2013 Music Continued

Lake Bonham Hoedown
I always enjoy playing banjo for Joan Kelton and the Shades of Bluegrass.  January's show featured the usual cast of musicians, but the March show was a special one, featuring the Bolton Family Band from Paris.  I was honored to play dobro for Sam, Reva, Kay and Jeff at this show.  (They even let me play banjo on one number, "After Lifetime Guarantee".)  Later in November, I made the trek to Bonham, but the attendance was low due to the threat of impending cold weather and ice.  But, we had a good time pickin' and grinnin'!

Bois d'Arc Bottom Band
The band got together as a whole a few times in 2013.  Other times found only two or three of the members playing for an event.  On February 8, Gary, Kelly, and Boyd, along with a few other members of FBC Bonham, played for FBC's annual Valentine Banquet.  On April 13th, Gary and Boyd also played with Fred Siebenthall and "Country Revival" for Honey Grove's Chamber of Commerce Banquet. On June 21st, BBB played at Big A's in Roxton and at the Windom Pavilion on the following day.  It was mighty cold on June 22! Later in October, BBB made their annual trek to Lake Bob Sandlin for a weekend of good music, food, fellowship and camping. (Be sure to check out the new BBB website, http://www.boisdarcbottom.com)


Other Shows
In March, I was invited to play dobro with Stuart Anderson and his band, "Highway 19" in Alvarado for a banquet of the Black Hereford Cattleman's Association in the Diamond W Arena.  Later in March, the Hines Sisters of Paris invited me to play banjo and dobro (not at the same time) for their show at the High Strung Bluegrass Hall in Paris.

Wade White
In April, Wade and the Cowboy Church had a special guest from Russia.  I can't remember his name right now, but he has been a famous body builder and has competed in athletic events, single-handedly winning over entire teams of weight lifters.  But, this man also plays guitar and sings.  He had always wanted to play country music with a Texas band, so Wade and the church invited a group of musician for a Wednesday night fish fry and Country jam session.  Musicians that showed up included the Cowboy Church band members, J.D. Moss and myself. Wade also provided music for the Mothers Day celebration at the Springlake Retirement Center in Paris.

Mountain View - May 24-27
Debbie and I made our annual trip to Mountain View Arkansas and had a great time of music and fellowship on Paris Row and downtown. A couple of my cousins and their wives joined us this year.  I talking about Roger and Debbie Edelhauser and Garland and Judy Edelhauser.

To be continued...

2013 Music and Such

Since I didn't blog last year, let me catch you up on a couple of important dates in 2012.  On March 28, 2012 my hero Earl Scruggs died.  I only had one opportunity in my lifetime to see him in person and that was in 2001 at the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie.  It was there that I got my banjo head signed by Earl.

Another fine musician died in 2012 and I was honored to play steel guitar at his funeral.  I'm talking about Jesse Watson, brother of Gene Watson.  I had known Jesse for a short time, having met him at the Tudor Street Mission Church in Paris.  We had some wonderful times playing music there and he was an outstanding guitar picker.  He also played steel guitar.

While I'm talking about the subject, the year 2013 rolled around and there were a couple of other great musicians who passed away.  On July 4th, Maurice Anderson died.  He created the MSA Steel Guitar Company in Dallas and I have owned three of them in my lifetime.  Maurice was one of the best, having played with Bob Wills and many others.  The MSA Company still makes some of the finest steel guitars in the business!

The other death was closer to home.  My great friend, Joe Julian died on October 10th.  I may blog about Joe later, but for now let me say that Joe, along with J. T. Bryan and Ross Whitt (Honey Grove) gave me my first opportunities to play music with a real band.

To be continued...

Emmons Classes - Part 1

In 1980 I attended Jeff Newman's school (Jeffran College) in Nashville (Hermitage), TN. I returned to Nashville in 1983 and 1984 because Jeff brought Buddy Emmons to the college to teach C6th. These times were the highlights of my musical education. What can top spending eight hours a day, five days a week with the "World's Foremost Steel Guitarist"?
If my old memory serves me correctly, we would start bright and early every morning as soon as the "Big E" walked in. Jeff and Buddy had worked hard to have tablature ready for everything we were to work on that day. Each student brought their own steel guitar to the class and I chose to bring my double-neck Sho-Bud...since this WAS a study in C6th. Each student had a cassette recorder/player (remember those?) and a set of headphones. Buddy would show us how a piece was supposed to sound and we would spend a few minutes playing along with a rhythm track trying to play it like he did (yeah...right!). Noon would eventually roll around and we'd have lunch somewhere, then hit the tab again in the afternoon.
On Wednesday or Thursday night (come on memory!) Buddy would bring in the rest of the heavyweights and "show us how it's done!" as Charlie Daniels would say. Phil Baugh on guitar, Duke Dumas on bass and John Stacey on drums. Man, we went through a lot of cassette tape during those weeks!
Some of the other players in my classes were: John Fabian (Carter Steel Guitar), Jeff Pederson (Clint Black), Tim Lusby (Daryl Singletary), Steve Palousek (Emmons Co., Ray Price, etc.), and Janet Lynn. After the 1983 class, I believe we all came back in 1984.

Stay tuned for Part 2!