Date News Posted: March 16, 2008

Bobby Lord, Another one of our Country artist has passed away.  Bobby was born in Sanford, Florida January the sixth nineteen thirty four, and died February the 16^th 2008.

In the early 50’s he worked on Paul Whiteman’s  TV shows, then on to Red Foley’s Jubilee series in the late 50’s , and then in the 60’s had his own Bobby Lord TV show.

Although not many of Bobby’s records made the national charts , he did record for Columbia, Hickory , Decca & Rice with 88 sides and 3 LP’s .

Bobby just about did it all over the years, singer, song writer, TV star, the host of “Celebrity Outdoors” a hunting and fishing show, getting paid to travel the world, visit old friends and fish, now that ain’t a bad way of life.

So Long Bobby, your family, fans and friends are sure gonna miss you.

I was checking some old records the other day and came across a great album by John D. Loudermilk.  Now John D. might not be a name you know right off the top of your head but John D. Loudermilk is one whale of a song writer that probably never got half the credit he deserved.

And something else you may or may not know is that Charlie and Ira Louvin’s last name is Loudermilk and were first called Louvin in 1947 when they worked on WROL Radio out of Knoxville, and shortly after started recording for Decca Records.  Why or who changed their name to Louvin I don’t know, maybe they just didn’t want to be know as the Loudermilk Brothers.

The point of bringing in Ira And Charlie on John D’s story is Ira and Charlie are John D’s first cousins.

I really don’t know how many artist have recorded John D’s songs but I know there have been a bunch of them including our friend in Las Vegas Sue Thompson.

Here is a list of just some of John D’s songs :A Rose And A Baby Ruth, Sittin’ In The Balcony, Tobacco Road, Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, Waterloo, Abilene, Talk Back Trembling Lips, Ebony Eyes, Sad Movies, and Norman.  And that’s just a few of the songs John D. Loudermilk has written.

The only John D. album I have is “Language Of Love”

I would have to go look at it again but I think he wrote them all.

So here is what I think, that John D. Loudermilk is the most famous song writer that was never famous and nobody ever mentions his name when talking about any of those hits we just wrote about, a few of those songs up there were monsters.

There is one good side to the story, if nobody knows your rich then nobody will want to borrow your money, keep some rag-a-dee clothes hangin’ by the front door and when the front door bell goes ding-dong, peek thru the little hole. If he or she is wearing a suit, put on the rags, open the door real slow and say, “Are you here to pick up grandma”?

The only thing that ever interested me over the years other than country music was an old western town, sitting somewhere back in the trees with trails, a stream of water, some grass and some dirt.  While watching them old western movies I am watching the town and how they were put together as much as I am the movie it’s self.  Most were pretty much the same, always a saloon of course, a black smith shop, a hotel, a telegraph office, a barber shop and some times an old well in the middle of main street some where and always them hitchin’ rails to tie up your horse.  The only thing that ever kept me from building my own was, not enough of that green stuff, money always gets in the way of big dreams.
 

But there is a young man in Arizona that has built a heap of them old towns for those that did have the green stuff, his name is Ron Nix and to look at the pictures of some of his towns  you can almost smell the gun powder leaving the barrel of a colt 44 and see the boot prints in the dusty streets, you can smell the horse hide that is holding together a spotted horse waiting for the owner who is having a cold one at the Red Dog Saloon .  Funny what you can see and smell when you shut your eyes and funny where you can put your self in the midst of a day dream.

As far as Ron Nix goes he sorta looks like Randolph Scott, he is a stuntman and actor himself so he has a great feel for how them old towns oughta look.  Ron wasn’t born in the eighteen hundreds, that is at least not the part of his body that shows, but what’s in a man’s mind could have been born anytime he has a mind to have wanted to been born>>If you can understand that.

Old western towns, old barns and old buildings that the wind and sun and the storms of the night have taken their toll on is where my mind stays about ninety percent of the time, regardless of the outlaws that had their way in many of these little towns, good lived in the little houses that lamp light flickered  through the windows late at night while Ma was cookin’ supper on a wood stove, Pa was checkin’ the bank records to see if they had enough money left to buy that mule he needed for spring crops, and I can almost smell the beans.

