Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Remembering Roy Acuff

It was on November 23, 1992 that Country Music Hall of Fame member and Grand Ole Opry member Roy Acuff passed away in Nashville, one month after making his final appearance on the Opry. It can be said that Roy was the Opry and in many ways, he was the guiding force behind the Opry. His role cannot be understated and when we look at where the Opry has gone since he passed away, we all realize how much Roy is missed. It is safe to assume that many of the changes we have seen at the Opry since he has passed away would not have happened if he were still alive.

Roy was called "The King of Country Music" for a reason. You want to know how popular he was during his heyday? Toward the end of World War II, Japanese soldiers in the Pacific would try to psych out the American Marines by yelling, "To hell with Franklin Roosevelt! To hell with Babe Ruth! To hell with Roy Acuff! In San Diego, soldiers and sailors would hold "Roy Acuff contests," in which the object was to see who could do the best imitation of the singer. His records were so popular that the government had to issue them on V-discs so overseas troops could hear his hits. It was not unusual for 15,000 fans to show up at one of his concerts, and it was not unusual to see his name ranked with Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman in popularity polls among servicemen.

Contemporary fans who were used to seeing Roy Acuff as the stately, white-haired elder statesman of the Grand Ole Opry many have wondered what all the fuss was about and whether his popularity was the result of Opry hype. It wasn't. Acuff was country music's first great stylist after the death of Jimmie Rodgers and was a major influence on younger singers like Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell and George Jones. Though he had only several modest hits from 1950 o, his longtime presence on the Grand Ole Opry gave him a platform from which he continued to influence country music: as a publisher, a media pioneer, a spokesman and, in later years, a defender of older traditions and performers. His nickname, "The King of Country Music," may sound a bit old-fashioned, but in many ways, it was very accurate.

Roy was born on September 15, 1903 in Maynardsville, Tennessee, and yes, he was from the Smoky Mountains. He was born in a small house and his father was a lawyer and a preacher at the local Baptist church. His father taught him to play the fiddle, but Roy was more interested in baseball. He was also known as a fighter and got himself into trouble more than a few times. He was offered a baseball tryout but in 1929, on a trip to Florida, he suffered severe sunstroke. While recovering, he practiced and improved his skills on the fiddle and went to work with a local medicine show man, Doc Hauer. Working with Doc, he learned show business, including comedy and doing imitations, including that of a train whistle. He also learned to do tricks, including balancing things on his nose.

He proceded to get a job at Knoxville's WROL radio with a local band called The Tennessee Crackerjacks, later to be called "The Crazy Tennesseans." They were basically a local group until their big break in 1936. Roy and band member Red Jones met up with a young Bible student named Charley Swain, who had been featuring a gospel song called "The Great Speckled Bird." Roy offered Charley 50 cents to write down the words of the song as as Charley moved away from the area, Roy started singing the song over WROL. In October of that year, they got a recording deal with the American Recording Company. In 1938, Roy and his band auditioned for the Grand Ole Opry and "The Great Speckled Bird" was one of the numbers that they did. Thousands of letters poured into WSM and the Opry and Roy became the Opry's newest star.

The name of his band was changed to The Smoky Mountain Boys, which was a more dignified name. Roy did not care for the sound of that group and in 1939, after some discussion among the members of the group, three of the members left. Among the replacements was Pete Kirby, known as "Brother Oswald." It was his dobro work that help to create the Roy Acuff sound. Late in 1939 he became the host of the NBC network portion of the Opry and even went to Hollywood and made a number of movies

The hits that followed became country classics. They included "The Precious Jewel," "Wreck on the Highway," "Fire Ball Mail," "Wait for the Light to Shine," "Two Different Worlds," "Night Train to Memphis," and of course the all time classic, "Wabash Cannonball." What was interesting about "Wabash Cannonball" was that Roy did not do the original vocals on the record, but instead Dynamite Hatcher did. Roy would not record the song with his vocals until 1947.

In 1942, Roy joined up with Fred Rose to open Acuff-Rose, the first modern publishing company to be based in Nashville. It was an instant success and they would sign everyone from Don Gibson to The Louvin Brothers to Hank Williams. When many country entertainers suffered through hard times in the 1950s, Acuff-Rose helped to keep Roy afloat. In 1962 he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

While he experimented with different sounds, by the 1970s he had returned to his traditional mountain sounds. With his participation with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and many other country music old-timers in the great project, "Will the Circle be Unbroken," a brand new audience opened up for Roy.

Even though his health failed in his final years, he was still performing at the Opry almost every Friday and Saturday night right up until the time of his death. In those final years, Roy would usually host the 7:30 or 8:00 segments on the early Saturday show, right around the time when the Opry would start to come in after dark up here in Ohio. And in those days before line ups were announced ahead of time, 7:30 meant that it was time to turn the old AM transistor radio to 650 WSM to see if the Opry would come through the static and to listen to Roy Acuff sing the "Wabash Cannonball." Man, do I miss those days.

