Date News Posted: September 17, 2005

“Katrina” no doubt changed America these past few weeks as much or maybe even more then any war we have been in, those that never knew what really goes on in a war other then two sides shooting at each other sure got a taste when Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama a couple weeks ago, the only thing different was, the bullets were wind and rain, the outcome was the same.

Fats Domino ended up in the Superdome in New Orleans, thank goodness he wasn’t floating down the Mississippi, even though his picture showed him with a big smile, I am sure that was because he was still alive and not what he had just been through, maybe one day soon he will be standin’ in the middle of the street singing “Walkin’ To New Orleans” and watch as the city comes to life again.

Although Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown made it out of town before the storm hit, and even though he was already battling cancer and heart disease for the past year or so, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out how devastated he must have been just knowing all of his worldly possessions were gone in the wind, sixty plus years of memories washed away in a heart beat, that alone would be enough to cash me in.  Gatemouth Brown said goodbye Saturday September the 10^th in his home town of Orange, Texas.  Gatemouth Brown, a man who truly walked through this world to the tune of his own drum.

Some good comes from everything in America, the donations from all over the world and the truck loads of clothing and toys and food and just about everything else you can name and of course millions and millions of dollars from rich folk, poor folk and little kids selling Kool-Aid will help ease the pain of those that were left with nothing but the clothes on their back, God bless um all and may the lights of Louisiana shine brighter then ever when that final switch is thrown.

Music is pretty much what you are hungry for at the time, just because you love country music doesn’t mean that now and then a little taste of something else wouldn’t be welcome, the 50S Rockabilly slipped right into the play list of hard core country such as Roy Acuff and the “Wabash Cannonball” and Webb Pierce and “Wonderin” and the list goes on as it did in those 50S year when a young man named Elvis slipped in with an old Bill Monroe tuned called “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” and then there was Buddy Knox with “Party Doll” and Jimmy Bowen with “I’m Stickin’ With You” and then there was Carl Mann and of course Jerry Lee Lewis who could rock or roll or sing a great country song like he did with Hal Blair’s and Eddie Dean’s great song of “One Has My Name” so what it amounts to that here in 2005 there is a lot to choose from.

We can dig out our old albums and hear Marty Robbins, Carl Smith and all the others we paid 49cents a single for and 3 bucks an album or we can pay dang near 20 bucks for a CD by Cowboy Troy doing “Playing Chicken With A Train” what a long stretch that is from “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” to “Chicken With A Train”.

It’s all still out there, Blue Moon and/or Chicken what ever you’re hungry for.

Even though it probably was not what the artist or producers had in mind at the time but some albums or CDs are what I call “Trip” albums, now I love albums with some talking in them one that crosses my mind is the Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson album where they talk about how they wrote the song or where they got it and anything else that crossed their mind then sing the song, the albums are not perfect and are not meant to be and that’s what makes them so good and these are the perfect albums to listen to on a car trip, especially if you are alone and not with some one that has to pee at every gas station or always sayin’ “are we there yet” .

HERE IS ONE!!

Our good friend Walkin’ Talkin’ Charley Aldridge has just finished “Tombstone!!! A Town To Tough To Die”.  Now, these are story tales about the old west and actually are about 99% true tales about the old west and in particular Tombstone Arizona where gun fights, hanging’s and ladies of the evening was the daily routine.

There is no way you can even start to listen to these twelve tales of Tombstone sitting around your house unless you nail the door shut to a spare room and stay in there while it is playing, you can’t unstop a toilet and concentrate on these stories at the same time, so that’s why this is a “Trip” album, go someplace any play it in the car, alone and you’ll enjoy the heck out of it and if you actually are going someplace by the time it’s over you will be 62 miles farther down the road with out even realizing it.

Charley was a good friend of someone most all of us remember by the name of Chill Wills, now ole Charley has a style and voice of his own but I doubt if you could be around Chill Wills for to long and something not rub of on ye and you’ll see what we mean when you listen to some of the words ole Charley uses

Charley was in “Tombstone” a couple weeks ago, now even though Charley has been in the entertainment business for many years the only peoples work he criticizes is his own, he plays something for me over the phone and I’ll say I like the heck outa’ that, next day he calls and says I got a word wrong and changes the whole thing, so when he took these CDs to Tombstone he was afraid they would find something wrong, guess what? They got these CD's scattered all over stores in Tombstone and are spreading out all over the place; It’s a wonder old Charley didn’t have a heart attack.

