Last week I was on vacation with my lovely wife taking our semi-annual trip to Gatlinburg and The Smoky Mountains. As I wrote on my Facebook page, we have made that trip probably 35 times over the past 20+ years and on every trip we pass the Bulls Gap, Tennessee exit on I-81. As I am sure every country music fan knows, Bulls Gap is the hometown of Archie Campbell, who in addition to being one of the stars of Hee Haw, was also a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Each time I have been meaning to stop, but was always in a hurry and just didn't have time. Last week, I made time and it was wonderful. Bulls Gap as restored Archie Campbell's birthplace as well as establishing a nice little museum dedicated to Archie, which is located in the town hall. And all of this is free.
In my opinion, and I think others share the same, Archie Campbell deserves to be in the Country Music Hall of Fame and should have been elected decades ago. Sadly, he seems to have been forgotten by many, including the voters. maybe some day Let's hope.
The other stop we made was in Bristol, Tennessee to see "The Birthday Place of Country Music Museum" which is located downtown. This building opened a few years ago and like the Archie Campbell museum, was a pleasant surprise. It is not overly huge, but does cover the early days of country music, with an emphasis on the Bristol Sessions of 1927.
There are definitely some great country music sites in the area, including the Ralph Stanley Museum in Clintwood, Virginia and of course, the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, both of which we have previously visited. If you want good old stringband music, the Carter Fold is the place to be as they have a show each Saturday night with a very low admission price. Also at the site is the A.P. Carter Cabin, which is open prior to the Saturday night show. Well worth the visit.
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Now to the Grand Ole Opry and a look at the shows for this weekend as the Opry closes out the month of September.
The Friday Night Opry has 3 Opry members on the schedule: Jeannie Seely, Rhonda Vincent and Bill Anderson, while Saturday's Grand Ole Opry has members Connie Smith and Bobby Osborne. You have to be very impressed with Rhonda Vincent thus far as going into this weekend she has appeared 16 times on the Opry, with only Jeannie Seely and Riders In The Sky appearing more often.
Guesting on Friday night will be Alex Hall, King Calaway, Francesca Battistelli, comedian Brad Upton, and making their Opry debut, The Texicana Mamas. Brad Upton is also scheduled for Saturday night, along with Levi Hummon, Danielle Bradbery, Eric Paslay, Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie McCoy, and veteran country artist John Berry.
Friday September 24
7:00: Jeannie Seely; Alex Hall; The Texicana Mamas; Rhonda Vincent
Intermission
8:15: Bill Anderson; King Calaway; Brad Upton; Francesca Battistelli
7:00: Jeannie Seely; Alex Hall; The Texicana Mamas; Rhonda Vincent
Intermission
8:15: Bill Anderson; King Calaway; Brad Upton; Francesca Battistelli
Saturday September 25
7:00: Opry Square Dancers; Connie Smith; Levi Hummon; Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press; John Berry
Intermission
8:15: Danielle Bradbery; Brad Upton; Eric Paslay; Charlie McCoy
7:00: Opry Square Dancers; Connie Smith; Levi Hummon; Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press; John Berry
Intermission
8:15: Danielle Bradbery; Brad Upton; Eric Paslay; Charlie McCoy
As mentioned, this will be the Opry debut for The Texicana Mamas.
The Texicana Mamas bring an expansive variety of musical influences which include folk, conjunto, Americana, flamenco, country, Tex-Mex, rock ‘n’ roll, the Texas singer- songwriter tradition, Lone Star country-rock, and the mariachi, corrido, and norteño traditions of the border.
Debuting at Nashville’s famed Bluebird Café in the fall of 2018, The Texicana Mamas have made special appearances at The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington DC, Latinapalooza showcase at last year’s South By Southwest music festival, and have other dates in the pipeline. Although the three women came to music by different routes, each is governed by a passion for storytelling and cross-cultural musical fusion.
