Date News Posted: September 10, 2000

If you are a collector of anything or have been an entertainer all your life and have your walls covered with things you have done, or collected, awards you have been honored with, old copies of your records that are almost impossible to find any more, then one day come home and they are mostly all gone, danged if that ain't "Hang down your head Tom Dooley" time.

Sue Thompson and who could forget all the great songs she recorded over the years and a voice , well, like no one else and still pretty as ever and a heart like a watermelon--well anyway, she was on her way to visit her friend Sharie Penny down in Palm Springs when her cell phone rang and her daughter that lives at another location but still in Las Vegas said, "Mom, your house is on fire"

Now you tell me, what in bullet like speed goes through your mind, all your old memories going up in smoke, your cat probably cooked and your giant turtle that has been a friend and pet for many years has been run over by a fire engine, or maybe it is all the old pictures of the kids growing up, those special ones like your little son with his face covered in puddin' or your little daughter wearing your high heels clomping around the house.  Well, what ever can go through your mind in thirty seconds, you can bet it will and how ever bad you can hurt in the next thirty seconds you can bet that will happen also, so you do a "U" turn and head back home and expecting that giant pile of ashes when you make that final turn into your drive way and that now little puff of smoke out there where your "Stuff" room used to be is the last of your old memories.

It didn't quite happen like that, even though the house suffered some major damage it was still standing for the most part and the firemen seeing things on her walls that were obviously those of an entertainer, started throwing them out the window so they wouldn't burn any more then necessary saved some of them, but the smoke had already made it's mark and most were in pretty bad shape.

A few days later when Sue and her husband were picking up, and cleaning up the things thrown out the window trying to salvage all the old smoke covered memories they could, at the bottom of the pile, laying upside down was the turtle, a little pooped out we would say, but alive and now doing all the things a turtle does in that warm Nevada sun, and I guess Sonny James said it all about the cat in one of his songs years ago, "I thought he was a goner but the cat came back" yep a couple three days later the cat came back. When questioned about where he had been, the cat said "Buffalo Bill's" , when it got to hot around here I went to "Buffalo's" to hear some country music. (you believe that part don't ch?)"

So we know there are a lot of collectors out there that probably have a lot of Sue Thompson pictures and stories they have cut out of magazines over the years or maybe some pictures you have taken of her your self at one of her shows or maybe just a card you would like to send her , if so, as always, just send it to us at Box 1515, Simi Valley, California and it will get to her unopened, just the way you sent it and we are absolutely sure she will really appreciate it. She was able to get some more of some of her CD's so if you would like to buy one, you can do that also.

Everything we have been doing to promote Walter Brennan's and Joel McCrea's statue in Camarillo, California is going along great. The statues have arrived into town and are stored in an office 'till they are ready to be mounted on special stands on the main street of Old Town Camarillo right beside the 101 freeway which that should take place in a few days and then you are invited October the 22nd. when the covers are removed and Walter and Joel will forever stand proud and tall for all to see and have your pictures taken with, we really do hope you can make it, it is on a Sunday and we hope to get the celebration started around 11:30, we have invited many, many guest actors some we know will be there and others have not RSVP'd yet but by the next news time we hope to have some names for you. John Mitchum has agreed to be there and be first up to do his recitation of a song he wrote  and was recorded by John Wayne called "AMERICA, WHY I LOVE HER" a great way to open the show.

Maybe you do, maybe you don't remember the single we released on Rick Tucker a few years ago that was recorded at the Norman Petty studio in Clovis, New Mexico, it was a Rock-a-billy tune called "Patty Baby" Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison did some pickin' on it and we got cards, letters, orders, and people wanting pictures of Rick and where was he and you name it because during those great 50's years, Tucker was a part of the sound that will be a lasting part of music history.

Tucker is from Amarillo, Texas  same place a good friend and a guy I sure miss talking with now and then was from, Terry Stafford. Terry which I have mentioned before never lived to see how big his song "Amarillo By Morning" became and how much apart it is of the George Strait show, and speaking of George Strait, he is one of the few good things to happen to Country Music in the past twenty years, anyway back to Tucker, we have just finished a new CD on Tucker called ">>>RUNAWAY>>> TRAIN" the title song has got a pretty strong message to it and you just may like it, we have tried to carry on some of the 50's feeling in this CD not trying to bury Rick in a lot of music that wasn't necessary.

