GRAND OLD OPRY
At the Civic Center
watching George Jones sing
He Stopped Loving Her Today,
I thought, Hell he’s drunk
as a skunk! As drunk
as daddy in 1958
when the two of us out hunting
heard Roy Acuff sing
Great Speckled Bird
on the pickup radio – WSM.
That night I learned about
driving a 3 speed on the column,
but mostly I learned about
loving my daddy.
– Charles Brady
Confession: I never thought Minnie Pearl was very funny. In fact, I thought that most of that “aw shucks”, comedy relief stuff on The Grand Ole Opry was kind of corny. At least, I’m pretty sure I thought that back in the late 1930s when listening through the static on old AM radios.
However, (And my “howevers” almost always announce something I haven’t quite clarified in my head), in 1955, when I had a chance to sit in one of those old, back – breaking church pews of the Ryman Auditorium, I softened a bit. I saw that Minnie Pearl and the others involved in that whole comic stuff, brought forth wild applause and that she and others were dearly loved. They also provided breaks between the picking and singing stuff, and I admired how the whole “Country Music World” had been created and was living and breathing throughout the American South.
And I found that I sorta liked Minnie Pearl, while still thinking it was all a bunch of juvenile hokum. And about that time, I realized that my thoughts were irrelevant, because she was immensely popular – in fact, already a legend.
An aside:
Back in 1964, while I was attending the Army Language SchooI in Monterey, I watched the legendary Ernest Tubb arrive in Monterey in a modest old, bus. I saw him get out smiling, and though it was early in the day, he was dressed in his standard dark, cowboy outfit. That night I attended his performance in a local bar where he sang, accompanied by his band, The Texas Troubadours, until midnight when he and his men –packed up to leave at daylight for a performance with a rodeo in Salinas.
And everywhere Mr Tubb went, his audiences demanded that he sing, “Walking The Floor Over You!” I can’t remember if his, “Waltz Across Texas,” had been written by then. Ernest Tubb never fooled around with what worked for him. He had limited vocal range but that didn’t slow him down. He knew his audiences and he was loyal to their wishes.
Ernest Tubb was but one of the many Country Music Legends who found his life and what worked. and stuck it out.
However, I am not the only observer today who worries about what has happened to what we once considered “Country.” It’s not a matter of good vs bad; it is a matter of difference. I have been told many times that, “Things change and we have to live with it.” I don’t accept that.
Someone once said, “If you live long enough, things will have changed so drastically that you won’t mind going,” That may have a hint of truth.
Right now, for reasons I’ll discuss, Lee (My Wife) is right in the middle of an artistic exploration of “Country Music,” but her Country Music world is the one we know as the world of small bands with acoustic instruments, with charismatic singers, overnight bus rides to small venues, including honkytonks and regular bars.
Often, that world involves alcohol, drugs, romantic flings and breakups, marriages and divorce, re-marriage, etc.
Most small groups never made it beyond that phase, but sometimes there was the breakthrough to super stardom, big money, grand homes, larger, air-conditioned buses and searches for legendary status.
The stories, with few exceptions, became the same. A few greats survived, and many legends chased the demons associated with the long struggle to success, and they could not, ultimately, deal with it.
And yet, as we get caught up in the lives and times of artists we like, we hope for the best, and sometimes the best arrives just in time. Sometimes, it gets better, but there is NEVER a “best.”
I just saw the movie, ”Blaze” – the Blaze Foley story, which, by coincidence, opened during the week when Lee ‘s director and Musical Director are casting for her Country Western Musical, “Southern Lights.” Although her play, first performed a dozen years ago, attempts to deal with the life and times of Country Music legends –types with whom we are familiar, while telling the human story of love and loss, it never approaches the darkness of the lives depicted in “Blaze.”
“Blaze” is a movie about one of the lesser-known geniuses of the business. If you Google his name and watch him on you tube, you can sense his power as singer and song writer. In that true depiction and in the pretty good one manufactured in the film, you can sense the damaged man and sense the sorrow to come.
I recommend you see the movie, which I believe to be a great one that runs on about twenty minutes too long. We see what is going to happen and we don’t need to delay too long the inevitable. Blaze Foley had a tough early life and he never allowed himself to climb up out of the pit of his life and his demons.
