Prior News

December 14, 1997
December 5, 1997
November 24, 1997
November 9, 1997
November 4, 1997
October 25, 1997
October 15, 1997
October 6, 1997
October 1, 1997
September 27, 1997
September 20, 1997
September 7, 1997
August 31, 1997
August 19, 1997
August 9, 1997
August 2, 1997
July 27, 1997
July 24, 1997
July 17, 1997
July 14, 1997
July 10, 1997
July 5, 1997
July 1, 1997
June 29, 1997
June 20, 1997
June 19, 1997
June 15, 1997
June 11, 1997
June 8, 1997

DENVER PYLE for the last time has changed his address, this time box one, Heaven. DENVER, a man that made many people laugh for many a year and was a big part of the "DUKES OF HAZZARD" died Christmas day, 1997. We will have a nice story on Denver in a few days.

WAYLON JENNINGS who sang the theme song for the "DUKES" they tell me has had a stroke, something else we will check into and let you know about.

JOHNNY CASH has not been well for a while and we are sure sorry to hear that, as far as the music world goes, it was a sad day for me when Cash and SUN were no longer one. I know that people have to go on to bigger and better things (so they say anyway) but to me Johnny went backwards when there was not that sound that Johnny Cash created with the Tennessee Two. To this day the intros to the first Johnny Cash music rattles my brain, I still play them all and when I get the time to wire the cemetery where I will be buried, I want the biggest C.D. player known to mankind to just keep playing "Luther Played The Boogie" "Hey Porter" "Train Of Love" "Give My Love To Rose" and all them other Great Johnny Cash "SUN" records.

If your readin' this Johnny, let us know how you are, and we know Waylon is a great friend of yours so ask him to, would you ?.

FERLIN HUSKEY has not been doing that great lately but still doing his shows down in Branson. Ferlin, another great singer that Bakersfield still wishes lived there. We'll check on Ferlin for you also. When Bobby Helms got real bad close to the end, it was Ferlin that called him every single day to check on him.

There was no way I could have know what anyone else had said on the little card sent with flowers, and when the lady at the flower shop asked me what I wanted to put on the card along with the flowers we sent to Bobby, I just said "See Ye Later" and the flower shop added my name to it, on the flowers that Ferlin sent from a thousand miles away he said just about the same thing only there was no name. But in those flowers beside a rose was a "SNOW WHITE DOVE" and so with out any name being on the card, it didn't take much to figure out who sent the flowers

CAL SMITH will be doing some shows down in Florida pretty soon, we mentioned that before but just wanted to let you know again in case you live down that way, we'll have the dates for you pretty soon. In case you have not ordered any of Cal's tapes yet, check back a news page or so ago and get the address where to order them and if you can't, let us know and we will give you the address again.

Just as soon as the smoke clears from Christmas and New Years, we will print you up a list of some of the Greats that we have an address on for fan clubs and other items you can order direct from and maybe some of them will sign a picture for you.

MARVIN RAINWATER is alive and doing really well and anyone that does not remember "Gonna Find Me A Bluebird" probably was asleep when it was a BIG hit. All you have to do is look at Marvin and see the eyes of an Indian and in this case Cherokee, Marvin has got a smile that ain't quite a smile and ain't quite a frown but would probably give you the shirt off his back if you ask him for it in a nice way.

Two people I never wanted to get hold of me if n' they wuz mad, one was Marvin Rainwater and the other was Don Gibson.

Gonna Find Me A Bluebird was sure not the only song that made Marvin known to the world of country music, "Running Bear", "Half Breed", "Moaning The Blues"--and of course, "Whole Lotta Woman". to name just a few, "Whole Lotta Woman" was sung by Vanessa Redgrave in the movie Georgia Girl**And as a writer, more than one great household name country artist recorded a song written by Marvin Rainwater, from his pen came "Be Good To Her" recorded by Carl Smith, "I Gotta Go Get My Baby" recorded by Teresa Brewer and Justin Tubb and more than a hundred artist have recorded Marvin's "Bluebird" and one of my favorite all time country songs "I Miss You Already" which Faron Young took into the charts, then later to be recorded by Billy Joe Royal which also hit the charts for 28 weeks.

ANYWAY..If you need Marvin to do a show for you, just whistle, we will try to let you know where he will be appearing and have some more stories on him before long. Truly another one of the greats of the GOOD years of Country Music is Marvin Rainwater.

REX ALLEN Is one of the last of the Silver Screen Singing Cowboys and like the others he had or has a style all his own, one word of a song or one word of a narration from Rex Allen and you KNEW it was Rex Allen.

Rex was born December the 21st. in Wilcox , Arizona in about 1922, and now some 70 odd years later still calls Arizona home. In 1939 he was offered a scholarship to the University of Arizona but he turned it down to ride in the Rodeo circuit for the next two years. Always wanting to make singing his life long career in 1945 he was hired as a regular on the National Barn Dance Show, In 1949 he signed a contract with Republic Pictures where he did 31 feature films and 78 episodes of his T.V. series "Frontier Doctor"...And I guess just to fill in the time when he was not on the radio, on the road, in the movies, recording, on a T.V. show, making personal appearances, or eating breakfast he wrote songs>>>Some three or four hundred of them.

Most kids will never know that some of those GREAT narration's from the Studios of WALT DISNEY were done by the "Arizona Cowboy" Mr. Rex Allen which he was apart of for ten years.

