Stan Hitchcock-View From The Front Porch-May 14, 2013

Where does a music career begin? Does it begin in 1948, when you get that first guitar? Twelve years old, standing with my dad, Big Stan, at the counter of Ike Martin's Music Store in Springfield, Missouri. Behind the counter was a wall of guitars, hanging by the headstocks on hooks set in the wall. Mr. Martin took down a youth model Gretsch and handed it to me across the counter. That was one beginning. As I held the guitar against my body, it felt warm and alive, and though I had no idea where to put my fingers, yet, I felt a deep kinship. Mr. Martin said, "Son, you take good care of that guitar now, and it will last you a long time." Seems, like, to me, it was the other way around, guitars have taken good care of me, and I've lasted a long time.

Or was it later, in 1954, when I was 18, and had joined the Navy and was walking up the gangplank of the ship that would be my home, and in one hand I had my sea bag, and the other hand I had my guitar. By this time I had upgraded to the type guitar that I would used the rest of my life, a J45 Gibson. The Navy provided a moveable stage for me to learn my music craft. Not long after I had come on board ship, I met Pee Wee, a fiddle player from Georgia, and Pee Wee had some other shipmates on board that played music. We became the Bryce Canyon Troubadours and played in every port where the ship would come into, and when we were at sea, we would play every night on the Main Deck, before the movies. That was certainly another beginning.

Or was it in 1959, when I was 23, a year out of the Navy and back in Springfield, Missouri. I had met a group of cousins, the Bilyeu family, from down in Taney and Stone Counties, South of Springfield. They had put together a great gospel group called The Waymakers, and were singing at churches around the area. I first heard them at Seminole Baptist Church, where my Uncle Bob Johnson was the Pastor, and I was drawn to them like a magnet. Soon we were singing together all over that part of the Ozarks. That same year, 1959, Uncle Bob asked me to help him start up a home for homeless boys, called the Good Samaritan Boys Ranch. As part of this work, The Waymakers and I decided to cut an album of gospel songs to benefit the Boys Ranch. My first album was recorded in Radio Station KWTO, and that was the real beginning, I suppose.

Two years later, 1961, I was standing in front of the mike in Bradley's Quonset Hut Studio, recording my first Epic Records single. And that was another beginning.

My life has been a series of beginnings, endings, adventures, disasters, successes, failures, joy, heartache....just, as everyone experiences. Life is not static, it moves, it evolves. When one door closes, another opens up. A lot of times, what you considered disasters at the time, turn out to be new opportunities, that take you in a new and better direction. God's direction for your life is marvelous to behold. Denise and I have been blessed, unmeasurably, in the 27 years we have been together. Blessed, does not mean easy. We have had some really big hills to climb, many times wondering how in the world could we get over. That is where the blessings come in to play. The Lord has blessed us with just enough strength, talent, vision or whatever is needed, to make that climb.

We are facing some hills right now, just as I am sure, many of you are also. Life is not a level playing field. I suppose one of the benefits of age, is the experience factor. I have experienced so many challenges, that in my younger times might have really scared me, but now, having experienced God's blessing of just enough of whatever you need at the time, my measure of Faith has increased. I know that He is with me for the climb, and His hand is strong, for that final lift to the crest.

That first beginning, in 1954, was also the year that I accepted Jesus as my Savior. Down on my knees, by my bed, in the farm house in the Ozarks, was the Real Beginning. I had no idea what life had in store for me, but even then, I knew I did not want to face it alone. And, with Jesus, you are never alone.
Stan