Tammy, I recorded this album, "Softly And Tenderly" on Epic Records, in 1966 and it was during the time that your dad, Jimmy Capps, Lightnin Chance, Buddy Rogers, David Reece and myself were working together every morning on the Eddie Hill Country Junction Television Show. We were also working my Syndicated "Stan Hitchcock Show", which was on all across the country every Saturday afternoon. When I recorded this album your dad, Capps and David Reece were on every song. "In The Garden" was mostly just me and David on the piano, with the Jordanaires backup. But, my best friends and support crew, Hal and Jimmy Capps, were there, as always.
I loved your dad and mom and we all kinda grew up together in music and television in those years. Sure, I know, your dad was already a great man of music when I first met him in 1963, but working together, on live television and in the recording studio, every day, from 1964 to 1968, was just one adventure after another, and we all became brothers of music.
Nashville was hopping, in the 60's, with recording sessions going around the clock and your dad and Capps working more than their share. I would sit on the right of Hal, on the tv shows, on a stool with my flat top, and he taught me a lot about rhythm and chord use. With a live two hours of television to fill, and many times being after your dad and Jimmy had been up all night and in the studio recording, it sometimes got pretty crazy. Your dad was an incorrigible joke player. One time, again on live tv, I was sitting on a stool, singing a slow tearjerker, I had my eyes closed and head reared back to hit the big ending...meanwhile, your dad crawled along the concrete floor of the studio, out of sight of the camera's, got right under me, and reached up and with a pair of wire cutters, cut every string on my guitar, one at a time..."boing..boing..boing...boing...boing..and a big boing on the big E String" Uh huh, some big ending. Another time, I was singing, "In the Early Morning Rain...." and your dad threw a bucket of water in my face...again, on live television. Then there was the time, on a Monday Morning, I had just got to the station after driving all night, doing shows on the road, no sleep for three days and just wiped out. Our guests that morning were the great gospel group Sego Brothers and Naomi, I was sitting next to your dad, playing what little rhythm I could manage, that morning, and in the middle of the groups song, I fell asleep, fell off the stool, ran the guitar mike through the sound hole in my guitar, hit the concrete floor and rolled out at the feet of the Sego's, (who naturally thought I was having some kind of religious fit) and all I could hear was your dad laughing so hard he could hardly get his breath, and jumping up and with a flourish, picking me up off the floor.
We were a band of musical brothers, living a life that we were just making up as we went along, having a ball doing it, and making some dang good music in the process.
So, Tammy, that's kinda how it was with all of us, forming friendships that would never dim, no matter how long. Aside from your dad's musical genius, he was also one of the finest men I ever knew, and his grin could light up a whole room. He loved his family, and he loved his music, and he helped me get my footing in a very slippery business of professional music in the early years of my career.
Hal Rugg was simply....the best that ever was.
God bless you and your family, Tammy.
love, stan
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