Knob Noster Missouri July 23-25th

This was Herman Smith’s first attempt at a bluegrass festival.
We pulled in just before noon on Friday, and I remember Joe saying that Rual (Yarbrough) and Jake (Landers), both of whom were good friends of Bill, were going to be working that festival. Shortly after getting the bus situated, we all went in different directions, checking out the grounds. The park had only been finished a few days before; the tracks of a bulldozer were still fresh in the roadway.
We parked in a little grove of trees, not far from the entrance to the park, next to a woven wire fence. Soon other entertainers began arriving.

James Bryan, Rual Yarbrough, William Smith, and Jake Landers.

On Saturday afternoon, Joe Stuart, Rual Yarbrough, and Jake Landers were sitting along the fence singing. Jake had his guitar, and Rual and Joe were singing harmony. Jake was already known as a good songwriter and was sharing some of his latest efforts.
Joe Stuart loved to sing, and while they were singing, Bill Emerson of the Country Gentlemen walked by, on the way to the stage…he stopped, turned around, and listened for a while. A conversation ensued and he sent back to the bus for a tape recorder, on which he taped “The Secret of the Waterfall.” It was subsequently recorded by the Gentlemen for "The Award-Winning Country Gentlemen” album. He also had Jimmy Gaudreau and Charlie Waller come by and listen to some of Jake's songs. One, “My Last Request,” Charlie said he really liked. I’m sure he never recorded it, but I would have loved to hear Charlie sing that tune. He could have done it justice.

James, Rual, William, and Jake.

I enjoyed my first trip west of the Mississippi. Some other great friends that I had seen at Bean Blossom a few weeks before were there, The Calton Family. Charles and Inez had two beautiful daughters, Randie and Brenda, and I enjoyed their shows.
( In doing some internet searching my heart is heavy to find that Inez passed....I called her several years ago and she said that she was having some health problems....I asked about the girls...Brenda and Randie.....Brenda was on the radio doing a commercial as we spoke and she held the phone to the radio....She said that she was undergoing treatment......I did not follow up...I'm so sorry it took this long to follow up....http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Calton&GScnty=1449&GRid=70802792& )

The Calton Family: Gordon Wilfong on banjo, Inez, Randie, Charles (hidden behind Randie), and Brenda.

After the festival, on Sunday night, we headed back to Nashville. Jack was really getting into driving. He had driven all night and, early the next morning, we were awakened by the engine racing. The bus slowed, then stopped. Everyone got up and went up front, then outside. Jack had already opened the tailgate of the coach. Joe and Kenny seemed to know what he problem was, so Joe started thumbing and went into town and, before long, he returned with a gentleman in a tow truck. We were pulled into Mayfield, Kentucky, where we spent a good portion of the day getting a flywheel pressed back on the motor. Then we headed back to "Town."

Garland Lambert and Luther Chandler

Mom and dad were good to go with me to fiddlers' conventions. Mom made me some nice looking glitter-covered vests and I enjoyed wearing them.
During the spring of 1969, I met Garland Lambert and Luther Chandler and we just kind of hit it off. Luther was a good mandolin player, and Garland sang and played guitar. I think it was at Star, North Carolina, where we first got together. Over the next several months, I played with them at various fiddlers conventions' throughout North Carolina.

"Henry" (I think, but can't remember his last name), Luther Chandler, Doug Hutchens, and Garland Lambert at the fiddlers convention at Star, North Carolina, in 1968 or 69.

One year, we even got on one of the recordings (about 1970) that Bobby Patterson used to do of the Galax fiddlers' convention. I had entered the Mayo Mountain Boys. Wayburn Johnson played fiddle and we did “Cotton Eyed Joe.” It was a good cut except for me choking as I went in for my break.Luther Chandler, Doug Hutchens, Henry, and Garland Lambert.

I played with them in 1970 at Union Grove. Luther insisted that I come and stay with him at his home. As in the past year, I had slept in the car for a couple of nights.

We got up on Saturday morning and ate breakfast at a restaurant -- the first time I'd ever eaten breakfast at a restaurant. I looked and looked at the menu, finally ordering a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich and hash browns -- still my favorite breakfast meal, other than a hamburger. Many places, they look at you weird if you order a hamburger at that time of day. But weird looks never seemed to bother me.

