I am setting here tonight on the eve of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, in my Calaveras County Mountain home. I have wrestled in my mind with the subject matter to use for today’s welcome message for the last month. It has been on my mind for the preceding month and for the life of me I could not come up with the subject matter to use. Usually I am able to dredge up a memorable event for me, from the last 30 or 40 years of my musical adventures, but this month I kept coming up with a blank. That is until this morning, when I jumped in “Shang Sha Sha” my trusty Cummins powered three-quarter ton four-wheel-drive Dodge truck and headed for Jackson, California to get some groceries. As is my custom, I turned on the CD player and lo and behold what came of the speakers, but Laurie and Kathy on their tribute CD to Vern and Ray! That’s it I yelled to myself! I’ll talk about the music on this album, what I know about the songs, and how they came to be part of the repertoire of two of my best musical friends I ever had the good fortune to play music with.
Now to start with, this is not a record review. This is merely my story of what I know about the music on this record, and I want to thank Laurie and Kathy not only for doing it, but asking for my input on what songs use on the record. Ladies you done a magnificent job.
The first song on the record is an old Stephen Foster song that we have all heard, probably for most of our lives. If I remember right,Del, Keith, Vern, and myself were sitting around picking one winter night in Vern’s kitchen and for some reason we started picking Oh Susanna, kind of out of boredom, while thinking of something serious to play. Before we knew it, we had worked it up into a full-blown presentation, worthy of Stephen Foster’s best. That’s how that happened. Cabin on a Mountain. This song needs no introduction by me because it has become a standard in a lot of bluegrass bands repertoires. It was written by a good old boy from Oklahoma, Clyde Williamson, one of the original “Carroll County Country Boys”, who were Vern and Ray’s original band. Del McCoury told me one time, this is one of the best bluegrass songs ever written, and I have to agree with him.
Cowboy Jack. What a wonderful ballad. This song was brought to the Vern Williams band by my good friend the late Sonny Hammond from Portland Oregon. When I lived in Valley Springs California, Sonny came down for a four-day visit one time and naturally we picked music every night with Vern and the boys. We were on my patio playing music one night when Sonny told Vern I have a cowboy song that is perfect for the band, and within 30 min. we had worked up the complete song. I can still hear that wonderful three-part harmony echoing off the mountain on that still summer night.
Little Birdie. Nobody could do this song like Vern and Ray could, their harmonies on this would put goosebumps up and down my spine that you can hang your hat on.
If I had my life to live over again. The song was penned by my good friend Chester Smith, a well-known disc jockey and bandleader from Modesto California. Chester was a contemporary and good friend of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, and they both broadcast from station KT RB in Modesto. It was due to Chester’s efforts that Ray Park was signed to a recording contract by Capitol records in 1954.
Happy I’ll be; one of Ray’s finer gospel songs. What I would not give to hear Vern and Ray harmonize on this again. I’ll never forget that Ray’s dad Bill Park always told Ray, no matter where you’re playing, be at a bar or a church, always do at least one gospel song. And we always did.
Black-eyed Susie; this song was a staple of the Vern Williams band repertoire. Vern always said his favorite verse in the song was the one where it said, I love my gal, I love my baby, I love my biscuits sopped in gravy! I have to agree with him on that, because who doesn’t love their biscuits sopped in gravy?
To hell with the land; I asked Ray one time, what gave him the idea for this song? He said he was driving by this sawmill near Placerville California one day and the smoke from the incinerator had virtually blocked out the sun. He said the thought entered his mind, these people are letting the land go to hell. Then the song title popped into his head; to hell with the land, and that’s how that came about. Ray said he wrote the song within 30 min..
Flying cloud; a wonderful traditional fiddle tune that Ray could absolutely fiddle at hell out of ! I always loved to hear him fiddle this whenever I had the chance to play with them, either on rhythm guitar or bass.
