It's just a beautiful sunlit morning, with the clouds, just enough to
give the rising sun some color. I love the mornings, after the storms
have moved out. The air has that special, fresh scent, a mixture
of damp grass, new leaves, Denise's flowers, and horse
manure....hmmmm...horse manure, ok, ok, other than that fresh scent. Horses and country music...I guess the fact that most of us hillbilly singers came from rural areas and grew up loving horses, has something to do with it. Hank Williams had his horse, Ernest Tubb had his, Mooney and Loretta had a whole herd of them down at their place in Hurricane Mills and many more of the boys and girls of country music had their horses. But the one that really had a serious horse operation was Carl Smith.
Carl and Goldie had a 400 acre show place farm down in Williamson County, just outside of Franklin, Tennessee. Carl was a real horseman, raising and showing cutting horses. Back in the early days, in the 1960's, I lived for awhile in Franklin and I would go over and visit some with Carl. He was a man equal to the role of Hero, which he always was to me. He had been a very early influence on me, with his stage appearance and his off stage friendliness. He was the first Star that I got to see perform, along with Little Jimmy Dickens and Stringbean, at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, MO when I was in High School.
By the early 70's, he was cutting back on his music life, had invested wisely in real estate, had put his Bus up for sale, and was living the life of a country gentleman with his beautiful wife, Goldie. They were such a perfect match couple, and very much in love.
Carl retired from music in the late 70's, and devoted his time to his horses and family. He didn't care a whole lot for the social side of the music business, and in fact, when the CMA finally inducted him into the Country Music Hall Of Fame, all they got was a brief stand up, in the audience, and a wave of thanks. That was Carl, unimpressed with the pomp and let's dress up and look like important people stuff. He would rather be with his horses.
Goldie died in 2005 and Carl followed her five years later in 2010. To me, Carl lived the life of his own choosing. Not letting others make him dance to their tune, but doing it his way, all the way. Music was what he did, but he always had a separate life, and it always included horses.
Not long ago, my friend Chuck Lowrance and I had an opportunity to buy one of Carl Smith's saddles. It is one that Carl won in a cutting horse contest, a saddle built by renowned saddle maker Billy Cook, and one he used for several years. I have it in my music/fishing room, and it means a lot to me as a remembrance of a special man of music...and horses.
The Carl Smith saddle, joins my Buck Owens guitar and Ferlin Husky Lee Jeans that they both gave me, and they all have special meaning to me because of the personal connection. Also, in the corner of my music/fishing room is my custom made Rose Guitar that guests on the Heart to Heart series would borrow to play sometimes. In my office at BlueHighways TV is my Mossman guitar that so many artists would also play on the show. Both of these guitars have fingerprints from Ferlin, Bobby Bare, Marty Stuart, Bill Anderson, Tom T Hall, Glen Campbell, Glenn Sutton, Buck Owens, Hank Thompson and so many others.
One time, several years ago, a friend of mine was dying in the Hendersonville Hospital. It just so happened that I knew he loved the music of Jerry and Tammy Sullivan. Jerry Sullivan stopped by my office one day, on his way through town. I grabbed my Mossman guitar and Jerry and we headed for the hospital. Jerry sat by the side of my friends bed and sang him song after song that he had written, as the tears flowed from my friends eyes, as he lay so sick and weak. It was a moment I shall never forget. My friend died soon after, but that personal concert was special to all of us in the room that experienced it.
And that, my friends, is what music is all about. It is not just the big concerts, the lights and fireworks going off, no, to me it is to share, to bring comfort, enjoyment, to touch a memory somewhere, to make a connection, to make you pat your foot, to smile, to brush away a tear and to want to get up and dance. There is scarce a moment of the day when I don't have a song of some kind, running through my mind. It is the sound track of my life.
Music is a gift of God, and I am thankful for it. Stan
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