Frontier Ranch June 27th 1971

We worked Frontier Ranch, just east of Columbus, Ohio, on June 27th, which was a Sunday show back in those days. It was hot; down in a valley with a steep hill to one side and a little creek running to the left and behind the stage.

Joe Stuart was driving when we got there and it was mid to late morning. I was just waking up as the bus was being maneuvered back and forth into the trees along the creek. When I went up front and sat down, Joe was still in the drivers seat, starting the generator for the air conditioner, and Bill was sitting behind him. Shortly, Joe got up and went back into the coach and as he came out, Johnny Johnson was driving Lester Flatt’s bus and was turning and beginning to park near us. Joe made the statement, “They’ll all be over here in a little bit,” to which Bill inquired how he knew that. It seems that Joe had been talking to Josh Graves during the week, and Lester’s generator wasn’t working, and it was mighty hot on the bus when the “road air“ wasn‘t running.

Joe got off the bus, and in a few minutes, there was a gentle knock at the door. Bill said “See who that is.” I looked out and it was Lester and I told Bill. He said, “Just let him in.” I pulled the arm that opened the door and I moved back to the next row of seats as Lester came in and sat where I had been sitting, across from Bill. These two guys had “buried the hatchet” at Bean Blossom a week before, having not directly spoken in many years, yet they talked the next two hours as if nothing had ever happened.

I only wish I could have had the presence of mind to make a few notes of what they talked about. I remember the conversation began with Lester asking, “Where did y'all work last night?” For the next two hours, they talked about all sorts of things. The only thing I remember well was the idea came up of working some together. Bill said we could "go right across the country, all the buses together." Lester said we could call it "the Bluegrass Caravan." As Lester was getting ready to leave, to get dressed for the show, Bill asked him, “Do you think we could do a couple of numbers together this afternoon?” to which Lester said, “It would be my pleasure, Bill.” My chill bumps were plentiful and it was in the high 90s outside.

The crowd was large and many had heard of Bill and Lester’s reunion the week before in Bean Blossom. Anticipation was in the air -- would they would do it again? Then when Lester and his group came out at the end of Bill’s show and “Little Cabin Home on the Hill” was kicked off, the audience came unglued….



It was late that night before everything was over. Then we went over to the Astro Inn. Everyone went in and after a little while, I was tired and went back to the bus and went to bed. I woke up when everyone were getting back on the bus, but went back to sleep pretty quick. The next time I woke up, we were heading up the long hill going into Kentucky out of Cincinnati on I-71. Dan Jones had been driving. About this time, Bill got up. He was walking up the aisle, brushing his hair back with his hands, and saying someone sure did some mighty good driving last night. Dan had been in transportation while in the Army and could handle the coach with no problem.
Joe and Kenny were bragging on Dan and kidding him about how Bill could sleep so good with him driving. As I came up the aisle, Baker looked at me and said, “You grew up on a farm and operated machinery didn’t you?” to which I replied, "Yeah." He looked at Joe and said, “Looks like we might have us another driver in the band.”

Dan lived in Louisville, so we stopped there along the way. Dan called his wife and she picked him up at one of the exits and we headed on toward Nashville. We’d only gone a few miles and Kenny looked back at Joe and said, “Do we need to break in another one on this trip?" Joe just smiled, and for the next few miles they showed me how to change drivers while you are going down the highway.

The person getting ready to drive takes the wheel while the person who has been driving slides out of the seat, then the new driver slides into the seat while holding onto the wheel. When I got my school bus license a few years before, I don't think that was on the test. It sounds crazy and was a little awkward, but we made it, and from Louisville to just outside of Nashville, that was my first “seat time” driving a coach.

Back in those days I-65 didn’t go all the way to Nashville, so just before the interstate ended Joe again took the wheel and drove us on to where we parked the coach in Goodlettsville.
Jack Hicks wasn’t with us. His dad, Pat, and his mother, Jenny, traveled to many of the shows and whenever he could, he would go back to Ashland and then take the bus to Nashville the next week in time to go to the next shows.
We got back into Nashville on Monday morning the 28th about 10 or 11 o'clock.

