My goodness, sometimes when you turn to the westerns channel you will see some of them old cowboys you haven’t seen since the first grade, if there are copies of them old movies still around seems like they are always able to find and run it for us.

Sometimes when Walter Brennan Jr. (Andy) drops by who was personal friends with many of those great old side-kicks and I am watching one of those master pieces he says, “there’s Paul Fix or there is—and before it’s over he has named them all.

Not long ago Andy and I took a ride up to spend the day with Harry Carey Jr. and they dug up names of old friends that sounded like a “who’s who” of westerns, actually I guess it was.

It was back and forth all day “do you remember?” and “Yea, what about ole so and so” boy that sun of a gun could drink ten men under the table and what about---?

Stories that people would pay big bucks to hear (that is if they loved the old west).

If you have a TV set and some of us do. We have got a really nice one, every year like clock work I paint it and folks think we got a new one, some of the dials broke off but the handle I found on an old refrigerator fit right on there with a little help from some monkey glue it looks pretty sharp.

What I started to say, is, if you don’t already you oughta subscribe to “The Westerns Channel” it is just non-stop old west cowboy and Indians.

If you are a young whipper-snapper cowboy then you might get a few pointers from Bob Boze Bell who comes on now and then talking about a multitude of things like cowboy clothes, chaps, saddles, stage coaches and you name it.

But most of all you just might want to subscribe to Bob’s magazine and I might say one of the few left of it’s kind in the world called “TRUE WEST” I believe they did have more then one publication and have now combined it into just one (because I think it don’t mean it’s true) so check the news stand but if you can subscribe it will be cheaper and will save you gas money from running to the store.

Small towns should go back to horse and wagon anyway and let the gas moguls just drink their gas, when companies in America make {Billions} and people are starving and having to walk to work or not be able to look for work at all because they can’t afford the price of gas to get there, and then gas company execs get on national TV and tell the world they barely break even, well ho-ho.

Hey, you never heard of an Amish man going broke from buying gas did you? And last I heard he got where he was going clippity-clop.

Didn’t Doc Adams save a lot of good rancher folks when he made house calls with his horse and buggy. (house calls) what in the world is that?

So chip in a few of ye and buy a large wagon, put in some nice junk yard seats and “Horse Pool”

One other thing, go by the 99 cent store and pick up a little broom and dustpan and you know what that’s for. (take turns) cowboys have been doing it for years.

I was just thinkin’, now days you can buy dang near anything that is battery operated, CD players, DVD players, some cell phones get TV, Radios, coffee warmers and on and on, now just think of the fancy wagon you would have putting some or all of these things in your wagon and they cost almost nothing, maybe even start a little city transit service, why you would be on CNN by morning, holy moly we might even see you on Larry King and for sure on that good lookin’ Anderson Cooper 360 News he would be doin’ a 180 to ride in your wagon.

OK now you have our email, send us pictures as you are building your wagon and let’s all make a little (or big) sign to put on the side of your wagon that says “We Are Saving America”.

You can laugh if you want to but if we don’t do something then who the hell is?

As I have mentioned many times over the years that Eddie Dean and I were close, like manager, or friends or what ever we was and he was the greatest.

We ask him one time, and as kids back then who even thought about it but then in those later years you are wondering>>>>we can see Eddie, Gene or whoever riding on that horse singin’ but where in the cat hair is that music coming from? That’s what we ask Eddie.

I never can remember if it was the model “A” or the model “T” that had the rumble seat, Dad had one but I still don’t remember.

Anyway which ever one it was Eddie said they let the rumble seat down and had a transcription turntable in there playing what ever he was singing including words and music and he would lip sink while the music played and the driver drove real slow down a dirt road that a road grader had smoothed out that morning, if there was a bump in the road Eddie would just keep singing and they would fix it in the studio that evening.

Another thing we have given a lot of thought to was how many bullets did those cowboy guns have in um. And how long could they keep shootin’ before they had to re-load, I bet the FBI would love to have some of them 45s, we have counted up in the 30s in some of them cowboy gun shoot outs and still a-shootin’.

And here is a good trivia question for ye, how high a hill or mountain did a cowboy have to fall or how long did a fist fight last before the Star cowboy’s hat came off... the truth is some of them never did and if it did, you never saw it.

And as a kid, who cared, he was my hero and he was magic.

There is always some smart --- that comes along and just has to change things, like when ,what is now called “The Academy Of Country Music” in the beginning was called the “Academy Of Country And Western Music”.

