View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock-December 12, 2012

Country Music Memory #567-1964, The Nashville DJ Convention, held at the Hermitage Hotel and across the street at the Andrew Jackson Hotel. There has never been a wilder bunch in history than a gathering of good ole boy country music dj's, mixed with good ole boy country music artists, songwriters, musicians, booking agents, managers, mismanagers, con men, con women, hookers, shuckers, jivers, slickers, slackers, drinkers, druggers and one young country singer named Stan who was as innocent as the driven snow, gazing with wonder at the wild goings on, hardly believing that folks could really act like that....., ok, maybe not that innocent, I may have slipped a time or two...ok, maybe more than that...but, that's then and this is now and it's my memory and I'll tell it the way I want to.

There was more non stop music, going on in the rooms and suites of both hotels, fueled by, in those years, alcohol and speed. Yep, that was the fuel all right...night after night, musicians playing impossible licks, jamming all night and all day, singers singing until their voices gave out, songwriters swapping song ideas and melodies that they probably forgot when they sobered up. Business managers, booking agents and record execs were the ones that stayed pretty straight, playing to the dj's who were like kids in a candy store, away from home, surrounded by country legends, women smiling at them at every turn, Agents pushing their artists on everyone who would take the time to listen....well, friends, yeah, it was pretty great stuff for a hillbilly come to town. I dove right in the middle of it and hardly came up for air, I felt like a boy who has run off and joined the carnival and ended up working in the girlie show helping bring the yokels in to see the belly dancers, the hootchy kootchy girls and strippers...and I got to play the snare drum to provide the rhythm....ok, I don't know where that little fantasy came from, but on with the show.
One of the most vivid memories of those days is going up to the SHOBUD Steel Guitar Suite on the 6th floor of the Andrew Jackson Hotel, pushing my way through the crowd to get right up next to the performers and just letting the music wash over me like a Tidal Wave. In the room, hosted by Shot Jackson, was Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Buddy Charlton and Big Jim Webb. They had been jamming, wide open, no holds barred, volume deafening for several days, only changing out players to pass out, or go to the bathroom. Of course, in those days, everyone smoked (except me, and I hated it and still do) so the room was so full of smoke you could hardly see, the windos open about 6 inches, which is all the way they would go. Booze was being dispensed by Shot to those he felt worthy (steel players are a clannish bunch) and I don't know what kind of rainbow mixture of pills, but it must have been strong to keep them going as long as it did. There has never been better steel guitar sounds on this universe than those legendary steel men were putting out.....no way you can describe it, Buddy Emmons was in his prime, Jimmy Day was right there with him in licks, Buddy Charlton could fill as good as anyone to ever hit Nashville, and Big Jim Webb just filling any spots that were left, which weren't many. Then, as if that wasn't good enough for the record books, Leon Rhodes walked in with his guitar and amp, and the music moved up to unbelievable heights. The steel boys would take rides where no one had ever gone before, then Leon would match it with his Gibson. The dj's were jammed in the suite so tight no one could move, just watching in amazement, while the musicians totlly ignored their rapt audience, so lost in the music that only they and their instruments existed. It was a surreal moment in time, hearing licks that had never been played before, and maybe never played again, because it was completely free style genius....and a time I will never forget. Different players would come and take the place of the burned out ones, but the music never stopped. Those few years that it lasted, until the CMA legitimized it with Fan Fair in the 70's, and Nashville had to grow up and be somebody...they tore down the Andrew Jackson...the pickers got off the pills and booze, most of them anyway....the girls moved to NASCAR, Shriners Conventions, and Printers Alley, the Opry moved to a theme park on Briley Parkway, leaving the Ryman Auditorium behind like a discarded Kleenex, Country Radio became a service programmed by some young kid in Cleveland or New York who had never even heard of the DJ Convention in Nashville, didn't know who Emmons, Day and Charlton or Leon Rhodes were and didn't care to learn, Tootsie Bess died, along with Mom Upchurch and the good old days of real incredible musical experiences came to a close. The 50's and 60's music happenings were just different...and what came next was just a pale imitation. Country came to town, Incorporated, sold out to Gaylord and that was that.
They say that in the late 50's, after he had left Sun Records and signed with RCA, that Elvis came to the DJ Convention one year, he ran into Lefty Frizzell in the lobby of the Andrew jackson Hotel, Elvis said, "Lefty, how you supposed to act at this dj thing?" Lefty, who was leaning to starboard like he was straining against a strong wind, trying to keep his whiskey balance, said, "Elvis, just act like yore havin'; a real good time, then leave as soon as possible". It's doubtful if many of the country dj's even paid him any attention, at that time, but Lefty had the right idea. And that's kinda what Country Music has done, came, had a real good time, and left as soon as possible.   -Stan