WHEN IN ARIZONA, GO BY AND VISIT "THE REX ALLEN MUSEUM" you'll be plum happy you did.

When you look back over the years very few sons or daughters of famous parents ever really set the world on fire trying to follow in the same foot steps as Mom or Dad, to say the least they had a hard row to plow. BUT I could listen to Rex Allen Jr. sing 'till the cows came home, I think he has one of the finest voices in country music, old country, new country or in between, I like to watch him sing and I think he has a great attitude on the stage, some singers I have got everything they ever recorded but wouldn't walk across the street to watch them.

I told you before I am a sucker for sad songs and if you have never heard Rex Allen Jr. sing "THE GREAT MAIL ROBBERY" then the bird of Paradise should fly up your nose, I would sing it for ye' but I'd start cryin' and stuff and you'd never read my page no-more> It's a great song like most all the rest he ever recorded.

Eddie Dean is still hanging in there, still has a problem with his breathing but other than that I think he could remember the words to half the songs in the world, he is not signing many pictures anymore, his hands a little shaky and I don't complain when I go over and he doesn't sing to me much anymore, I just thank God he has let him be apart of this great world for so long > seven months from 91 years old.

We were up in SONORA this past week for a couple of days and had some biscuits and gravy with Johnny Mitchum, now I have to tell you, if you are hungry, John Mitchum IS NOT the man to go to lunch or any other meal with..Let me ask you this, in your life time have you ever just taken a bite of food and someone said something so funny you blew out what ever it was you just put into your mouth ? I am sure there is still a little old lady up there some where with a piece of sausage in her hair. John Mitchum is non-stop funny, you think he has stopped to chew his food but he never gets the fork to his mouth before he is starting another story.

Now I know that kids don't read about the old cowboys and the Classic Country stars of yester-year so I'm a gonna tell you a Mitchum story, one of about 3 hours worth...Before I do I know if you grew up in the south in the 30's or before and if there was such a thing as toilet paper, you couldn't afford to buy it anyway and most all the out-house's either had a Spiegel catalog laying there or a bucket of corn-cobs and I reckon you knew what those were for, saying that, let me get on with the Mitchum story.

An old boy gets up one morning and realizes he had not pooped for seven days, he said to himself, if something doesn't happen tonight I gotta go to the doctor in the morning. Morning came and nothing had happened so he called the doctor, the doctor said come on in, he got there, told the doctor his story, the doctor said get undress and lay down on the table face down, the doctor examined him, went in the other room, got a rubber mallet and whacked the guy on the behind several times,then told the guy to get up and go to the bath room. The guy did and came back a while later smiling. The doc was filling out the mans chart when he returned and he said to him, "are you in construction ?" "Why yes I am" he said." I thought so" said the doctor, "You're going to have to quit using those empty cement bags to wipe your butt".

Other than being in 80 or 90 movies and T.V. appearances with and with out his brother Robert, John Mitchum wrote the only album ever recorded by John Wayne "AMERICA WHY I LOVE HER" and he still sells a ton of the books he wrote about his famous brother and himself. Right now he is writing more scripts to be made into a T.V. series and to go into schools all over the world about American History.

WELL...I don't know if EL what's his name is here or not but I do know it's raining so I think I'll do what Tom Pall suggested and go throw another log on the fire.

Before we close the squeaking door for tonight though, I want to thank all those for the pictures they signed and sent us for the little girl Cal Smith told us about with cancer, I did not have time to get it on the web page and then get the pictures back and then get them on to her before Christmas so we sent out 22 letters on the fax machine and in two days got 17 letters and pictures back including one from Denver Pyle who passed away just a few days later, so I know God thanks you Denver, you and your staff for thinking of this little girl when you yourself was in such pain> to one of the greatest friends a person could have and to one who has done much over the years to promote our Classic country artist over many radio stations Don Hinson, to Mr. Eddie Dean and there is nothing I can say about my friend Eddie that wouldn't take up three pages for all the good things he's done. To our friend Ancel Cook who helps people in all walks of life and is a fine actor and the first one there when he is needed by a friend, To Hal Blair and his little wife-Hal is one of the greatest classic country song writers of all time and I just say that in case your a new kid on the block 'cause everyone else has heard a Hal Blair song, To someone who's heart is as big as he is for the beautiful picture he signed for this little girl, Mr. Freddie Hart, to John Agar who's pictures to this little girl was in the mail thirty minutes after we called him, to Dick Jones star of many great westerns, to John Locke which you remember for his many roles on the great old series "Highway Patrol", to Marion Carney beautiful lady and actress of yester-year, to Randy Boone and James Drury stars of the super western series "The Virginian" to the SUPER legend of Bluegrass, Mr. Mac Wiseman, and to probably one of the busiest men in the world but yet took the time to sign a picture for this little girl who's name is Tiffaney, Mr. Buck Owens.

If Country folk and Cowboys ain't good, who is ?

Thanks also to all the old friends who have found us on our web page, Thanks to all those who have sent us letters in support of a train station and street naming in Bakersfield after Merle Haggard, Thanks to Max Harrison who has the finest publication out of Nashville or anywhere else, Thanks to Wayne Rogers who never forgets people and friends, Thanks to the Durango Boot Company for allowing Wayne Rogers to be seen in public. (just a joke son)

Didn't realize I had so much to be thankful for 'till I started writing this, but I do.

We have a lot to do this year so we better get started doing it. So as Freddie Hart would say, God Bless You And Yours.

And God Bless America

Don Bradley