Like I said, the Opry has not been the same since Roy died. He was the anchor, it's symbol and it's compass. He helped to keep the show down to earth and he always remembered his roots.
He sang country music the way it was meant to be song. The Opry could use a Roy Acuff today.

11 comments:

  1. Amen. I remember the first time I was ever able to pick up the Opry. I was visiting Indiana in 1992 and had a transistor radio, and got it. I'd seen it on PBS and TNN, but it was so thrilling to hear it and to hear Kyle Cantrell introduce him. In so many ways, he WAS the Grand Ole Opry, and we do need someone like him: a leader who is there every week and is at the center of everything. The Potato, whom Mr. Acuff brought to the Opry, is close, but not quite.

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  2. I think Tater has pretty well taken Roy's place, but Roy was amazing.
    The weekend there were riots in Nashville following Martin Luther King's assassination, the Saturday Night 'Opry's live performance was cancelled. A tape from the week before was broadcast. Roy let everybody know that there would be a concert the next day at a local Nashville bar for those of us who had tickets. Of course, Roy was the headliner.
    Class act!

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  3. I think after Roy died that Porter Wagoner did a great job of being the face of the Opry and giving the show the support it needed. He was also a leader behind the scenes.

    Not so sure if anyone fills that role today. I know Vince Gill supports the Opry and promotes it every chance he gets, but at the same time he is not there every week.

    After the flood Marty Stuart and Brad Paisley both stepped up and tried to put themselves into the position of being the Opry's face, but in the case of Brad, despite his proclaimed love of the Opry, he is back down to just a handful of appearances each year and as much as I like Marty, he has even backed off on his Opry appearances in 2011.

    When I was writing the little bio on Roy Acuff, I could have written for hours as he accomplished so much in his career. And there are Roy Acuff stories everywhere. It was hard to keep it short and simple.

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  4. I enjoyed the bio, Byron -- thanks for posting.

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  5. Here's why I think Jimmie Dickens is the current face of the 'Opry.
    He is the only guy who appears on the live show week in and week out.

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  6. Nat, I agree that The Potato is the current face of the Opry. The issue here in a lot of ways is history. Mr. Acuff was a dominant cast member, by which I mean, he influenced who was hired and fired. It would be nice if Little Jimmy Dickens had that kind of importance and power and maybe someday someone like Vince Gill will have it. I don't know.

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  7. I didn't know Roy had that much influence in day to day decisions regarding the 'Opry.
    Shouldn't have surprised me, because when a guy gets to live at 'Opryland it's a pretty good clue!

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  8. There will never be another Roy Acuff ... period.... I love Little Jim and Vince...and Porter did a good job too, but there will never be another Roy Acuff in Country Music. He was the tallest Oak in the forest. In 1992 that 89 year old Oak fell and there will never be another to climb to his heights.

    In the late 1990's, just a few years after his passing, you can see the turn in Country Music which has led to what we have today. A group of singers who are using the Country Music name, but wouldn't know the words to "The Precious Jewel" to save their souls.

    I don't listen to Modern Country radio, I don't watch the CMA's or the ACM's. I never have on CMT anymore either.

    I do however pull up "YOU TUBE" and watch Minnie, Grandpa, Hank Snow, ET, etc....and of course, "The King", Roy Acuff. I was pleased the other night to find his version of "That's The Man I'm Looking For" on you tube.

    There will never be another Roy Acuff. Great article.

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  9. David, you said it better than I could ever dream of saying it. We can't reasonably expect another Roy Acuff. But we can expect those who followed to show proper respect for him and the Opry. Some do, but too few.

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  10. Great comments by everyone. Nat, you are right that Jimmy Dickens is about the only Opry member who appears each week, but as Mike pointed out, Roy really had a lot of influence behind the scenes. Not to take anything at all away from Jimmy, as he should be congratulated for still performing at his age and appearing every week, but I wonder how many of the Opry's other senior members would appear every week if allowed to by current membership.

    I remember reading in one of the Opry's books that I have that in the "old" days, Roy Acuff was basically in charge of all the male members, and it was up to him to "keep them in line" and settle any issues, and Minnie Pearl was basically expected to do the same with the female members. No performer has that kind of influence today.

    With the current state of Opry management, I think almost every member is afraid to go and say anything negative about the show for fear of losing what ever spots they have. I think Jim Ed Brown was one of the last to go to management about being allowed to have his band perform with him and he came out of it ok. If you notice, his band is still with him on the Opry.

    Getting back to Roy, there will never be anyone like him on the Opry again. He came along at the right time and in the right circumstances. If you ever question what kind of influence he had behind the scenes, just look at where the Opry has gone since he passed away.

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  11. There will never be another like Roy Acuff. Here is true country music.Thew best band he had was in 1941 with Roy on fiddle, Oswald Kirby on Dobro, Lonnie Wilson on Martin guitar,Jesse Easterday on Mandolin, and Velma Williams on base. Five expert musicians was all he needed and it didn't take a large bus to get around in. I don't care what the so called experts say about Bill Monroe, Jesse Easterday could do a better job playing the Mandolin than Bill Monroe any day.
    alh Victoria, TX 77904

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