(I said something above that wasn’t quite true, I said Charley only criticizes himself and not others and then I remembered when Charley worked with Ray Crash Corrigan at the Corriganville Movie Ranch in Simi Valley, Crash and the boys were doing a little show for the visitors when one of the outlaws shot off a single round and three guys fell one on each side of the street and another off a roof.  Well>>>old Charley came unglued, he said if they didn’t get their s%&*@ straight he was outa there, from that day on, Charley ran the show) but, other then that, ole Charley don’t mess with ye.

In a nut shell, this is a fun little album if you love stories about the old west, if you are a radio stations we’ll be plum tickled to send you a copy, you know our email address.

If you are a regular human and would like to buy one, you can’t go wrong for ten bucks and a dollar twenty five cents for postage, and if you would like for Charley to sign it for you, he would be honored.

ONE Other thing>>friend Ken Beck along with Cheryl Rogers (Barnett) (Roy’s daughter) & Jim Clark have released their 2^nd. Cookbook, this one called “COWBOY GRILL” the first one they sold about a ton of and this one is looking even better.

Both of these cookbooks are filled (every page) with pictures of cowboys you haven’t even thought about for many a year >>now why would I mention a cook book at a time like this? Cause on page 128 is a picture and another little story on Walkin’ Talkin’Charley Aldridge.

Before I get back to another CD>>Even if you cannot cook, even if you cannot boil water, the cookbook “Cowboy Grill” is loaded with information about one cowboy after another in fact two hundred and twelve pages full of um, they all have a little story to go along with what ever recipes the cowboy them self sent in or a member of their family did it for them, I thought these books were $19.95 but I see on the back it says $16.99 US so that’s a good deal.

OK let’s see what’s next>>Jeannie Kendall, and who don’t remember the great sounds of Jeannie with her Dad Royce & “Pittsburgh Stealers” and “It Don’t Feel Like Sinnin”.

Dad Royce died from a stroke on May the 22^nd 1998 just before a show in LaCrosse, WI..

Before he passed away Royce and Jeannie had started a project which Jeannie went back later to complete it and was released in 03.

This new CD is gaining ground in stations all over the U.S and in Australia it’s called “All The Girls I Am” which contains 12 songs produced by Brien Fisher and Mike Stoltz, you have probably seen Brian’s name on some of Freddie Hart’s albums, Freddie thinks Brien is the cats meow and as usually he did a great job on this Jeannie Kendall solo album.  Several of the songs have been picked as singles from this new album, the currant one is “Out Of Loneliness” and a really nice one, so check your local radio stations, even give um a call and see if they will play it for ye.  Jeannie Kendall “All The Girls I am” is on the “Golden” record label so look for it in any of your favorite stores.  Any emails or letters you would like to send to or about Jeannie I am sure she would love to hear from.

We just received a new one from a company that handles some of the best bluegrass maybe in the world and this one though not what would be called 100% bluegrass it’s a good one from John McEuen on “Rural Rhythm” records.  One of our favorite songs in this old world is Mr. Bojangles written by Jerry Jeff Walker and  John just does an out standing job on it as he does bringing  back memories of the  Saturday nights J.T.Voss and I spent at Town Hall Party in Compton, Ca. watching Merle Travis pick that guitar: John McEuen does some fine Travis pickin’ on two or three in this CD, one on the “Merle Travis story” and even more on “I Am A Pilgrim”  actually thru-out the whole album there is a lick or two of Travis sprinkled in. There is a lot of talkin’ a lot of laughing and a hell of a lot of good music in this CD from the founding member of the “Nitty Gritty Dirt Band”.I don’t have a clue as to where he and his band are, according to the pages of his album cover, his agent is in Nashville, Rural Rhythm Records is in California and the CD came from Indiana, but I am sure if you called or emailed us and said you wanted to buy a thousand copies of his new CD we could find him real fast.

