“A wise man once said…nothing. ” JD Rhynes
From 1978 to 1980 there was a small bluegrass Festival that was held at the Ghost Mountain Ranch Campground at Pollock Pines California, that featured California bluegrass bands. It was a small festival that was promoted by a private promoter, and was always held on Memorial Day weekend. Naturally, it was called the ghost Mountain Festival and usually featured about a dozen California bands, which at the time but just about every bluegrass band in central and northern California. The weather at the festival for 1978 and 79 was hot and dry, hovering around 100°, but the weekend of 1980 it rained and snowed pitchforks and hammer handles on us. But that is another story for another time, one that I have wrote about here in this column before. The main subject of this column this month is the pre-festival promotions that the Vern Williams band was part of in 1979 and 80.
Violet Langford and her husband Gilbert had undertaken the promotion of the festival from the very start, and were very good at getting good publicity for the festival. Violet was a beautiful lady and was exceptionally persuasive with people when it came to promoting the festival. One avenue of promotion that she was exceptionally good at, was getting live television airtime on local television shows featuring some of the bands that were going to appear at the festival. One of the prominent live television shows in the Sacramento and Stockton California area at the time was the Chet Castleman talkshow, that was broadcast from Channel 13 studio in Stockton California. Chet was a wonderful gentleman who had a very engaging personality, but he was no match for Violet when it came to turning on the charm. Chet had no idea what bluegrass music was and had never heard of it, but by the time Vern’s band got through that first number, he was absolutely hooked on it. The band at the time consisted of Vern, Delbert, Keith little, and myself. We played three numbers each time we did the show, and we had the place rocking! Almost all the staff at the station came in the studio to watch us perform and were a sizable audience behind the cameras. I will never forget how enthusiastic Chet was after we did the song”roll on buddy”. He said I really like that song “roll on baby” !Vern said later, he was so happy over our pickin’ I didn’t have the heart to correct him. Chet loved the music so much, he told Violet any time you have an event going on you’re more than welcome to come promote it on my show, and if you do the festival again next year I will expect to see you here again two weeks before the show.
One of the requirements of doing his show went like this. Be there at 9 AM for the live taping, come back at 1 PM to correct any errors made during the initial taping of the show. Like Vern said, the reason we never had to fix anything was because we were so damn good the first time around. Ha ha. Chet had to agree with him, and made the remark that you guys are real professionals.
Here is what I remember most about doing those promos on television. After we taped the show at 9 AM we would always go have breakfast/brunch at the Hoosier inn café, which at that time was the best place in Stockton to eat, be it breakfast lunch or supper. The Hoosier was an institution in itself since 1938 when it opened, and was filled with beautiful antiques and matching decor, but best of all, was the food they served which was the finest in Stockton California. Also, Violet just absolutely love the place and both times we did the show she insisted we have brunch there. Now the ambience inside the Hoosier varied from room to room of which there were about six or seven if I remember right. The room in which they seated us the last time we were there was one of those rooms that was very dimly lit, and had a lot of candles on the table. Not only was the food superb, the waitresses and waiters were the very best in Stockton and took pride in their excellent service as well. The dinnerware that the Hoosier used was very fancy as well, a mitigating factor to this whole story.
We all drank coffee with our meal, except Violet, who always had tea with her meal. Along with her tea, they always set a small silver pitcher of hot water next to her cup for any refills she desired. This one particular day one of their brunch specials was a stack of hotcakes, their home made sausage, and two eggs cooked to order. Vern and I both ordered it because we love their homemade sausage which was the very best in California at the time. When you ordered hotcakes at the Hoosier, they always set a small silver pitcher of hot syrup next to your plate. Now Vern was sitting next to Violet that morning and after buttering his hotcakes I looked up just in time to see him grab violets silver pitcher of hot water before I could say a word, he poured that hot water over his hotcakes ! Just in time for me to say Vern that’s hot water ! Vern looked me right in the eye with that deadpan look of his and said; I hate dark cafés. Our waitress was a witness to it, and told Vern, Sir I’ll have you a fresh plate in about 2 min. and whisked it off to the kitchen.
On the way home that day Vern said the next time we eat at the Hoosier they are damn sure going to turn the lights up for me. The band laughed about that incident for years to come, what I would give to do that all over again. Just a memory from the old mountain man.