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Now from 50 years ago, Saturday September 25, 1971:
1st show
6:30: Mrs. Grissoms
Wilburn Brothers (host): It Looks Like the Sun's Gonna Shine
Ernie Ashworth: Battle of the Blues
Wilburn Brothers: I'm Gonna Tie One on Tonight
6:30: Mrs. Grissoms
Wilburn Brothers (host): It Looks Like the Sun's Gonna Shine
Ernie Ashworth: Battle of the Blues
Wilburn Brothers: I'm Gonna Tie One on Tonight
6:45: Rudy's
Bob Luman (host): Getting Back to Norma
Jeanne Pruett: Hold to My Unchanging Love
Bob Luman: Sing the Blues to Daddy/Honky Tonk Man
7:00: Luzianne
Charlie Walker (host); My Baby Used to Be That Way
Charlie Walker (host); My Baby Used to Be That Way
Jay Lee Webb: She's Looking Better By the Minute
Jimmy Capps and Spider Wilson: Buckaroo
Johnny Paycheck: She's All I Got
Charlie Walker: Don't Squeeze My Sharmon
Jay Lee Webb: It's Such a Pretty World Today
Harold Weakley: He'll Have to Go
Johnny Paycheck: Touch My Heart
Charlie Walker: Pick Me Up on Your Way Down
7:30: Standard Candy
Bobby Bare (host); Come Sundown
Skeeter Davis: Bus Fare to Kentucky
Wayne Kemp: Hello, Trouble
Crook Brothers: Black Mountain Rag
Bobby Bare: Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends
Skeeter Davis: Love Takes a Lot of My Time
Wayne Kemp: Who'll Turn Out the Lights
Weldon Myrick: Steel Guitar Rag
Bobby Bare: Detroit City
8:00: Martha White
Bill Anderson (host): Wild Weekend
Jan Howard: Put You Hand in the Hand
Ray Pillow: The Waitress
Del Wood: Are You From Dixie
Bill Anderson: Quits
Bill Anderson and Jan Howard: Dissatisfied
Ray Pillow: Haven't You Heard
Bill Anderson: Still
8:30: W. E. Stephens
Ernest Tubb (host): Seaman's Blues
Marion Worth: So Afraid of Losing You Again
Louie Roberts: Come Back Celina
Fruit Jar Drinkers: Walking in My Sleep
Ernest Tubb: One Sweet Hello
Marion Worth: Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed
Louie Roberts: Ku-Liga
Leon Boulanger: Old Joe Clark
2nd show
9:30: Kellogg's
Wilburn Brothers (host0: We Need a Lot More Happiness
Skeeter Davis: Rocky Top
Jay Lee Webb: Heart Over Mind
Wilburn Brothers: It's Another World
Skeeter Davis: Love Take a Lot of My Time
Jay Lee Webb: I Come Home A' Drinking
Wilburn Brothers: That She's Leaving Feeling/Troubles Back in Town
10:00: Fender
Charlie Walker (host): My Baby Used to Be That Way
Del Wood: Gloryland March
Harold Weakley: Almost Persuaded
Charlie Walker: San Antonio Rose
10:15: Union 76
Bob Luman (host): Polka Salad Annie
Wayne Kemp: Easy Loving
Bob Luman: I Got a Woman
10:30: Trailblazer
Bobby Bare (host): Four Strong Winds
Jeanne Pruett: Hold to My Unchanging Love
Johnny Paycheck: She's All I Got
Bobby Bare: The Streets of Baltimore
10:45: Beech-Nut
Ernest Tubb (host): He's In the Jailhouse Now
Ray Pillow: Haven't You Heard
Crook Brothers: Cotton Eyed Joe
11:00: Coca Cola
Bill Anderson (host): But You Know I Love You
Jan Howard: Bad Seed
Po Boys: Louisiana Man
Fruit Jar Drinkers: Hickory Leaf
Bill Anderson and Jan Howard: Dissatisfied
Bill Anderson: Quits
Sam McGee: Freight Train
Bill Anderson: Always Remember
11:30: Elm Hill
Marty Robbins (host): Way Out There
Marion Worth: For the Good Times
Louie Roberts: Sandy
Marty Robbins: I Walk Alone/Today I Started Loving You Again/Big Boss Man/I'll Always Be Glad to Take You Back/Walking the Floor Over You/Singing the Blues
Finally, next weekend is the Grand Ole Opry's 96th Birthday Bash with one show on Friday night and two shows Saturday, along with the usual festivities. It will be interesting to see who will be on the schedule next weekend as right now it is looking somewhat slim. Hopefully more acts will be added before the final line-up is posted next week.
Until then, and as always, thanks for reading and commenting and I hope everyone enjoys the Grand Ole Opry this weekend.
Nice touch with the photos Byron. Yes, Archie should be in the HOF. However, Jeff Foxworthy might have a better chance!
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a safe and enjoyable trip.
Jim
Thanks Byron. Appreciate sharing in your trip!
ReplyDeleteWord is coming over the wire that Bob Moore, A-Team bass player and possibly the most recorded musician in history, has passed away at 88. He will be in the Hall of Fame eventually, but if there was any justice he would have been honored during his lifetime. That's a discussion for a different time.
ReplyDeleteHere is a nice biography of Bob Moore from 2000:
If one copy of every record on which he performed were placed end to end along Nashville's Music Row, they would line both sidewalks of the one-mile stretch between the old Country Music Hall of Fame and Belmont College along 16th Avenue. The musician holding this distinction is bass player extraordinare Bob Moore, who, with over 17,000 recording sessions to his credit, may well have played on more recordings than any other musician in the world. Bob's talents are heard on hundreds of million selling records that feature some of the greatest legends in music history.
LIFE MAGAZINE (special edition September 1, 1994) named him as the NUMBER ONE "COUNTRY BASSIST" OF ALL TIME. But Bob Moore has recorded "classical music" with Arthur Feidler and The Boston Pops, jazz with premier jazz guitarist Hank Garland and performed by invitation at the Newport Jazz Festival. He was top choice among many classic artists such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Sammy Davis Jr., Burl Ives, Andy Williams, Connie Francis and Julie Andrews. His distinctive pure sound has graced such timeless recordings as "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Paul Simon and "Rainy Night In Georgia" with Brook Benton. Bob Moore may well be the number one "ALL AROUND" Bassist of all time.
The Cumberland River runs straight through the center of beautiful downtown. Nashville, also known as Music City, is the birthplace of Bob Moore. Born poor and raised on the East side of the river in the 1930's, the east Nashville boy showed a very early interest in music. His grandmother's Victrola shows the teeth marks at the top where Bob, although barely out of diapers, would pull himself up and hang over the edge while supported by his hands and teeth and watch the records go round and round. Saturday evenings were spent by the radio listening to the Grand Ole Opry. By the time he was 10 years old, Bob was doing guest spots singing and playing guitar on WSIX's "Goober and the Kentuckians" show.
During the 1940's there were many paratroopers in Nashville. On weekends, they would come by in droves from Fort Campbell KY to see the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. So when Bob was nine years old he took a mind to build a shoe shine kit. He would walk up town and set up right across the street from the Ryman to shine paratroopers' boots for a nickel. Bob Moore kept an ever-watchful eye on the back stage door as if he knew what his future held. It was there, just outside the Opry House, that, at the age of twelve, Bob was shining the cowboy boots of Ernest Tubb's bass player, Jack Drake. Bob would worry Jack to death asking him every question he could think of about the Bass. Jack took special care in teaching young Bobby how to tune a bass and the proper way to pull a bass string, etc. Jack didn't know that he had set in motion the career of the greatest all around bassist that has ever lived. (continued)
Bobby Moore's professional career really began in 1947 when the tall, blond 15 year old hit the road playing guitar and stand-up bass backing the black-face tent show band Jamup and Honey. He was then asked to join Paul Howard's Western Swing Band which was loaded with top young Opry musicians and was considered to be the best band around. Road work filled the next few years as Little Jimmy Dickens original band, Cowboy Copas, Curly Fox and Texas Ruby, Flatt and Scruggs, Andy Griffith and Eddy Arnold created a constant demand for Moore's talents.
ReplyDeleteBob Moore was proud when he accepted a prestige position working the Ozark Jubilee in Springfield MO with Red Foley in 1952. But being on the road wasn't easy even for the ambitious Mr. Moore. Working simultaneously with Mr. Foley in another state and with Marty Robbins in Nashville was an exhausting work commitment. (It was necessary that Marty Robbins and Red Foley carefully re-arranged their performance schedules in order to use Bob and other band members who worked for both artists)
"I remember commuting a thousand miles every week for two years when I was working with Red Foley in Springfield, and with Marty Robbins in Nashville," he recalls, "and that was before freeways when you had to drive two lane roads all the way."
The 1950's were magic years: during this time, Owen Bradley was a moving force in the Nashville record business. He was gearing up and building a studio. When Bradley joined Decca Records, Moore's big break came. Among musicians, he was first call and played on records with Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins, Rex Allen, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Eddy Arnold, Bobby Darin, Floyd Tillman, Faron Young, Webb Pierce, Lefty Frizell, Connie Francis, Bobby Helms and many lesser known artists who are now considered, among the young audience, to be "rockabilly" treasures. These include artists such as Johnny Burnette, Ronnie Hawkins, Johnny Carroll, Johnny Horton, Ronnie Self, Warren Smith and many more.
His association with Bradley, whom Moore remembers as "one of the best record producers I ever worked with," helped to develop Moore's subtle style. "No matter how good a musician you are technically, what really matters boils down to your taste in playing. A lot of guys can play a hundred notes a second; some can play one note and it makes a lot better record. It comes with age, experience, being willing to learn". Besides good taste, Moore is known for his ability to "lead" a singer or other musicians through a song with his choice of notes by giving them a firm foundation they can depend on. His dependability, his rock solid beat, his impeccable timing, and his ability to work well with other musicians were the keys to his success in the recording studio. He served as session leader on most of his record dates. (continued)
During the early 1960s, Bob became known to insiders as Nashville's Best Kept Secret because of the creative input he was able to lend producers with whom he worked. Moore's musical knowledge and practical experience were the key to many big hits. Nashville's record business grew tremendously during this period. Many producers, musicians, and artists poured into Nashville. Bob Moore was busier than ever working with Elvis Presley, Roger Miller, Jim Reeves, the Statler Brothers, and Roy Orbison.
ReplyDelete"In one year, I did almost three hundred record sessions just for Mercury Records alone-- four (three-hour) dates a day, six or often seven days a week," he recalls.
In 1961 Mr. Moore, who was a partner in Monument Records, found time to record "Mexico", an instrumental for the label, which was a huge hit in Germany and sold over two million records worldwide.
The late 60s and early 1970s brought pop, rock, folk, and easy listening acts to Nashville, creating even more demand for Moore's musicianship. The biggest records by some of the most musically diverse artists of that era were flavored with Moore's innovative ideas and strong musicianship. John Davidson, Gene Pitney, Bobby Vinton, Nana Mouskouri, Damita Jo, Burl Ives, Pete Fountain and Clyde McPhatter carried Moore's musical reputation to both coasts and eventually around the world.
If copies of every record on which he performed were placed end to end along Nashville's Music Row, they would line both side sides of the sidewalk from the Country Music Hall of Fame and past Belmont College. With over 17,000 recording sessions to his credit, Bob Moore may well have played on more recordings than any other musician in the world.
The emergence of Nashville as the world's largest recording center can largely be attributed to the city's extraordinary musicians, including Moore, who created, "The Nashville Sound", and attracted top artists and producers to Nashville. His credits from this include some of the biggest names in music: Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Dottie West, George Jones, Ray Price, Reba McEntire, John Denver, Mac Davis, Larry Gatlin, The Statlers, Bobby Goldsboro, Paul Anka, Debby Boone, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Don McLean, Tom Jones, Johnny Rodriguez, Cliff Richards, Hank Williams Jr. and many, many more.
Moore's career is highlighted by live performances as varied as the "riot" in Newport Jazz Festival in 1960, Elvis Presley's Hawaiian Benefit concert for the USS Arizona in 1961, going around the world on tour 1981 with Crystal Gayle, followed by two years on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis, two vastly different presidential inaugurals (Kennedy's in 1961 and Reagan's in 1985), and an earlier appearance at then President Jimmy Carter's reception for the Country Music Association in 1978.
Barry, thanks for sharing. Bob Moore was another of those outstanding musicians who were a part of Nashville's "A" team, that helped record and produce some of the greatest records Nashville and country music has ever known.
DeleteYou would hope he would be in the Hall of Fame eventually, along with Jimmy Capps and a dozen other musicians. It is a shame that the recognition did not come before he passed away. Another reason why something should be done about the backlog of candidates in the various categories.
Barry,
DeleteThanks for posting this.
On that one very special night we got to spend backstage at the Opry in 1999, I got to listen to Jim Ed Brown and Bob Moore have a discussion. I was standing in the door to the Green Room talking with Jim Ed and about to give him something when Bob walked up and grabbed Jim Ed's hand and shook, then started talking. You could tell Jim Ed felt a little awkward and after a while he said to me "You know who this is? This is Bob Moore." I said "one of the greatest bass players in the world" Jim Ed said "probably THE greatest bass player in the world". Bob kind of chuckled and they went on talking. They finally ended their conversation and I got to give Jim Ed the little gift I had. I can still see Bob in a black Jacket and his beard and Jim Ed in that pretty bright blue suit.
Jim
Knightsville, IN
Nice job by Whisper and the band tonight. Good to hear Southern Fried again. That was recorded in 1983 in Atlanta as part of a 6 song 33-1/3 album on Southern Tracks Records using most of his band at the time including Les Singer with Mike Johnson co-producing with Bill. Son of the South was also in that project. My brother and I had been listening to the Opry regular for about two years when these two songs were released and Bill was doing one of them about every weekend he was on the Opry. Brings back nice memories of our youth!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear Liars 1, Believers 0. Been a long time since he did that. And, as Charlene Darling used to say "that one always makes me cry Pa".....Old Army Hat always puts a lump in my throat. Hope that doesn't offend anyone.
Jim
Knightsville, IN
I neglected to post--not that anyone needed the post--to welcome back Byron and say I was glad he had a good time, and I enjoyed his report. I will second the motion on Archie Campbell for the Hall of Fame.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed your visit to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. I've worked there over 5 years and am one of the DJs at our radio station. I host a 40s and 50s Country show on Wednesday afternoons.
ReplyDeleteWe did see the radio booth while we were there and there was a DJ doing a broadcast. Sorry I didn't catch the name, but it would have been on Friday afternoon after lunch.
DeleteDid Bobby Osborne appear tonight? I guess I was away from the radio about the time he was to be on.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Jim
Yes Bobby Osborne appeared tonight
ReplyDelete