John mentioned in the cover notes that for his 18^th birthday his dad gave him a five string banjo, I guess at an early age (probably on the Andy Griffith Show like many of us did) were introduced to the “Dillards”  which I am still a fan of the Dillards, in fact I had a couple cups of brew with Rodney last time I was in Branson  when Rodney gave me a copy of his new CD called “I Wish Life Was Like The Andy Griffith Show Again” come to think of it, that would be a great song for John. Anyway, this to is a great car CD going down that old mid-night highway 40 to Memphis.  If you can’t find it in your local store, holler and we’ll put it in our catalog or tell you where you can find a copy of John McEuen “Arrivals & Departures”.

We have released another classic album on Freddie Hart this time on his own label “Hartline” with more of his classics from yester-year and many are starting to get air play all over again, the music of Freddie and all the rest of those we spent the early part of our life listening to will be in collections of true music lovers ‘till the end of time.

Some of those we included in this collection are “The Keys In The Mailbox” and one that the title alone sold a bunch of copies called “If Finger Prints Showed Up On Skin, I Wonder Who’d Show Up On You” >>”Bless Your Heart” “Scars On Jesus Christ” “I Can Almost See Houston From Here” “The First Time” and of course the song of the year two years in a row “Easy Lovin”. Hardly a day goes by that one or more of these songs doesn’t show up on a play list some where in Australia, could it be they still like the good music the way it was back then?.

Here are some new ones for the catalog this week in case you are interested:

Ernie Ashworth ++ Talk Back Trembling Lips

Johnny Darrell ++ Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp

Josh Graves ++ World Famous Dobro

Hawkshaw Hawkins ++ 21 to 63 Including Lonesome 77-203

Skeeter Davis ++ Best of the Best Including Am I That Easy To Forget

Bluegrass Heritage Vol II ++ including, artist like Raymond Fairchild-& Many Others

David Frizzell ++ You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma & Gonna Hire a Wino

Archie Campbell ++ A Good Bunch of Archie’s Funny Stuff

Copas-Cline & Hawkins ++ Gone But Not Forgotten

T.Graham Brown ++ Wine into Water

Jerry Wallace ++ (remember the song that was stuck on the juke box?) If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry

Sonny James ++ Young Love

Roy Clark ++ Don’t Mess Around Mama

Roger Miller ++ King of The Road

The Kendalls ++ It Don’t Feel Like Sinnin”

 Now here is a gross sign for ye;

Spotted on the back of a Septic Tank Truck in Oregon

‘YESTERDAY’S MEALS ON WHEELS”

I like this sign found on the front of a funeral home

“DRIVE CAREFULLY, WE’LL WAIT” 

And here’s a cute one found on the back of an electrician’s truck

“LET US REMOVE YOUR SHORTS”

And then there is this one from a car dealership

 “THE BEST WAY TO GET BACK ON YOUR FEET-MISS A CAR PAYMENT”

 Well anyway, there is something funny in all of life, sometimes you just have to look for  it..

Did you happen to see the re-play of the antiques road show the other night? Most artist when they cut a new record like Johnny Cash did would keep some new ones, some I know of kept a whole box and tossed them in their garage or the back of a closet and that’s where they stayed, some were later just moved clear out for the trash man to pick up at the curb, others given away to anyone who came to visit and wanted one.

What was left at the back of Johnny’s closet was some still in the original “SUN” covers and sold at auction for several thousand dollars.

At one time I had them all, I played them a lot so they dang sure were not still new but as life went along I left them all in a box that my friend later moved to his attic, I just hope before they were destroyed that some one found and kept them, even used they were the originals and would still be worth a piece of change.

I still do have some new 45s from those good old days and I know there is at least one Johnny Cash EP never played, my old partner Steve Stebbins took it out of the original sleeve and put it into one of those little 45 album holders we all had back then, but as far as I know it is still untouched>>Hang on a minute I am going to get that 45 holder and see what’s in there, I don’t think they made a whole lot of those EP's. One side marked EP12 has The Rock Island Line & I Heard That Lonesome Whistle and the other side marked EP 13 has Country Boy & If The Good Lord’s Willing.

There are several other new ones in there by Lefty, Freddie a new Earl Scott, one of the Mosby’s and one that is labeled “WSM’s 8^th Annual national Country Music Festival Invitation and says it features stars from the Grand Ole Opry and then names a bunch of them, that should be a good one to listen to, and there is also a new one in there by Skeets McDonald, you don’t hear much about ole Skeets anymore. Them old records are sure fun to look at and if for nothing else; just to remember “When”...