Montana cowboy; another wonderful cowboy ballad that I love to hear Ray play the fiddle on and Vern sang the high lonesome sound as only he could. It was in early spring of 1972 when Vern, Ray,Del, and myself got together at Vern’s house for a jam session, when Ray said boys I’ve got a new song I want you to hear. Then he took the guitar and sang it for us so we could learn it. And here’s a little secret I don’t think I’ve told anybody before now. The song was in B flat, so Ray tuned his fiddle up one notch so he could play it as if he were playing in normal tuning. He laughed and said, years from now fiddle players are going to be wondering how I did that. So now you know.This song has become a standard in the bluegrass basic repertoire of a lot of bands.
Down among the budded roses; this is a song that I brought the Vern Williams band about 1974. I had a copy of Tony Rice doing this song and I knew would be a natural for Vern and the boys, so I took it to Vern’s house and played it for him and the next time we get together to practice we worked it up. I still love to hear Vern do this, and Kathy and Laurie did a wonderful job on it.
Thinking of home; another one of Ray’s fine songs he penned while thinking of his boyhood home in Arkansas one day. Ray told me he was thinking of his boyhood home there in Arkansas one time, and reminiscing of how things were when he was a boy, and got kind of homesick thinking about the way things were in years past. We compared our feelings about how we were raised and the memories we had, but we both realized they were gone forever, but we would never forget them.
Field of flowers; a beautiful love song of broken hearts and memories, never to return. I always loved to hear Vern do this ballad.
How many times; another song from the pen of Ray Park. I must’ve heard Ray do this song 50 or 60 times before I ask him where he got the idea for this one? Well, he said. I got home from playing music real late one night, around three in the morning and before I knew it me and my wife were in one hell of argument ! We argued till damn near sunrise, when I said to myself; have many times must we fight? I said to myself wait a minute ! That’s a hell of a good song title ! By the next day I had this one totally finished. True story.
My clinch Mountain home;one of my all time favorite songs that I loved to hear Vern do. To this very day this song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.
My old Kentucky home; another one of Stephen Foster’s masterpieces. We were sitting in Vern’s kitchen one night when he said; boys, there’s an old Stephen Foster songs I’ve always wanted to work up and do bluegrass style, and it’s my old Kentucky home. We all agreed that song was a dandy, so we clamped up into be natural as Monroe would say and kick that little baby off, and within 30 min. time we had added another song to the Vern Williams band repertoire .
Bluegrass style; this song was written by Vern and Ray’s original banjo player, Luther Riley. Vern always did say that Luther had the wildest thumb on his pick’n hand of any banjo picker he’d ever heard. I have to agree with Vern on that one, because Luther could get sounds out of a banjo that I have never heard before or since. One of the finest banjo pickers to ever come out of Hazard Kentucky.
Touch of God’s hand; this song was written by Hazel Houser who used to play in Ray Parks country band in the early 50s. One of the finest gospel songs ever written, and nobody, I mean nobody could sing this song like Vern and Ray, and Herb Pedersen as a trio. This song would put goosebumps on my heart when they would do it.Hazel Houser was a wonderful songwriter, and she wrote a lot of wonderful songs that were hits for different country artists. She was also a wonderful vocalist as well and some of my most favorite memories are of her and Ray singing duets on a lot of old country standards back in the early to middle 50s.
So folks there you have this month’s meanderings by the old mountain man. I hope you have enjoyed my recollections of the music of Vern and Ray that I got to experience starting back in the late 50s. Looking back at all the wonderful times we had playing music, all I can say is, we had one hell of a lot of fun and I wish I could do it all over again.
I thank Laurie and Kathy for doing these songs of Vern and Ray, and I will never forget how you made tears run down the cheeks of me and my buddy Jack Sadler as we watched you perform these songs at the Grass Valley Festival last June. ladies, those were tears of joy, and I know I can speak for Jack when I say we enjoyed it immensely. We both thank you from the bottom of our hearts for doing this tribute album to two of our best friends we will ever have on this earth. God bless you!