A young guy out of Tennessee by the name of Frank Lowe is making his mark with some really good "Country" music, you might remember we mentioned last time about the new album that Frank has been working with by his good friend Pete Wade, and an outstanding album by a good lookin' young guy by the name of Morgan Englund, Morgan's album got seven stars * in a Nashville publication that their highest rating is 7 stars and Pete Wades instrumental album-both CD's and Cassette- is just a knock out album to listen to>>And now, as of just this week, two new albums by Frank Lowe himself doing a tribute to his old friend Ray Price. Now you might say, if I liked Ray Price, why wouldn't I just buy a Ray Price album, well, that's a good enough question, so the only thing we can say to that is, first this album is no back room piece of tin, it is well put together and produced by Tommy Hill and Frank and some great first class pickers make up the music on these two CD's. Each CD contains ten songs that Ray has made famous over the years . In our catalog where these CD's are listed are also listed all the song titles to each one and Frank sings the fire out of um in his own way they are both worth your bucks.

Any radio stations that would like promotion copies just mail or fax or email us or call us on your letter head and we'll shoot um right out with a smile.

I think we mentioned last time that "Varese Sarabande" has just released the Shasta masters once owned by Jimmy Wakely, in this first series of releases is Eddie Dean, Tex Ritter, Tex Williams, Noel Boggs, and one on Jimmy Wakely himself all of them contain songs you probably haven't heard in a long, long while, a couple years ago we received many letters from folks wanting to know where they could find some of these "Classic" recordings and about the only thing we could say is "you can't" unless you steal them from your uncle Elmer's collection, But now you can, just flip to the catalog section and there you be, at least five of them.

We mentioned a few months ago that a good ole' country boy down Texas way was putting out some really good country and we called him Joe Paul Nichols, well actually, it was his Momma' and Daddy that called him that, we just called him that 'cause it was or is his name, anyway he has just released another one, this time a twelve song Gospel CD called "ROUTE 3 GLORYLAND" and if you remember we said there was one on that first album that was a killer called "Jesus Is The Same In California", well that one went on to hit several charts in the U.S and a bunch of foreign countries and it is a featured song on this new one by Joe Paul and even though this album is really well done, all songs and Joe Paul's singing, leave nothing undone, this album is still worth the price if there was nothing on it but the one song "Jesus Is The Same In California"

Some of the songs on this album were written by some folks you know well as first class song writers like Tommy Collins, Leona Williams, Artie Glenn,Carl Belew and Lawton Williams, so if you like gospel why don't  you add a copy to your collection, it's a good un...Route 3 Gloryland by Joe Paul Nichols.

It should not be to long before the Chester Smith/Merle Haggard CD should be ready for the stands. We ask Chester several years ago for a job at his radio station in Modesto, he said at the time he was pretty well fixed for country D.J's at the radio station but out back he showed us what he was building, it was a T.V. station and said he may find me something to do there, I said well, thanks anyway but I love good old country music and I had rather work at the radio station, we didn't see Mr. Smith for several years after that, we really didn't know what he was doing but had heard he had sold the radio station, and then last year Freddie Hart and I took a drive to Modesto, and what's Chester Smith doing now ? he owns nine TV stations, now in city talk, I think you call that an empire.

Reminds me of a Cliffie Stone story, Old Cliffie said that when he had his office down on Ivar Street I think it was in Hollywood that a young writer used to come by and sit in front of his (Cliffie's) desk and sing one song after the other to him, Cliffie kept saying, nope, can't use that one, nope, can't use that one, nope,--- and so the guy finally got tired of all the nopes and moved to Nashville, the first couple three songs out of Nashville that Cliffie had heard several times from a young writer sitting in his office were just monster hits. We ask Cliffie what he thought about that when he heard them songs every time he turned on the radio, he said well son, you know I got a couple acres out of town here and out in front is a big tree, I found one of my old rubber hip boots, filled it half full of sand, swung it, bent over and let it kick me "you know where"  the writer was Dallas Frazier and maybe we should have said yes to Chester Smith's offer of a job in his TV station.

We are not sure but according to a few people, Chester and this album that he has been working on with Merle Haggard is the only one of it's kind to hit the front page of the Wall Street Journal, the article extends to two separate pages of the paper, but we are not really sure if it is because Chester is doing an album with Haggard or the fact that he is already rich.

Around the country if you are hearing on your local radio station a little thing called the Branson Minute, that's our old friend Don Hinson doing those little buggers, we haven't heard any of them but I reckon in a minutes time he is telling you who is appearing where in the city of Branson. sounds like a pretty good idea especially in the surrounding states to Missouri, Hinson has been working down there with a  Rene Ray a young lady that writes some nice things for the Branson News.

We have heard from some really nice folks over the past year or so and we really do enjoy hearing from every one no matter what they write about but it is always especially nice to hear from some one who has a good story about our old friend Eddie Dean, unless you had an opportunity to spend a little time talking with him, which he was always ready to do, he loved talking with his fans, then it would be hard to know how good of a human being Eddie Dean really was, and we still miss him.

That's gonna do it for now, we'll see ye next time, but just in case we don't, take care of yourself.

Don Bradley