View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock-February 18, 2013

My start in television came about when I was chosen as the featured vocalist on the Eddie Hill "Country Junction" TV Show, which came on at 6AM, Monday through Friday, on Channel 5, Nashville, Tennessee. It was the greatest learning experience anyone ever had, because it put me with the best players, and the very best tv host I have ever known. When we started out, in 1964, the players were: Lightning Chance, Leader and bass, Willie Ackerman, drums, David Reese, piano, comedy and vocals, Hal Rugg, Steel guitar, Pete Wade, Lead Guitar and Stan Hitchcock, featured vocalist and Rhythm Guitar. As fine a band as you will ever find, and all of us best friends. Eddie Hill was a legend in Radio and TV, having pioneered the all night dj show on WSM for years, and before that working with the Louvin Brothers and Hank, Sr. on recording sessions and some managing. Eddie was my tv mentor, having to teach me the basics, because just ten years prior to this I had never seen a tv except in a department store window of my home town in the Ozarks.  Seems funny to me now, I was a kid that did not grow up on watching tv, yet spends the next 50 or so years working in it like I was born to it.


Working every morning with this group of musicians was just a crash course in music making. Lightning Chance had played with everyone in country music, knew the inside story on all of the players, and was a walking data base of the history of the art. Willie Ackerman put down a beat as solid as a rock and was a joy to just be around. David Reese was a legend in Gospel Music, sang baritone harmony better than anyone I have ever heard and I loved him as a brother. Hal Rugg had just come off the road from working with George Jones and was the most tasteful steel man I believe I ever heard, and an absolute hoot to be with. Pete Wade was and is one of the finest and just plays the right stuff every time. Pete worked with us for the first year and then gave up his position to Jimmy Capps who was wanting to come in off the road where he had been working with The Louvins and Ferlin Husky. Just imagine what it was like for me, a new kid in town, having moved to Nashville just two years before we started the tv show. I had come with a recording contract with Columbia's, Epic Records, and still just hanging on by my fingernails, trying to get a leg up on this thing called country music. I was having some chart records and starting to work the road some, but this regular tv spot gave me a good foundation to work and learn from. It was also a wonderful place to meet all the new kids coming to town and the older, established artists because they all came to work the show.

The "Country Junction Show" lasted from '64 until 67 when Eddie had a massive stroke while we were all having breakfast after the show. We kept the show going for awhile, but it finally stopped.

Before Eddie had his stroke, he did manage to get me my own syndicated tv show, from 1966 to 1970, which was a regular feature all across the country on broadcast stations.

I was just going through my scrapbook of pictures and saw this pic and it brought back so many good memories. All the ones in the picture are gone now except Pete Wade and myself. We had us some times, and I miss them all.

Stan