Seems as most people now days dream of that big home over looking the ocean where fog can be seen for miles, the smell of dead fish that washed up on shore is rotting from the morning sun, cars on the highways and freeways are bumper to bumper, people calling each other every name that’s not in the book, gas prices are more then Dad made in a days hard work and the smog is thicker than six dollar a pound butter.  I can  understand why some folks like to live that way because I looked it up in a book, it’s called “Their nuts”

So here is the solution if you are tired of living like what we just wrote above.  Sell your house, go to where ever you can get away from all the nuts, buy a piece of property then call Ron Nix and say “Son, come build me a town”.  Ole Ron will send you some pictures of towns he has constructed, send you a couple CD’s to look at and you’ll be on your way to being mayor, sheriff, bar- tender and anything else you want to be, and if mama gets to much to handle go lock yourself in your own jail, you couldn’t beat that with a switch.

So here’s the deal, if you want your own town for what ever the reason just send us an email and we’ll forward it on to big Ron the cowboy  and before you know it you’ll be sittin’ in the middle of your own main street singing “I’m Back In The Saddle Again” just like Mr. Autry did fifty years ago, now don’t that beat the heck outa them nutty people up the page a-ways?

They say all good things must come to an end and life is no exception I reckon, but oh my goodness, the thought of being side by side for more than 66 years and then coming home to an empty house would sure be a hard road to hoe.  But so goes the story, Sally Gayhart Arnold the beautiful wife of one of America's best and well loved country singers, Eddy Arnold.  The couple was married November the 28^th. 1941. She passed away March the 12^th 2008

Eddy Arnold has sold more than 85 million records, and said that Sally took care of his books and supported him for all those years and before that must have been a fan seeing as she met him during the time he was working for Pee Wee King.

Eddy told a great little story some years ago about that part of his career, he said he heard Pee Wee on the radio one day and noticed at the time he didn’t have a lead vocalist, so, he sat down and wrote him a letter and said, I’m a singer and play rhythm guitar and I’ll send you a record if you want to hear what I sound like, so a few days later he got a letter back from Pee Wee saying come on down, he said that was a Friday and when Pee Wee got to his office Monday morning Eddy was waiting.  {Don’t you wish it was that easy now days}

When Mrs. Arnold passed away Eddy could not be by her side since he was in a hospital himself in a different county.  The Arnolds have two children, Richard who lives in Nashville and Jo Ann who lives in Brentwood.

Mrs. Arnold was 87, Eddy was born May the 15^th 1918 making him 90 come this May-2008.

We sure send our best to Eddy.

If you have read the things I have written for any length of time then you have read some of our stories about the Brennan’s >> and we hope you enjoy this one as we open the curtain tonight for this next little story from my good friend Walkin’ Talkin’ Charley Aldridge who, back in the good days was a neighbor to some of America’s best loved stars including this one >>.    

 The boys that are working on the Lefty Frizzell movie are coming right along, I don’t know yet what they will call it. “If You’ve Got The Money” wouldn’t be bad or maybe “Always Late”.

We are sure there were and are, many of Lefty’s fans still out there but we have our doubts that a bigger fan ever lived than Merle Haggard, Merle (when he wants to) can sing so close to Lefty that you’ll go asking at the record store for Lefty’s new one.  And as far as those that say Lefty was the one they tried to imitate in those years growing up, well the numbers are high because there were many.

We really hope the movie will bring back a lot of memories of one of America’s best loved country music stars from his days in front of furniture store openings, to a stage in a city park to his days on Town Hall Party to the hundreds of clubs and Honky Tonks he worked year after year and to his guest spots on The Grand Ole  Opry and from “Always Late” to “Saginaw, Michigan”.  He was one of a kind, he was Lefty Frizzell.

So as always we had some good news and some sad news but that’s life.

Now take care of yourself and we’ll see ye later, but just in case we don’t take care of yourself.

Don Bradley