I recommend “Blaze,” and I also recommend Lee Brady’s live production of “Southern Lights”, which opens in one of San Francisco’s smaller venues in December. I will post more information later.
Lee Brady has had a long career as a College Instructor of Playwriting, Drama and English. Right now, she and her producers, director, and musical director, are casting for a new production of Lee’s fabled Country Western Musical, “Southern Lights.”
“Southern Lights” was hugely successful a few years ago, winning nearly all the Bay Area awards for Musical Productions. The male and female leads won and the title song “Southern Lights,” (words and music by Julie Jackson, Lee’s Niece from Tulsa, Oklahoma) won best song.
I want to tell you little about “Southern Lights, – about the play itself but mostly about the difficulty in getting even great writing in front of a live audience!
A long list of successes in the Bay Area and a prominent reputation does not guarantee your next work will be performed anywhere. After a new screening performance by great actors and the original musical director and musicians,
Southern Lights,’ with its cast of two (performing four parts) and the requirements of but a small band, was chosen by a producer to be presented in San Francisco’s most fabled bar…and things were proceeding well, until a requirement by the union regarding the size of or number of bathrooms ruled it out.
Now, a producer loves the play and is arranging for it to be back. She has gotten the original Musical Director and the original songs, a seasoned Director and a venue.
Now the hard part: The two young stars must have great stage presence, be able to transform into their parents with simple gestures, and they must be able to SING and handle guitars.
And because they must of necessity be paid from funds available, they must be non-equity. The Bay Area is full of good actors to fit the bill, but they must be found. It seems that, as of September 24th, they may have been.
Now for a comparison:
If you saw the musical, “Bright Star”, which had pretty good music and a classic love story, you may have searched in vain for something truly “Country.” Although the music was good enough and the dancing good enough and the singing really good. the great banjo, fiddle and guitar music was not true Bluegrass and not Country….according to the authority named ME.
But I liked it well enough. To tell you the truth, what I liked about the San Francisco Production of “Bright Star” was the build-up publicity for the musical. I am a friend of the publicist for the theater group that brought the show to San Francisco, and she is a genius. She advertized “Bright Star” as what it was and featured the stars. She invited media and many others (Including me) to all the events leading up to the first performance.
What was the absolute best- a rare and true DELIGHT – was her acquisition of about a dozen small and medium sized Country Bands – from kids to established local stars. She placed them all around the three levels of the Curran Theatre, and had them performing for an hour before gathering everyone to the main area for performances by stars in the show. It was beautifully done, and I told them so!
“Southern Lights,” on the other hand Is a love story of country, of the trials and difficulties and rewards in the lives of Country Legends. It will be performed on one of the smaller stages and there will be a true country band, playing behind a beaded curtain in a neon-lighted honkytonks. Lee’s musical director was the original director and he knows every song ever recorded. He will again bring some of his original songs.
Although she often argues otherwise, Lee is an authentic Southern Writer, with ancestors from rural Arkansas and an early life in rural Oklahoma before her family
settled in Tulsa, she grew up with a head full of stories from the south and southwest.
Audiences in the Bay Area have become familiar with the characters based upon her kinfolk, and they love them. Local actors are always available when a “Lee Brady Play” is auditioning.
Julie responded with several songs, a few of which found favor with the Musical Director. Her title song, “Southern Lights” was a big hit, and was used to end the first act and the play
The production won nearly all of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (BATCC) awards that year, including best musical, best song (“Southern Lights”) and best actor and actress in a musical.
“Southern Lights” enjoyed a revival at San Francisco’s Phoenix Theatre and later was performed at “California’s First Theatre” in Monterey – the first contemporary work ever to be performed there.
I promise to keep everyone aware of dates and venues for Lee’s “Southern Lights: here in the Bay Area. Meanwhile, be sure to catch “Blaze.” and let me know what you think about the movie and especially about it’s being a few minutes too long. I meant to say earlier that Ben Dickey, who plays Blaze, is great in a demanding role – picking and singing the songs of Blaze Foley And Alia Shawkat, as his wife and great love, is fantastic.
