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Roy Clark Live......


Murph

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At the community college where I work, we often have many bands and musicians play at the auditorium there. Last year, Roy played there. I was fortunate enough to "hang out" with him and his band. A genuinely nice guy! He showed me all his guitars from over the years (and he brought ALL of them!). I especially asked him about that 12 string electric Ovation guitar that he used to play quite frquently on Hee-Haw. Bam! He got it out of the case, plugged it in and asked me to pick him a tune on it! Can you believe that? Roy Clark asking ME to pick a song!!! I graciously declined!!! We did end up playing a few tunes together before the show started. A really nice guy. One of the nicest professional musicians I've ever met.

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larryp58 -

 

What a great story. [cool]

 

Wow! You can say that again! It makes a big difference to me when I find out a celebrity is nice/not so nice. I used to love Chevy Chase, then a friend of mine here in Calgary worked on a set with him, and it turns out that he isn't the nicest guy (putting it mildly). I've never gorgotten that. When I hear that pro musicians are nice, it's even more endearing to me.

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Karen... you nailed it.

 

I'll never forget when I was a kid - I think I'd just turned 21 - and was sent to do a pre-concert interview with Johnny Cash. Everybody's going, "Be careful with Johnny." As I recall he was just getting his life pretty much back together and June and Mother Maybelle were there.

 

The promoter went, "Be careful with Johnny." The publisher went, "Be careful with Johnny." The Editor went, "Be careful with Johnny."

 

So I went early. Talked to Luther Perkins. Then started talking with Mother Maybelle about her big old Gibson F hole. She let me attempt to play it - huge heavy strings that were too much for me, but I did Wildwood Flower enough that she knew I could play it with lighter strings, and she's going, "Oh, you know Carter Family songs!"

 

Anyway, after that she pretty much smilingly got me introduced to Johnny as a young guitar player... it all went fine except that I got a crick in my neck. We were standing for the interview and that guy was Tall.

 

I still have a high opinion of they guy everybody told me to be careful of and who was likely as stage frighty of me as a reporter as I was of him as a famous musician.

 

Later on I got to know a guy who'd been Cash's Air Force roommate in Germany and even did a little guitar playing to help him out. But that's yet another story. <grin>

 

m

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"Oh you know Carter family songs"..... LOL Is she kidding?! Wow, that's pretty exciting Milod. You've met Americana royalty! I wonder why people were warning you about Johnny? Maybe he's particular about how he wants things done. Nothing wrong with that, if so. I sure wish he and June were still with us. Where did I just read that his final album is being released? Maybe I got that wrong.... hmmm.... must go look for that now....

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Karen...

 

You gotta remember that at about that time he was kinda un-drugging. That stuff takes a toll on the personality and JR was pretty much a country boy not terribly used to the limelight even though he'd had more than his share by then.

 

Also, I was told if he got "hung up" about something, he'd just walk away and no show.

 

June, I think, and in a sense the old Carter Family mystique, made a helluva impact on that dirt-poor country kid.

 

As I look back on the '50s, the only guitars I saw myself were the old junk piece Dad had in the attic he'd once tried to learn and gave up on, and a few on the new televisionairy set we got probably in '53 or 4. Not counting the radio or TV, the music I heard being made locally tended to be reeds, brass and keyboards doing darned near the same stuff they'd have been doing in the 30s and 40s.

 

Mom and Dad did some vocalizing for local entertainments and the stuff I remember could almost be considered "folk songs" in a way. Even then "When you and I were young, Maggie" was 80-90 years old. Then there were the '30s show tunes and... Sheesh. Thank heaven for the juke box in the ice cream parlor. But then the banker next door showed up one day with a check and paid the family that ran the joint and shut it down. Then there was rock radio. <grin> And Payola and all kinds of neat stuff.

 

m

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