Sun just peekin' through Denise's wind chimes this morning as Old Buck The Collie and I sit and enjoy coffee and dog biscuits...uh, me the coffee, Buck the dog biscuits. Woke up very early for a Saturday morning, old habits are hard to break. In the 60's I did an early morning tv show, from 6AM til 8, five days a week, here in Nashville. It was called "Country Junction" and hosted by the great Eddie Hill. I was the vocalist and rhythm guitar player, while Jimmy Capps or Pete Wade was on lead, Hal Rugg on steel, Lightnin' Chance on stand up bass, David Reese on piano and gospel vocals and Willie Ackerman or Buddy Rogers on drums. I fumbled along on rhythm and just listened in amazement at the great music these musicians would play every morning. This group worked the show, every morning, getting up at three AM and at the station by 5. This was the glory years in the studios of Nashville and these great players would, many times, come directly from an all night recording session, just in time to go on the air live. Our guests sound like a who's who of country music now, but they were just getting started then, Tammy Wynette, Dolly, Roger Miller, Bobby Goldsboro, Tom T Hall, Cal Smith, Sammi Smith....along with legends like Merle Travis, who would sit and play for me on his custom made Bixby guitar as long as I would listen and tell me stories of the "old" days before and after the show. Looking back on those days of my education into the world of Television, when it was all new and ready to pick like a ripe peach, I realize now that I was living in history moments...that now are so precious to me. Being mentored by Eddie Hill, who started out in Knoxville in the 40's with Johnny and Kitty, then moved to Memphis and worked on radio and with the Louvin Brothers, then came to Nashville and became the old master broadcaster who pioneered the all night radio disc jockey spot on WSM in the 50's, and then moved to television soon after when the medium was just a baby, was one of the defining times of my life. He was a wonderful man, a master arch top rhythm player who was on many of the early Hank Williams records in the years before they used drums, a master songwriter ("Someday You'll Call My Name"), and just simply the best "communicator" I have ever met. He freely gave me knowledge of how to work a camera as if it were not even there and thinking of the audience on the other end of that camera instead. Capps and Pete Wade and I are about the only ones left of the band of brothers that made early morning music, but the friendship, the joy of music and the love of the music makers has stuck with me now all these years . Working, and learning together, how to express ourselves in music and entertainment in the company of these legendary and wonderful friends was God's gift to me, I am sure of it. We did this from 1964 til 1967 when Eddie Hill had a massive stroke. By this time I had started my own syndicated tv show, "The Stan Hitchcock Show", with the same band of musicial brothers. My life was set and I would never be far from a television camera, my J45 Gibson or a good fishing rod from then on til now....sitting on the Front Porch with Old Buck The Collie, a good cup of coffee....and memories of where it all started. God bless us all this weekend, let us rejuvenate, rest from our labors on Sunday, worship our Lord, enjoy our family and be thankful for all the blessings of life. Happy Father's Day my friends.
-Stan
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