Red Smiley

Lavonia, Georgia: August 1, 1971.

I had just awakened and gone up to the front of the bus and Joe Stuart was sitting there.

Joe said "I wish you would look out there." Red had come out of the motor home that they were traveling in and had started up on the hill where the gospel show was to be held that morning. It was 3 or 4 hundred yards up to the building and Red was pretty weak at that time.

I had grown up listening to Don Reno and Red Smiley on their morning TV show on WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia. Don and Red’s partnership dissolved in November of 1964. I had met Red a time or two, but not enough for him to know who I was or anything.

Red was carrying his guitar in one hand and his stage shoes in the other. He carried his D-45 Martin in a turquoise colored case. In the late 60's he and Billy Edwards had their cases "recovered" in a turquoise Naugahyde material -- it stood out. He would take about 4 or 5 steps and put the guitar case down and switch hands. I told Joe, "I’m going to take Red’s guitar to the stage for him." I didn’t even have my shoes on yet, so I reached around and under the bunks and got my old work shoes and put them on.
I went on out and asked Red if he minded if I walked up to the stage with him. He said, "Sure," so I said, "Here let me take that guitar for you." We could only walk short distances, then he would need to stop to catch his breath.
We finally made it up the hill and into the back of the building. The other members of the band was already there tuning up, so I put Red’s guitar on a table and went back to the bus.
The Blue Grass Boys were the last act of the gospel show that morning, and Red was still there as we came off stage. I asked if I could take his guitar back down to the motor home. He said, "You’ve got your bass to take back." I said, "I think I can handle both of them." He just grinned and we walked back down the hill together.

We left Lavonia on Sunday night and drove to Ottawa Ohio, were we worked all week together. Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys and Don Reno, Red Smiley and Bill Harrell.
On Monday afternoon, I was in the back of the bus and I heard someone ask Kenny Baker where I was -- it was Red. Baker hollered back to me that someone wanted to see me. I went up and Red asked if I had gotten that Georgia red mud off my shoes yet, I told him no. He said, "Get them and let's go down to the dock and see what we can do with them." Red and I went down and sat on the dock and took some sticks and gouged the mud off and washed our shoes. From that point on, Red always went out of his way to speak to me.

That week at Hillbrook Recreational Center was a great time. The crowd was sparse, to say the least, during the early part of the week. That was the first time I ever had Red’s D-45 guitar in my hands. It was a killer guitar.
The last time I saw Red was that fall at Myrtle Beach. We spoke as I was getting ready to head home and he said he would see me later.....Red, I look forward to shaking your hand again....

The Goins Brothers TV show

Channel 57 Hazard Kentucky....

at the time it was NBC's worlds smallest affiliate.
After working with Bill Monroe in 1971 I got to know Melvin and Ray Goins.
They were true "Old School Entertainers"

This week's show Tony Testerman who I had worked with for years with was in the area and he played bass which allowed me to play mandolin....Tommy Boyd was on the Dobro, Ray Goins the banjo, Doug Hutchens on the Mandolin and Melvin Goins the guitar.

Sometime in the fall of 1978 after I moved to Knott County Kentucky, Melvin called and asked if I could help them with their TV shows over on WKYH TV in Hazard, Kentucky. Their regular bass player lived up in Ohio and it wasn't monetarily worth it for him to drive down just for the TV shows. They taped two shows every other Tuesday afternoon and the shows were played back on Friday nights.

Ray Goins on banjo, Doug Hutchens on Mandolin

Glen Duncan Fiddle, Doug Hutchens Bass

For the next several years,I would find some excuse to leave work every other Tuesday afternoon and run to town for "something". We would tape two shows and then I would head back to work to be sure to be back about quitting time. It only took an hour to do two 30 minute shows.
No stopping once we started the theme. Melvin did his commercials live. These guys were a pleasure to work with. They had been in the business since before it was a business and they knew how to make things happen.