The above was founded right here in the west and cowboy music was still a part of good country music radio stations and the movie cowboys appeared pretty often at different functions not only in the west but all over the world.

And those cowboys that did make recordings got their share of airplay and promotion from the likes of Larry Scott and all the other great DJs in and around L.A. But whoopee-doo, we can’t have anything good going on let’s make this a big money making thing and bring in artist from all over the world, heck with that just being founded for west coast artist.

Somewhere if they haven’t all turned to dust I was left by my old friend Steve Stebbins all the notes on those very first meetings at the forming of the Academy, and we can tell you one thing, as the founders started dying off one by one the stories changed as to who did what.

And one other thing, if Al Gore dies before me I am going to take credit for inventing the computer.

What I am trying to say is, who ever removed the great westerns from movie screens and re-placed them with blood filled, dirty word garbage should be given old west justice and hung up side down by his go-nannies.

One of these days I would like to duplicate and sell and give all the money to little children an interview tape that Walter Brennan made when ask if he would do one of these movies today with the language that is being used in those made today.

A real western cowboy could shoot the heck out’a you if you had it coming and you wouldn’t even bleed. You would be dead but you wouldn’t be bleed’n’.

We never meant for you to believe that the five singing cowboys that we started off tonight’s news with were the only cowboys that could sing, they were just the most famous, goodness knows “Singing Sandy” couldn’t sing, we never did figure how John Wayne got stuck with a voice behind him singing, you would have thought if they were going to do something like that the person behind him could really sing.

Herb Jeffries is one ole cowboy that can sing the pants off who ever is trying to sing today and Herb is up around 92 years old.

Herb had a Warner Brothers recording contract and they released a couple of albums on him which were outstanding but who wants anything worth while anymore, give us a kid that can’t carry a tune in a fruit jar, as long as he thinks he’s cute and wears a hat pulled down over his face, he is probably bald anyway.

We saw the concert tape “Last Of The Breed” with Willie, Merle and Ray Price, it also featured Ray Benson and “Asleep At The Wheel” but although up in his 80s Ray Price still sings a great song, he doesn’t try to be funny or do anything fancy he just sings a great song.

Willie and Merle are funny and we all know they ain’t bald, both of them have hair to share, they did look a little tired though but day after day on the road, who wouldn’t be.

I think Willie has a place down in Texas where he takes in horses that have been abused or their owners couldn’t take care of or maybe other reasons and ole Willie gives them a good home.

We just got a new little doggie the other day and we named him “Willie Boy Nelson” and believe it or not at two in the morning when he wants out he sings a pretty good tune.

My brother does Freddie Hart’s taxes along with a heap of others and he is still upset Willie’s tax man couldn’t pull him out of what he got into a few years ago.

I did all I could, we bought one of Willie’s tax albums.

Sometimes life ain’t all it’s cracked up to be so we just take it like it comes, it’s those great memories that are worth living for and most of all that someone back down the road was able to put voice and music on a wire, a disk, a record, a CD and a little bitty computer chip that we hope will be here many, many generations from now, that folks will forever be able to hear the music of those that weren’t so famous and just never hit that high spot on the hill along with those that did like Willie, Merle, Ray, Hank Thompson, Freddie, Cal Smith, Carl Smith and the list goes on.

All you have to do is blow the dust off that old record and put it on the record player and yesterday will start all over again, that is, if you shut your eyes.

Just in tonight of June 12 2008, A man that brought the horns to Nashville’s country music-Danny Davis has passed away at the age of 83.

Danny was born in Dorchester, Mass. He worked with many of the big bands like, Gene Krupa, Art Mooney, Freddy Martin, & Bob Crosby.

Danny also produced one of our all time favorite songs sung by Don Gibson called “Rings Of Gold” Gibson always had a girl singing the second part in the song which he changed from time to time (the girl) but one of them was our friend Sue Thompson.

Danny Davis and his Nashville Brass, what great music they made.

Coming up; Another great story by Walkin’ Charley with some insight on the early days in the old west, some of the greats that had a place in his life and milkin’ 40 cows for a Gene Autry guitar.

And finally, if you live alone why not take a trip down to your local animal shelter and see what a friend could really look like, short, tall, big eyes, little eyes, fuzzy, smooth, cuddly, a protector and one of the best friends you may ever have.

Animal shelters make sure your adopted animal has his or her shots and is waiting for all the love you can give them.

You won’t need to be saying to yourself, wonder which dog or kitty would be right for me, when you lock eyes with that future friend in the cage. You will know.