I have been cleaning out a storage unit we have had for a year or so, which I keep kickin’ my butt over, man if you ain’t careful you’ll run up a bill more then what you got in there is worth but anyway I did find 3 packing boxes of new still in the shrink LPs which of course I sat on the dirty floor, opened each box and checked them all out again like they were something I had never seen before and read a few back covers probably for about the tenth time but what the hay, it’s better then eatin’ beans before a concert.

In there I ran into three different ones I believe it was, of Gorden Terry what a fiddle player he was, I say was because Hugh X said he was in very bad health and so we are pretty sure he is not playing his fiddle right now, and I finally found the box the new Joe Sun LPs were in so it was kinda like Christmas in September.

And>>I found a new box of about 25 or 30 new 45s, other than “Nickel In My Pocket” by Doug Kershaw my next favorite one of his is “Hello Woman” which there was a couple new 45s of that one, about a dozen Ernest Tubb 45s of “Thanks A Lot” b/w Half A mind with George Jones and a half a dozen copies of Mel McDaniel and “Louisiana Saturday Night” something else to keep me busy.

I think we told you the story some time ago about Guy Drake, about talking to him on the phone and him saying come by next time you come to Nashville so a few months later we did, this was a couple years ago. Well just in that few months since we had called him then went by his house, the people that were living there said they had been there for a while and had never even heard of a Guy Drake, a friend of mine that lives in Lebanon checked around at every health care center he could find and about every place else he thought he might be but with no luck.

Well, I would say by now that Guy is in Hillbilly Heaven but I would sure like to know what happened to him, we spoke with him 3 or 4 times on the phone that year before we went down and he was really and I mean really one funny guy, he said he always told a lot of jokes and stories about his wife and he said she got a kick out of it, he told me a few which have slipped my mind but they were funny. Anyway the one thing he did leave us with was a 45 record that still tells just about the same story today as it did when he wrote and recorded it probably 50 some years ago called “Welfare Cadillac” on the back side is one written by a guy named Don Hosea called “Keep Off My Grass”.

Just in Case you might know what happened to Guy let us know if you can because we would sure love to know. It says on this record it was also produced by the guy that wrote the “B” side Don Hosea, maybe he is still alive some where (we hope).

Well we have one final story tonight then we are going to call it a day.

On July the 14^th 1933 a young man was born by the name of Franklin Delano Reeves, (wonder who he was named after?) anyway in his early days they called him Curley, Curley was the youngest of 11 kids, after a stint in the service he ended up in Sacramento, California, there he met and later became a good friend of ours Chester Smith the Chester Smith show lasted from 1958 to 1961  then he moved on to Decca records in Nashville >>Later he moved on to Columbia Records and hit a lick (a big lick) with “Girl On The Billboard”  and then hit again with “The Belles Of Southern Bell” and then yet again with “Women Do Funny Things To Me” and then one of my favorite Del Reeves songs “Good Time Charlie’s Got The blues”. One that really makes your legs want to get up and dance of Dell’s is “Crazy Legs”, I never was able to find the album it was on but a DJ  in Idaho sent me a copy and that took care of the want too’s in me and I still play it when ever I have the urge.  Anyway, not long ago we spoke with Dell for a while, he is doing fine although he is not recording he is enjoying life with his family and if you have any Del Reeve’s stories or something you want to pass on to him, you have our address and if you send a letter it will not be opened by anyone but him but if you send an email which we sure will pass on to him, it will be hard not to read it unless I close my eyes and try to find the right letters to push,  he really would like to hear from you if-n you got a notion to write, he’s one of the best that brought you some great music over the years.

That’s going to do it for this night in September, it has been a sad month for some a good month for others and even though some are trying to figure out who’s to blame for what, how smart do you have to be to watch CNN and see the facts to know who’s to blame for what, one is gone, there is one more left that needs to be gone , even though we can not mention names and won’t, but the second guy that needs to find himself a new job has a beard or whiskers and can talk for weeks and never say anything that amounts to a hill of beans.  I voted for George and I will stick by my vote if he does the right thing, I am not asking that he shoot the guy, just put him on welfare and let him look elsewhere for employment, yesterday I saw a sign at a fast foods place that he might be able to fill if he keeps his mouth shut and only says “May we help You” The sign out front of that establishment? “McDonalds”.

We’ll see ye later but just in case we don’t, Take care of yourself

Don Bradley