Curly Lambert mandolin, Doug Hutchens bass, Buddy Griffith banjo

I usually played bass, but over the period of 10 years that I lived in Eastern Kentucky I played bass, banjo, guitar and mandolin....It just depended on who was with Melvin that week.

Glen Duncan Fiddle, Doug Hutchens bass, Tommy Boyd banjo, Melvin Goins Guitar

Melvin Goins shares a "funny" and Doug Hutchens chuckles

It was usually Melvin and Ray accompanied by various entertainers. Sometimes Kentucky Slim, Curly Lambert, Buddy Griffith, Glen Duncan, Dan Jones, Tommy Boyd or Art Stamper.....

Doug Hutchens mandolin, Ray Goins Banjo

We would drive up this treacherous mountain lane called Gorman Ridge WAY UP above Hazard Kentucky...It was literally a dangerous place to go if the weather was wet or especially if there was any ice. I remember one time we had to walk the last segment of the lane to the TV station and on the way down Curly Lambert slipped and fell with his mandolin case going one way and he going the other. Luckily he wasn't hurt just a bruise or two and his feelings hurt from us laughing so hard...it wasn't funny...... until we found that he wasn't hurt, but it was seeing him sliding down the roadway in the snow, we couldn't help laughing.


Tommy Boyd who was playing with Larry Sparks at the time on the dobro,,,Tony Testerman hidden on bass and Doug Hutchens on Mandolin

I will have to say again my admiration of the "First Generation of Blue Grass Entertainers". Melvin and Ray treated me as an equal...They had been at it for years, here I was a total new comer yet, they treated me as if I had played with them for decades.....Joe Stuart and Kenny Baker treated me the same way during the time that I worked with Bill Monroe.... I don't know if I would have welcomed new faces as they did.
I also worked many schools with Melvin and Ray....They probably introduced more school kids to Blue Grass Music than any other group, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia..The Goins Brothers worked many a school and I've seen countless individuals that have told me that thier introduction to Blue Grass Music was the school shows that Melvin and Ray did. During the time I worked with them, once we worked 5 elementary and high schools in one day.....More on that later.....

Glen Duncan fiddle, Doug Hutchens bass, Tommy Boyd banjo, Melvin Goins guitar

Feb 3, 1950---July 7, 1958 - February 3, 1959 Lillian Lee Amos, James Aubrey Hutchens, Edd Mayfield, Buddy Holly

62 years ago, my mom, Lillian Lee Amos, married my dad, James Aubrey Hutchens.........

53 years ago today, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, for a show.
This was only 7 months, and 27 days after the passing of Edd Mayfield, a fellow Texas entertainer from Dimmitt, Texas, who Holly probably listened to on the radio.

The world remains small and life fragile, even after all these years.

courtesy: Herb Mayfield

Herman Smiths's Festival and Crossing the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois

After returning from Ponderosa Park on July 11th, Kenny Baker took me over to the airport so I could fly home for a few days. A festival up in New England that we were supposed to work on the 16th, 17th, and 18th had been cancelled.

Bill and the Blue Grass Boys worked the Opry Friday and Saturday nights. I remember, as we rode to the airport, seeing a construction site and Kenny saying that they were going to build some sort of amusement park there. (That was the construction of Opryland; it opened in 1972 and the Opry was moved there in March 16th, 1974.)

I flew back to Nashville on the 21st. Kenny met me at the airport. On July 22nd we were getting ready to go to Herman Smith's First Blue Grass Festival….in Knob Noster Missouri.

Before we left, there were some festivities being held near the Hall of Fame, off 16th Avenue, beginning about noon, and Bill had been asked to perform. We went down and parked the bus and it seemed no one was in charge or really knew what was happening. Finally it was clear that the program wasn’t going to start anywhere close to being on time and we left and headed for Missouri.
I remember Joe Stuart and Kenny Baker talking about the route we were going to take ….I remember something about a ferry. I didn’t think much about it as that was the usual conversation between the two of them as we left each week.
We left about 2 p.m. that day, then later that day we were on the ferry near Cairo, Illinois. We all thought they were kidding until the highway stopped at the waters edge.

You could tell Bill was a little nervous about putting the bus on the ferry, but...

We made it.