Every West Virginia musician has one thing on his kick-the-bucket list, playing the Wheeling Jamboree. It's a badge of honor one step below the Grand Ol' Opry, at least for us. It's the second oldest radio show in the world, it's been around since 1926 on WWVA AM 1170. Imagine my surprise when I got the call tonight!!!! I'm gonna be playing THE Jamboree Saturday!!!
I'm going to be playing on the same radio show that Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, etc. played on! I'm humbled, nervous, a million emotions rolled into one. Here's the show schedule. We are the Lonesome Midnight Cowboys. We are a trio, bass mandolin and guitar. I play the guitar and I'll be singing a few and blowing harp on a few. I'll be playing an A B-radical on "I'm So Lonesome I can Cry," a circa 1915 prewar Seydel Bandmaster G Paddy tuned on "Bluestone Mountain" and an Elk River Special C on "Amazing Grace." I'll be singing an old W.Va. blues song Frank Hutchison recorded in 1928, "Miner's Blues" and a 1944 Ernest Tubb tune "Driving Nails in my Coffin."
Here's the schedule: www.wheelingjamboree.org/shows.php
Here is a video I took at practice tonight of "Miner's Blues"
It was some experience. The old Capitol Music Hall got condemned, so it's roving now until they can build a new one and it was at the methodist church downtown. That church - not the building - has been around since 1785. The aura of that whole event is amazing, you walk in and they are showing all these old pics from the Jamboree on the screen and people who played there, Brad Paisely and Grandpa Jones pretty much launched their careers there. Johnny Cash even played it. All that stuff really gets to you and makes you nervous as hell, but proud to be a part of it. We only had two days to get ready for it. It was actually our first show as a band. There's all kinds of cool traditions there, like the cow bells. Back in the day, the Jamboree was for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast what the Grand Ol' Opry was in the South. Farmers rode in and brought their cowbells, which all sound different. Folks back home could hear the familiar bell on the radio and know their loved one made it to the jamboree. In the preshow David got interviewed on the Wheeling Jamboree preshow on WWVA. He said "my dads band is playing." interviewer asks which band? He says "I don't know." it had never occurred to little David that it had a name, it was just dad's band. My wife had to remind him, lol. I'm uploading videos now. Here's I'm So Lonesome I could Cry on an A B-radical:
