Honky Tonk Times | Issue 12 | March 2022

VOL. I | ISSUE XII | MARCH 2022

$6.00

IRST F L A I C E SP SARY R E V I N N A ISSUE

DAVID QUINN

ARTICLES FROM YOUR FAVORITE DISC JOCKEYS, INTERVIEWS WITH JENNY DON’T AND THE SPURS, JOHN HOWIE JR., PATRICK HAGGERTY, AND WAYNE WILLIS, FINEST FASHIONS, A SPECIAL LOOK AT COUNTRY MUSIC PUBLICATIONS THROUGH THE YEARS, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

JEREMY PINNELL Howdy, folks It's your ole buddy Jack from across the pond. You've caught me listening to the third release from a bonafide, seasoned master of his craft, Jeremy Pinnell.

Pinnell is a curious amalgamation of "southern hospitality, midwestern charm and a northern attitude," hailing from Elsmere, Kentucky, just south of the mighty Ohio River.

He found his voice singing in his parents' church and learning the ways of the six-string from his old man, himself a competent muso.

Like so many others covered in this little corner of the magazine, Pinnell left home at 18 with just his guitar for company. It wasn't long before, in a cruel twist of fate, Pinnell himself was beset by the very demons he was singing about in his songs at the time.

The following two decades of his life, in all their turbulent, ambiguous detail, were captured in the playlist of his first full record, released to astounding acclaim in 2015. The album was a deep retrospective, with all the heartache and candidness of a man pulled from the brink. It's a sure-fire thing that Pinnell would find it difficult to talk about his ordeal, but he sure as hell pulls no punches in singing about it to you.

"OH/KY" preceded a year of touring your fine country and over here in Europe before 2017's release "Ties of Blood and Affection" knocked a home run in the honky tonk world. 2021's "Goodbye LA" is the perfect culmination of a mighty triumvirate, with the perfect combination of a shuffling rhythm section, weeping pedal steel, and Pinnell's own formidable voice.

It's a good one, friends. Happy listening…

What’s inside?

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David Quinn to release ‘Country Fresh’ 4 | Letter From the Publisher 6 and 15 | Artwork by Glenn Hughes 7 | April Calendar 10 | DIY Western Spirit: Jenny Don’t and the Spurs

12 | Finest Fashions: Mark Montgomery

8 | The Northern Report with Sean Burns 23 | The Chicago Hustle with Lawrence Peters 23 | A trip through the country music pages of time

20 | 3 chords and your truth: LGBTQ+ honky tonk

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24 | Wayne Willis: Hairstylist to the stars

30 and 31 | Artwork by Darren Hoff 3

HOWDY Y’ALL

Honky Tonk Times Publisher Taylor Austin around the time of his own first anniversary.

One year, four quarters, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days!

When I first started Honky Tonk Times, I had no idea if we would get the first issue to take off or if we would make it a full year around the sun. Well, here it is. Our first anniversary. I have learned a lot in my journey, not just about the magazine and music industries but also about myself.

The biggest thing I learned is not to doubt yourself. Plenty of folks will do that for you. Don’t waste your energy fighting them; just prove ‘em wrong. The second thing: a little bit of confidence goes a long way. Hold your head up, look people in the eye and tell ‘em who you are. If they don’t know you, they ought to. Thirdly, don’t be too humble. Being humble isn’t bad, but being too humble can sound like you aren’t proud of what you’re doing. I often find myself guilty of this. As the old saying goes, “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true!”

Some of my favorite moments

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of the last year are meeting the music makers. “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy starts off like this: “We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; — World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems.”

If you don’t know it, look it up.

It’s a beautiful poem that captures how I feel about those who make the music I love. Meeting the singers, songwriters and musicians left me in awe so many times. We have some of the most wonderful, thoughtful folks around in country music. What magic it is to take an idea or feeling and put it into words and music to make others feel what they are conveying. It’s a powerful thing.

At the end of “Shawshank Redemption,” Red says, “Get

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busy livin’ or get busy dyin’, that’s goddamn right.” I really feel those words. Especially in the weird COVID-19 climate we’ve been living in. I chose to get busy livin’. From June 6 to Dec. 31, 2021, I went to 68 live music shows. Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Nashville. I can’t wait to see where the music takes me next.

We are up to 12 writers and six artists in pretty regular rotation at this point. I remember going into this and how excited I was to have four or five writers, plus myself. We had only one artist and no editor.

As our readership grew, so did our honky tonk family. I’ve had some sleepless nights, some very early mornings, and have spent more

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than a few lunch breaks speeding across town to look at a proof of the print version to make sure it looks just right for you folks.

The most challenging thing has been the issues we have had with the post office. Our local post office has been dealing with staffing issues.

Each month, it takes me about 90 minutes at the post office to send out the first bulk amount. I can only go on my days off — I do work full time — and lately, the post office has even been closed due to a lack of staff. Please know we are constantly working to find ways to make things bigger and better for you, the readers.

In celebration of our first anniversary, I ask that you post a photo of you reading Honky Tonk

Times, tag us, and tell us why you love Honky Tonk Times. I think it would be an excellent way to celebrate our first anniversary!

I’ll leave you with the last stanza of “El Dorado” by Edgar Allan Poe. You may recognize it as the poem “Mississippi” ( James Caan) recites in the John Wayne picture, “El Dorado.”

“Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride,’ The shade replied,— ‘If you seek for Eldorado!”

Thanks for reading,

Taylor Austin

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BY GLENN HUGHES | glennhughesart.com

April 2022 SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

# BIRTHDAY *ANNIVERSARY OF PASSING

WEDNESDAY

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

SATURDAY

#Arthur Smith, 1921 #Jim Ed Brown, 1934

#Warner Mack, 1938 #Leon Russell, 1942 #Emmylou Harris, 1947

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#Don Gibson, 1928 #Billy Joe Royal, 1942

#Norro Wilson, 1938 #Bob McDill, 1944

#Cowboy Jack Clement, 1931 #Tommy Cash, 1940

#*Merle Haggard, 1937/2016 *Tammy Wynette, 1998 *Jim Glaser, 2019

#Cal Smith, 1932 #Bobby Bare, 1935 *John Prine, 2020

Al Dexter and His Troopers take the No. 1 spot on the U.S. Country Singles chart with “Guitar Polka,” 1946

#Carl Perkins, 1932 #Kay Adams, 1941 *Mae Boren Axton, 1997

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3 #Sheb Wooley, 1921 *Earl Thomas Conley, 2019

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4 #Jim Lauderdale, 1957 *Jesse Winchester, 2014

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*Randy Scruggs, 2018

#Bill Rice, 1939

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#Harold Reid, 2020

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5 #Ned Miller, 1925 #Vince Gill, 1957

12 #Bobby Russell, 1940

19 Willie Nelson is inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, 2014

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6 #Bob Nolan, 1908 #Sam Bush, 1952

13 Johnny Tilloston, 1939

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7 #Loretta Lynn, 1932 #D.L. Menard, 1932

14 #Ira Louvin, 1924 #Carl Belew, 1931

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#Maxine Brown, 1931

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#Roy Clark, 1933 #Chris Stapleton, 1978

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#W.S. “Fluke” Holland, 1935 #Glen Campbell, 1936 #Ray Griff, 1940

#Roy Orbison, 1936

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#Willie Nelson, 1933 #Duanne Allen, 1943

#Johnny Horton, 1925

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The Northern Report volume 12 was brief, their impact and influence remain. Interestingly enough, the bulk of these artists were based in or around Toronto, our nation’s largest city. But over the years, scenes and tastes change, and “The Big Smoke”

BY SEAN BURNS is often the butt of the joke from HTT Contributor my peers in Western Canada when Well, good morning, good discussing matters involving beautiful afternoon and good evening, friends. country music. And not to discredit As I sit down to craft this month’s the elite country pickers and singers Northern Report, I’d like to express that still exist there, but it’s the my gratitude to our HTT readers and attention to traditional detail that supporters and congratulate my fellow has itself become lost in recent years, columnists and everyone involved with it would seem. Maybe that’s part the magazine on our first anniversary. of what’s drawing me to continue I mean it when I say it’s a pleasure to researching the once burgeoning be part of the team. As I reflect on a honky tonk, country music community year of HTT, I have found that lately, that existed in Toronto in the 1950s more than in recent memory, my eyes and stretching on into the ‘80s. and ears are pointed in the rearview.

The demand and the infrastructure Of course, it’s exciting when new existed, and with labels like Arc releases find their way into the Boots Records and Paragon/Marathon & Saddle inbox, and this year we’re leading the charge, there is an off to a good start with solid efforts impressive amount of lost Canadian from some of our neighbours in the country to be unearthed. The bulk United States. Pickings are a bit slim of these releases were comprised up here so far, save the Lester Slade of cover songs that were hits of the and Lawrence Maxwell albums I day. The cream of the crop on the noted in last months column, and local scene would be brought into “Living Free,” the lead-off single the studio to cut popular songs, from Carter Felker’s upcoming album and the records would be for sale that was released March 4. Surely at department stores or drug stores there’s more to expect from some of and not often from the bandstand.

Canada’s country music enthusiasts I spoke to Jack Boswell last year later this year, but if I’m being honest, in an unusable interview where the I’m fixated on the “lost” Canadian bossman at the former Paragon/ Country music more than the rest.

Marathon told me that he was I subtly introduced a new segment paying 12 cents per unit having vinyl in Boots & Saddle this year that manufactured in those days. Typically, typically closes the first hour of my the records would be on the shelf weekly broadcast. A set of “lost” tunes. for $1.99. He’d scout out local acts during the week and run the recording Hidden gems, local legends, regional sessions on a Sunday afternoon, stars, and for many of them though tracking entire records in about four to their time in the national spotlight

‘She Made A Big Town Daddy and I’m Out Makin’ History,’ Part I

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six hours. There are some magnificent moments in these records, and some of the uncertainty heard in the playing often yields exciting sounds.

Jack was no different than most record businessmen; in it for the money and couldn’t have cared less about country music. I’ve since set my focus predominantly on the Arc Records releases after spending a lot of time last year digging into many Paragon/Marathon releases that are highlighted by 1970s “Roy Payne No. 2.”

Roy, a celebrated songwriter originally from Newfoundland, made his bones as a honky-tonker in Toronto in the ‘60s and had a solid fanbase in the area. Mickey McGivern was featured on guitar for that album, a Tele-wielding madman who commanded respect and sometimes even fear from fellow pickers, singers, and audience members. His guitar playing was wildly exciting, and it’s no surprise to learn he was a significant influence on the generation that followed him.

Mickey and his band The Mustangs held court, for the most part, at The Edison Hotel. The Edison was recognized as “Canada’s Home of Country Music” in the middle of Toronto at 335 Yonge Street. A pinnacle of the once vibrant Yonge Street strip that held host to no fewer than 10 joints over a five-block stretch where you’d find live music six nights a week. Just let that sink into your dome for a moment. A good chunk of these rooms would feature country bands, and what a glorious way to live that must’ve been. If you or the band you were in were serviceable enough, you could play six nights

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a week, 50 weeks a year, and earn a middle-class living. Growing up, I was lucky to be surrounded by folks who kept up this pace even into the 1990s.

Some of these clubs would rotate acts every week, but from what I’ve learned of late, it seems the higher-end rooms would have a house band that would be there sometimes for a month, three months, or even for years at a time.

Mickey, a demanding bandleader by all accounts, always had hot players and singers in the group, and I recently read that Mick played guitar on upwards of 350 sessions, mainly for Arc Records, but also on the aforementioned Paragon/Marathon label.

A passionate fan of pedal steel, in the mid-’60s, Mickey had young guns on steel like Buddy Cage (before his time with Ian & Sylvia and to his departure south where he found work with hippiecountry legends like New Riders of the Purple Sage and on the legendary Bob Dylan album, “Blood On The Tracks”) and another young stud from near Chatham, Ontario, Bob Lucier. Lucier had a fabulous career staying local and eventually playing prominent roles live and in the studio with supergroup Eastwind and 17 years in the house band on the Tommy Hunter Show.

I recently chatted with Bob Lucier for The Northern Report Podcast, and there’s a strong chance by the time you’re reading this, the interview will have already been released.

Mickey and The Mustangs would have the good citizens of country music

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at The Edison on the dance floor and on the edge of their seats. When the big Nashville acts would come to town without their own band if they weren’t singing at the Horseshoe Tavern, they’d be at The Edison where they were treated to the world-class stylings of Mickey and his band backing them up. It was right there at The Edison where Mickey and Johnny Paycheck struck up a strong friendship that would eventually see them co-write the Paycheck tune, “Down At the Corner At A Bar Called Kelly’s.”

With Mickey’s brother Mark often holding it down on the Fender bass, The Mustangs had a revolving cast of young, aspiring country music singers who would be tasked with covering all the lead vocals for the group.

One that stands out for me is Billy Adams. At first listen, it’s evident that young Billy was greatly influenced

by Paycheck, who for me is no doubt one of the most beautiful country music singers we’ve ever heard. He’s got his own thing going on, but the Paycheck influence stands out, and it’s something I’m sure Mickey would have appreciated and even encouraged.

From what I’ve uncovered and after leaning on some old-timers for their opinions, the standout studio album from Mickey McGivern & The Mustangs is a 1967 release, “Hard Times.” Featuring Billy Adams on vocals, Mickey weaves between hot licks on par with and reminiscent of Don Rich or Buck Trent while a young

Buddy Cage is impressively playing steel miles ahead of his 21 years. Part of what makes “Hard Times” special to me is that although this one features some hits of the day (“This Must Be The Bottom,” “Sing Me Back Home,” and “King of the Road”) it also has cuts written by Mickey and Billy. Standouts include “I Don’t Want to Be Me,” and the title track “Hard Times.” Since I procured my scratchy copy of “Hard Times,” I’ve spun half of the songs from it on Boots & Saddle. What a beautiful piece of lost Canadian country music it is.

I was convinced I’d reached the top of the mountain as a listener and researcher in this fringe field with the “Hard Times” album until I found out that I’d missed an essential piece of lost Canadian country.

Something that’s touched my senses and honky tonk desires so strongly that each listen to it is an exciting and emotional journey. Next month, check back with TNR when I’ll take you, “On Stage at the Edison.” w

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DIY Western spirit: the creative wheels keep turning for Jenny Don’t and the Spurs

BY HEATHER TAYLOR HTT Contributor Wherever fans catch a live show from Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, they will leave with a little taste of the desert.

The Portland-based band plays an old-fashioned, fast and loud version of traditional country and western, heavy on the western.

Coming from varied individual backgrounds in punk and garage rock, Jenny and the Spurs synthesize their experiences with a wide range of influences from trucker country to surf-rock and more obscure acts sourced from band members’ record collections.

This sound, echoing of the high and lonesome desert, will ring in fans’ ears as they leave a show, accompanied by visions of saguaros and other cacti, like those frontwoman Jenny chain stitches onto her stagewear and buys at roadside plant nurseries while on tour.

Between being born in New Mexico and growing up there part-time, Jenny romanticized the desert and the accompanying imagery. This romantic view influences her writing as well.

“For me, writing in this style is a lot easier than writing a punk song,” she said. “I just like envisioning desert-scapes, and I feel it’s a wider well to draw from.”

She has plenty of previous experience to compare to. In the years prior to playing country music with the Spurs, Jenny was in a synth dance-rock band and a punk band. The Spurs came about by building upon a foundation of country songs Jenny was writing and performing at small venues around the Portland area. With the addition of bass player Kelly Halliburton, the band

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Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, from left to right: Jenny Don’t, the late Sam Henry, Christopher March, and Kelly Halliburton. — Photo by Shawna Schiro took on a form closer to what it is now.

Though he grew up in rural Oregon surrounded by country music, Halliburton’s musical experience was based in Portland’s punk and garage rock scene, where he played drums for about 10 years in the band Pierced Arrows.

Due to intensive touring schedules, Jenny and Halliburton were often apart, and the Spurs provided an opportunity for the couple to play in a band together when both were in town. Today, about 10 years since its formation, the band is the primary project for the pair and expanded to include drummer Sam Henry and guitar player Christopher March.

Despite not playing country music before, Halliburton said it was an interesting challenge to immerse himself in the style with different approaches and techniques than he was familiar with.

The country style that most attracted the couple was twangy and old-fashioned. It was a sound they intentionally pursued, as Halliburton said, “We have almost zero interest in contemporary country.

Contemporary meaning post-1970.”

“For me, it’s almost post1950,” Jenny added.

The result of this non-contemporary interest was a high-energy, early 1960s country and rockabilly sound

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that brings to mind the artists influential to their sound. Jenny and Halliburton list many, including Marty Robbins, Wanda Jackson, Slim Whitman, Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, and slightly more current artists like Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club.

Fred and Toody Cole, mainstays of the Portland music scene over the decades with bands including The Range Rats, Dead Moon, and Pierced Arrows, were an integral part of the Spurs’ background. The Coles offered them some of their first opportunities for shows in front of a larger audience.

“They have been very inspirational to me, not even just in musical influence, but lifestyle influence,” Jenny said of the pair.

As was the case for the Coles, the music the Spurs create is their life.

“It’s not like we’re going to go back to our office jobs and put away the costumes,” Halliburton said. “We play music, and we do everything ourselves: we drive, we put out our own records, we’re directly involved in the booking, we make our own outfits, we silkscreen our own stuff. We try and do as much as we physically can. Our values and what we want to express in our lives, we also want to do that in the band. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the DIY spirit.”

For Jenny, this spirit takes the form of not only making her own music, but also making clothes for tour. She sews retro dresses and, starting in 2022, also chain stitches the decorative designs that adorn them.

The creative process has similarities to her songwriting process, but it incorporates more rhinestones.

“I’ll get an idea, and I can’t stop,” Jenny said of both endeavors.

Further influence for the Spurs is sourced from the members’ record collections. Both Halliburton and guitar player March collect vinyl records, and the band’s most creative covers come from obscure cuts from these records. “We like to dig pretty deep with some

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weird stuff,” Halliburton said.

Sometimes the songs are rare or weird enough that fans don’t even realize they are covers. One example is the Spurs’ October 2021 single, “Three or Four Nights,” a Johnny Bond cover, blending rockabilly and country styles. Currently, the band has plans to record a song from Romeo Sullivan, a more obscure Louisiana artist that Halliburton described as “primordial rockabilly.”

Jenny has found it important to continue playing and recording wherever and whenever the chance arises, especially after seeing fellow bands struggle during the pandemic.

“One of the reasons we really wanted to keep playing, even just any pockets we could, is because if you lose momentum, it’s really hard to get it back,” she said. “You’re just like, ‘Well, we’ve been off for two years.’ Everybody starts finding other things to do, and then you get complacent in something else.”

Currently, the Spurs are adjusting

to the loss of their drummer, Sam Henry, who passed away after a short battle with cancer in February.

A legend in the Pacific Northwest music scene, Henry played drums for the early punk band The Wipers, based out of Portland starting in the late 1970’s, and in recent years enjoyed playing the western music of Jenny Don’t and the Spurs.

Of Henry and his lasting legacy, Halliburton said, “Sam was nowhere near being ready to retire, and, at the age of 65, he didn’t seem to be slowing down. On recent tours, he’d been convinced to leave most of the heavy lifting to his younger bandmates, but he could still play night after night and barely break a sweat. He was a one-of-a-kind, larger-thanlife character, a true creative spirit, and a caring friend. His lifelong dedication to his craft marks him as a vanishing breed of musician. He was an inspiration to many aspiring young players, and the music he created will last for generations to come.” w

Jenny Don’t and the Spurs drummer Sam Henry recently lost his short battle with cancer. A legend in the Pacific Northwest music scene, Henry played drums for the early punk band The Wipers, based out of Portland starting in the late 1970’s, and in recent years enjoyed playing the western music of Jenny Don’t and the Spurs. — Photo by Shawna Schiro

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Missouri-based artist Mark Montgomery

FINEST FASHIONS LISA SORRELL CHATS WITH MARK MONTGOMERY LS: I found you through the Facebook group 20th Century Country Music when you shared some of your art — very strong and colorful caricatures of vintage bluegrass and country artists. Before we get into those, tell us about your career as an artist.

MM: I have been a graphic designer for the City of Springfield, Missouri, since 2003. In that time, I have had opportunities to push my illustration skills in the forms of jazz festival posters, newsletter caricatures of city officials, a baseball mural, various cartoon mascots for kids programs, African-American Heritage Trail logo and monuments, and all the branding for the annual Birthplace of Route 66 Festival. This

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includes T-shirt designs and other merch for sale along with event and concert posters, logo, street banners and parade floats. I never thought a government job would have so many outlets for creativity!

LS: I love your style and use of color.

Who/what are your influences?

MM: I grew up in Belton, Missouri, a suburb just south of Kansas City. The influence of Thomas Hart Benton has been huge on my artistic development my whole life since he lived and worked in Kansas City for the last half of his life. I came to enjoy the caricature, movement, deformation, humor, playful composition, color, and old-time subject matter that Benton employed in making storytelling paintings. It

never occurred to me until recently that Benton was hated by the elite for telling the truth and breaking the rules of traditional art. To me, he was the rule.

Since college, I have also studied the caricatures of Al Hirschfeld, Cubism of Picasso, and color and composition of Futurism and Syncromism’s champion Stanton MacDonald-Wright.

It’s funny to think that my goofy portraits come out of an appreciation of 20th-century fine art and good ol’ Midwest storytelling, but it’s true.

LS: Tell me about your process.

MM: I’m a bit like a method actor. If I have time, I like to get into the world of my subject. I’ll watch documentaries, movies, music videos, listen to everything

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they’ve recorded before I feel I have a handle on who the person is/was. I have a hard time doing a second version of an image because I poured everything I know into the first version already. My happy places are movie theaters and spending time in museums and antique stores (which are like museums to me).

I enjoy connecting with the past and imagining how life was really lived in the ‘20s or the Great Depression specifically.

LS: What compelled you to become an artist?

MM: I’ve been around art my whole life. My grandparents’ house had my grandma’s paintings hanging all over the walls. She was a published writer for magazines, schoolteacher, and farmer’s wife. My dad’s brother and sister are artists too, and they are both recentlyretired art teachers. At family gatherings, they always wanted to see what I had been working on. My mom’s youngest brother is in advertising and introduced me to graphic design and illustration in my junior year of high school. I took art lessons from Mr. John MacDonald in third grade, and then he was my instructor my sophomore year. Design and illustration is a practical way to make a living from art, and I enjoy the challenge to make the message clear and immediate for a specific audience.

LS: What do you love most about creating a painting?

MM: Trying to make something recognizable yet interesting, and putting my name on something that people connect with. There is always more to learn, study and practice, so it is new every time. I’m constantly figuring out my own way of translating the world and filtering out what others have done already. There is always a new problem to solve and a moment of panic where I want to abandon the project, but there is joy in making it right.

LS: Why bluegrass and country artists? Did the music lead you to a desire to draw the artists, or did a commission lead you to the music?

MM: I had been focusing on finding

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Montgomery’s artwork depicting Charlie and Ira Louvin, The Louvin Brothers. a portrait style for a few years when the opportunity came up at work to make a concert poster for the 2014 Birthplace of Route 66 Festival. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils were headlining, so I drew a group portrait of the three original members as they looked in the ‘70s with wavy lines and psychedelic colors. They loved it and blew it up huge to be the stage backdrop of the concert. The sound tech I talked to said he thought it was original art from the ‘70s. I love fooling people!

I also had drawn the opening acts, including Mark and Cindy from the Creek Rocks, who happened to include

mandolinist Jeremy Chapman in their live band that night. I had taken mandolin lessons from Jeremy 10 years earlier, and we reconnected over the poster. He hung up a signed copy in the Acoustic Shoppe music store he owns with his brothers in Springfield. The Chapmans are a bluegrass family band, so they focus on bluegrass instruments and lessons. The Chapmans and I agreed that having limited edition prints on display might help inspire future musicians to take lessons from the shop to connect fans to the acoustic trailblazers.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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Montgomery’s depiction of Johnny Cash.

I try to add some clues to the songs or life stories of the musician that made them famous. This seems to make the prints pretty collectible, and I have heard from a few fans who have the complete set so far. At the moment, I have Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, The Louvin Brothers, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Marty Stuart, and the Chapmans. I have a couple of ladies in the works, but I’ll consider suggestions.

Prints can be purchased online at www. theacousticshoppe.com, and search “Montgomery” to find them easier.

LS: Tell me about a favorite piece or series.

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MM: In 2018, I was at an event for Springfield Creatives, which is a networking group for designers, artists, writers, programmers, and advertising professionals. Mark Bilyeu of the aforementioned Creek Rocks asked me if I had ever heard of the Louvin Brothers. He and Cindy had been learning several of their songs and were playing them in the hotel where our meeting was held that night. He piqued my curiosity, and I really started digging into the Louvins’ music and story. I bought an LP record of “Satan is Real” and a couple of radio broadcast albums.

I did an 11x14 watercolor painting/

drawing of the Louvins and posted it on social media to pass along the education I had received in studying them, and Mark responded that he wanted to buy it! I was thrilled to meet up and hand over the vintage-framed original to the man who introduced me to the idea. It felt like the inspiration and story had come full circle.

LS: Has your work led to country or bluegrass musicians commissioning a drawing of themselves?

MM: The Acoustic Shoppe has touring musicians stop in when passing through the Ozarks or Branson and record a few songs for their “Ozark Music Shoppe” show (on local TV and YouTube). Some have contacted me after seeing my artwork in the shoppe.

Members of the hilarious bluegrass band, The Cleverlys, commissioned me to make individual portraits for merch (stickers and T-shirts). I’ve also done a T-shirt with portraits of the Hellroys, and I’m currently working on a portrait sticker for a big-name bluegrass singer. I think musicians are always looking for a fun way to connect with their fans at multiple price points at their shows. Stickers are a fun, inexpensive thing to collect and slap on a guitar case or truck window.

Do you listen to music in your shop? What kind of music?

I have always been into music, art, comedy, and sports. Being in high school in the suburbs in the ‘90s, I listened to a lot of grunge, and Christian alternative rock music, but also jazz and blues. After college, I got into Nickel Creek, and it was a slippery slope into Americana and country music. I traded enough art early on for a black, Eastman MD415 F-style mandolin, and I try to play it at least once a week. I watch the Americana Radio Charts for new music ideas — most recently, Charley Crockett. Some other favorites are Watchhouse, Josh Ritter, The Cactus Blossoms, Pokey Lafarge, and anything by the talented Nickel Creek musicians. I’m also beginning to catch Billy Strings fever. w

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BY GLENN HUGHES | glennhughesart.com

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Whiskey Preachin meets David Quinn

David Quinn, above, is set to release “Country Fresh,” April 15. The self-produced album features what Quinn deems a talented Nashville crew that he knew would understand his vision.

BY TONY SEXTON HTT Contributor For more than a few years, there has been a constant background moan that I occasionally tune in on. It’s like some sort of mantra for disenchanted men in middle-age, churning out their stock rhetoric to whoever happens to be in earshot.

“Music’s Dead,” they say. “There are only so many notes and sounds,” or “It’s all been done before.” “Nothing exciting will be made until there is new technology.” Does artistic endeavour really have to present a brave new challenge to its audience to be of merit? Do we really have to wait for the next Stravinsky before we can declare music nascent, no longer moribund? Does music have to justify itself ? Do the birds get

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tired of singing the same old song?

Of course, it is possible to hear new music and enjoy it at face value, for how it makes you feel in the immediate here and now. Maybe this is the only sensible way to enjoy music, rather than over-thinking it, intellectualizing and pontificating to the point of abstraction. Time is a psychological construct, it turns out, so enjoying music in the moment would seem to be the way to go, even if it is our psychological construction of memory and anticipation that allows us this pleasure. That said, these ears like to hear things in new music that point to the influences at play on the creator. Just as the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes said, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there

is no new thing under the sun.”

It turns out that I like my music to show its roots while still being fresh and energised. I like artists who show their influences, wear their hearts on their sleeves but still manage to bring their own distinct flavour to their take on the tradition.

I like the music of David Quinn.

On his new album, “Country Fresh,” Quinn has produced (self-produced) a body of work for today’s listener, one who appreciates the decades of history and myriad styles that make up the story of country music. Pulling together many strands of country music to weave his own unique tapestry, Quinn’s music is tinged with notes of nostalgia, a pining for a neverwas prairie dreamland, touched by tenderness but determined to show you a good time. From rollicking train

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songs, through tender piano ballads and singer-songwriter heartbreak, an amoret for his Midwest home, celebratory hoedowns and substantial outlaw boogies, in “Country Fresh” Quinn has delivered on the promise we felt in his sophomore album, 2020’s “Letting Go”. This is no mean feat, considering the constraints of the last couple of years. Let’s meet Davis Quinn and find out more about his approach to keeping it “Country Fresh.”

TS: What are your earliest musical memories?

DQ: My earliest musical memories are of my dad spinning vinyl and CDs when I was a kid in the house really loud. These are some of my favorite memories and what sparked my love for music. He has a really diverse music collection, so I was exposed to everything growing up, from Willie Nelson to James Brown to Elvis. Elvis was a big deal in my house, and we used to go to Graceland each summer. Also, we always listened to music in the car.

Every memory I have of car rides has music involved with it because of that.

TS: What’s your background?

When and where did you get your start as a performer? Did you evolve into a country artist, or did you start out country?

DQ: I started out as a drummer. As mentioned above, I was exposed to a lot of different types of music growing up, including country. I leaned a little more into ‘70s rock and roll when I was younger. I played drums with rock and roll and blues bands growing up, but I always wrote lyrics and poetry. It was not until around high school that I heard John Prine, and it all changed.

It really blew me away how he talked about the “Midwest” experience so beautifully. It also had a country-type sound to it. Then I learned he grew up west of Chicago. In high school, l I started to play more guitar but was still busy playing drums for bands. It was not until my mid-20s that I decided

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to fully focus on playing and singing my own songs, which always naturally came out more country-sounding.

TS: What has your experience of performing country music in Chicago been like? How big is the scene there now?

DQ: It has been good. I got my start around Chicago playing with more of the honky tonk crowd. Since I have multiple different influences and my live show (with a full band) can get a little rowdier, I started getting put on as support for shows like Randall King, Flatland Cavalry, and Mike and the Moonpies. The folks at Bloodshot Records were also a big supporter of mine and helped spread the word. They included me in their 25th Anniversary Compilation and asked me to play the release party for the record.

TS: Since your last album, you’ve moved your base from Chicago to rural Indiana. How did this influence your writing and the songs on “Country Fresh?” Did you feel a difference in your approach?

DQ: Moving out to Indiana influenced my writing a lot. While I love Chicago, I have never been a city person and was happy to get back out into nature. Being out in the woods and working with horses gave me so much inspiration. I felt rejuvenated and fell in love with my Midwest upbringing all over again. Most of the songs on “Country Fresh” were written while living out there, and I believe it shows. It’s a much more relaxed record. It’s also about the things that I value most. Everything that has happened over the last few years helped put that into perspective for me.

TS: Your previous album, 2020’s “Letting Go,” was recorded in Nashville, as was “Country Fresh.”

There is a lot of country music history in Chicago, as well as a contemporary country music scene. Several of the songs on “Country Fresh” reference the Midwest, yet you returned to Nashville to record at the Sound

Emporium again. Why did you choose to record in Nashville again? Was this simply because the pickers and players you wanted for the recording are all based down there? Would you have liked to have recorded the album in Chicago or elsewhere in the Midwest?

DQ: I chose to record in Nashville again, mostly because of the players and engineers. Most of the players have become friends, and I had been bouncing ideas off some of them as I wrote the songs. I had not been rehearsing with my normal live players because of the pandemic, so I was able to assemble a very talented crew that I knew would understand my vision in Nashville. I do plan to record a record somewhere in the Midwest in the future.

TS: Who’s playing on this album?

DQ: David Quinn, acoustic guitar and vocals; Miles Miller, drums and harmonies; Fats Kaplin, fiddle, dobro, banjo, and harmonica; Jamie Davis, guitar; Micah Hulscher, piano; Brett Resnick, pedal steel; Laur Joamets, slide guitar and solos; Andy Holcomb, bass; Andrew Krull, harmonies — tracks 4, 7, and 9; Alayne May — tracks 3, 6, and 10.

TS: “Country Fresh” follows on nicely from “Letting Go” in both feel and sound. As well as the same studio, how many of the same players are on this new album?

DQ: Most of the players are the same except for the drummer and the addition of Fats Kaplin. I originally went down to Nashville in February of 2021 and had the same crew assembled from the first record, and the day I got into town, the snow/ice storm hit. We had to keep pushing the recording days and then cancel the whole thing. I told myself I would not leave Nashville until I rescheduled those dates, and I managed to get everything scheduled for March.

Everyone could do it, but the drummer led me to reach out to Miles Miller.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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He has always been one of my favorite drummers. I was happy to hear that he was available and interested in playing.

TS: You decided to produce this album yourself. How was that as an experience? Did you enjoy that side of making the album?

Can you see yourself in that role, producing albums for other artists?

DQ: I have “self-produced” the last couple of records mostly out of convenience and budget. I usually have a good idea of how I would like each song to sound. With that being said, the players on the record each brought their own great ideas and sound to the record. I had originally written a guitar melody for the beginning of my song “Low Down” and Fats Kaplin had the idea to try it on fiddle, which worked even better. Also, while in the middle of recording “Country Fresh,” Micah Hulscher hopped in and added piano, which really pulled the song together. There are countless stories like this during the recording process. I have not really thought much about producing records for other artists, but it’s not something I am closed off to. I have also been thinking about using a producer for my next record.

TS: As a musician, are you interested in the technical side of production as well? Did you find it easier getting your ideas across to the musicians or to the engineer?

DQ: I am not very technically proficient when it comes to that kind of stuff. For me, that’s a whole different ball game, and I am happy to trust an engineer with all that.

I usually know how I would like things to sound but don’t know the right buttons to push. I write most of the lead melodies that I can not play, so I end up humming them to the players. Since I played drums going up, I usually have a good idea of what type of groove

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I would like and can translate that to the drummer. The talented players on this record always make these ideas sound much better than they did in my head.

TS: You named this album after an ashtray. What’s that about?

DQ: When I was recording “Letting Go,” I found an ashtray hidden way in the back of the studio. It looked like it had not been touched or seen in 30 years. It read “Country Fresh.” I just loved how it looked and sounded and could not get it out of my head. I have always struggled to describe my music and mix of influences, and it just

recordings helped to realize this?

DQ: Yes, absolutely. The point of this record was to not worry about titles or genres and to put all my influences together. This is really where “Black Dirt Country” came from. A few other artists are using that term or similar terms. I believe it comes from all the diverse types of backgrounds you get growing up in the Midwest and being exposed to so many genres of music.

TS: In 2020, I asked you to create a DJ mix of some of your favorite songs for the Whiskey Preachin website to celebrate the release of “Letting Go .” Listening to that mix again now, having got to know “Country Fresh,” your influences shine out: John Prine, Ramblin’ Jack and Townes, Willie, Waylon, and Billy Joe Shaver, Willis Allen Ramsey, Jerry Jeff, and Guy Clark. It feels like listening to the DNA of your music. Do you perceive a tension between paying homage to your influences and making new music for today?

DQ: I don’t really feel that there is much push and pull with my musical heroes versus what I’m writing. I try not to think too much about it when I write and let the influences naturally come through.

I believe the more conscience part of that is dividing up the songs to make a cohesive story. It isn’t so — David Quinn much about writing to fit a specific sound, as it is letting the songs clicked. I started to use that phrase come out as naturally as possible. to describe not only my music but TS: Some people believe that also all the things I liked, especially new music should be challenging, about the midwest. Then during breaking new ground, in order the summer, I wrote the title track, to have artistic merit. What do “Country Fresh,” and I knew that you think of that point of view? had to be the title of the record.

DQ: For me, I don’t really believe TS: This album feels like a that is always the case. There is distillation of influences, like a lot of great music that follows a lot of threads being pulled a tradition, but I also respect together into a cohesive whole. the breaking of new ground. I Was this your vision? Has judge artistic merit more based being able to produce your own on the emotion it evokes from

“The support I have gotten from this record and my previous records blows me away. The fact that people support me at shows and request my songs on their radio station is something I don’t take for granted.”

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the listener instead of what it should or shouldn’t sound like.

TS: “Country Fresh” is a very positive-sounding record, even with its smattering of heartbreak. Was this deliberate, or are you positive by default?

DQ: I have been thinking about this a lot lately. This record is much more about being content. I write a lot of songs about leaving and for the first time I am very happy where I am. I was finally able to write about the things I appreciate and the beauty of being in the Midwest.

There are definitely some songs about hopelessness on there, but overall there is a sense of being fulfilled.

TS: The album has a touch of nostalgia for an idyllic prairie lifestyle, a fantastic way of life with a funky Waltons vibe, good clean living in a country paradise, a Garden of Eden in the black soils of the midwest. Is this tapping into something we may all need right now, a reaction to our times, giving people a nostalgia blanket to keep them cozy?

DQ: Yes, I think this is what we could all use right now, but it is also a sincere reaction to how I was living when I wrote these songs. Being out in the woods and helping on a ranch, I was a little bit separated from what was happened. Not much has changed daily with where I am living. I was reminded of everything that was happening anytime I had to go back to Chicago or turned on a TV. This juxtaposition made me appreciate my experience even more.

TS: As Kris Kristofferson said, “If it sounds country, man, that’s what it is,” but there is plenty of music in the “country” charts that sound nothing like country. By corollary, this should mean a lot that music is not country. Does this bother you? Do you feel it is important to crusade for “real”

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country music, or are you happy doing what you’re doing and letting the rest of the world do their thing?

DQ: I definitely understand where people are coming from with that argument, and I don’t really listen to “mainstream” country, but I don’t think too much about it.

There is so much good and “real” country music coming out these days and still so much to find from the past. I respect anyone who gets on a stage or puts pen to paper, so I am happy just doing what I do. I would rather promote what I love than bash what I hate.

TS: Do you think your music is getting the recognition you believe it deserves? Is mainstream country radio playing your music?

DQ: The support I have gotten from this record and my previous records blows me away. The fact that people support me at shows

and request my songs on their radio station is something I don’t take for granted. I would still be writing music if zero people were listening, so the fact that people support and care about the tunes that I put out means the world to me. We got an order for the new record from someone in Japan, and I was so blown away I had to reach out and see how someone from halfway around the world heard about me. It’s crazy for me to think how much my music has traveled.

TS: What’s next for David Quinn?

DQ: I have been hitting the road more nationally than I ever have recently. I am looking forward to expanding more outside of the Midwest region. I have some demos down already for the next record and am adding to it pretty quickly. I am also discussing pressing my last record, “Letting Go,” on vinyl. w

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3 chords and your truth Exploring LGBTQ+ Honky Tonk

BY DONALD C. CUTLER HTT Contributor Hank Williams famously said to be a real country musician, you need to have smelled a lot of manure or ridden behind a mule, even though he physically was unable to work on a farm or ride a horse.

The mythology of who is and who ain’t country continues to center upon a calcified image of a conservative, bootstrapping, bluecollar worker with a family — a vision of someone who may have never existed, manufactured for commercial success, without the capacity for change or growth.

And while alt-country and honky tonk may shun mainstream acceptance, its artists and fans cling to a vision of authenticity based upon American Apocrypha. Just ask Hank about his time in the saddle.

But outlaws, cowboys and truck drivers, strong women and sensitive men, who fill the canon of country music, did and do very much exist. All of these archetypes find themselves outside of mainstream American identities and are celebrated in the music for their refusal to conform.

All of this attempts to answer why lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) artists may want to express their truth through a three-chord country song.

In her book, Queer Country, available everywhere this month, Temple University Professor Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, notes that because LGBTQ+ “musicians and listeners have often been othered and excluded by both country music and U.S. identity norms, they tend to have special insights about the politics

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John Howie Jr., leader of alt-country’s Two Dollar Pistols and Rosewood Bluff, came out as bi-sexual not long after taking part in local actions against anti-transgender legislation in 2016. of authenticity, sincerity, otherness, she continued, noting that Trigger’s representation, and appropriation.” review of the album cited experience “The authenticity expectations with anti-gay hatred as beneficial that came along with these country to Firkus’ status as an outsider. music myths are so extreme “It was interesting to realize that it’s nearly impossible to that country music’s authenticity satisfy them,” Professor Goldinmythology had taken us to the point Perschbacher said in an interview. where a gay man was actually a Processor Goldin-Perschbacker welcome country singer because of told The Honky Tonk Times that his experience with homophobia.”

Brian Firkus, better known as drag In other words, being unwelcomed queen Trixie Mattel, explained by country music makes them to her class that, “nobody wants “real country musicians,” as to hear another white guy with they deal with a seemingly endless amount of bullshit. a guitar.” However, Firkus said, Trixie Mattel and hundreds of being a drag queen country others, both out and those who feel musician attracts listeners.

“And I noticed that [Kyle “Trigger” unable to live openly, have authentic stories to tell in very country ways.

Coroneos] at Saving Country And these stories go back to the Music felt that Firkus’ country very beginning of the genre. albums sounded more ‘authentic’ More than ever, due in part to than some mainstream country,”

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changing norms and better access to marginalized voices making marginalized music, LGBTQ+ country artists have started to attract a wider listenership as they sing songs about their truth.

To Live a Truth You Must See that Truth John Howie Jr., leader of altcountry’s Two Dollar Pistols and Rosewood Bluff, who has also put out music under his own name, grew up in the woods of Wake County, North Carolina. He ended a “very real” relationship with a man he “was very much in love with” at age 19 because he had no frame of reference for it.

“I had no resources to let me know that bisexuality was OK or that it was even a real thing,” he told The Honky Tonk Times.

When taking part in local actions against anti-transgender legislation in 2016, playing protest shows with Rosewood Bluff and Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, he felt the time was right to “stand up and be counted.”

Not long after, Howie came out as bisexual and now identifies as pansexual, or a person not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity. He came out partly for those in similar situations in which he found himself as a teen.

He provides an example for those struggling to understand their identity or sexuality through his music.

“I’ve always thought of my music as being for everybody, so I’ve always made an attempt to make the songs universal in that regard,” he said. “But I’m gonna say that I think it’s definitely important for any artist to write about their own experiences and to feel like they have the freedom to do that without discrimination.”

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Howie’s 2018 album, “Not Tonight,” applied universal themes of love and pain to a very personal process of self-discovery. Online publication “Queer Country,” which is dedicated to lifting up LGBTQ+ voices in country and Americana, called it “an intensely personal, haunting, and intimate look at one man’s journey to himself.” The stories on this album provide that framework for his 19-year-old self.

Jamie Wyatt’s most recent album, “Neon Cross,” came out about the same time she did.

Several of the songs on the album allude to her sexuality, and much of her merchandise features the silhouette of kissing cowgirls.

She told The Honky Tonk Times that as she embraces more of herself, she wants to explicitly address these themes in her music.

“I think it’s important to use pronouns to normalize same-sex relationships” in country music, she said. “As a queer person, I have

a lot of internalized homophobia, and I’m just working through that to help myself and others.”

But this is not only internalized — from a studio owner asking her if a draft love song was “some gay shit” to bikers at the merch table posing for a picture while asking “you do like men, right?”

“I like to joke that I never had any problems with homophobia until I came out of the closest, but that’s what I expected,” Wyatt said.

“And it’s even more important for me to be out and open to help. There is still a lot of pain and taboo about being queer.”

This openness helps Wyatt approach her music more authentically, she said.

“Queer people can embarce a sad fucking country song and sing it like no other,” she added.

“They have lived the experience.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

Patrick Haggerty, center, of Lavender Country, the world’s first gay country band, turned himself into a “three-chords and the truth guy” in high school, which he said was a good fit for what he wanted to do. “At the time, no genre was interested in what I had to say, so I went with what I knew.”

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in Haggerty’s book.

“In their hearts, they are real radicals, or they wouldn’t have the guts to do this.”

Wide-Open Spaces

Patrick Haggerty “I stand behind them, no matter what” “I grew up milking cows in a barn in Dry Creek, Washington, listening to Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams on the radio. The truth is, I chose country music because I didn’t know how to do anything else,” said septuagenarian radical and founder of Lavender Country, the world’s first gay country band, Patrick Haggerty.

“In high school and college, I turned myself into a three-chords and the truth guy, which was a good fit for what I wanted to do. At the time, no genre was interested in what I had to say, so I went with what I knew.”

For a man with no musical training besides the radio in the barn, Haggerty grabbed three people he thought were good and made a country record with explicitly gay content in 1973.

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Haggerty’s lyrics put aside innuendo used to shield artists in those decades in favor of songs that left nothing to interpretation.

Yet his radicalism softens when talking about other country music artists who come out publicly.

“Anyone who stands up and says they’re gay should be applauded.

I stand behind them no matter their lyrical content,” Haggerty explained during an interview from his home in Seattle.

He feels sorry for an out musician who believes they have to “sing songs that are acceptable to corporate Nashville.” And while he understands that choice and faults no one for wanting a successful career, he said these artists put “parameters around their soul.”

But even those LGBTQ+ artists accepted by some mainstream audiences are revolutionary

“When you’re constantly told country music is not for you, it’s really hard to create it,” said Karen Pittelman, founder of Brooklynbased Gay Ole Opry and Queer Country Quarterly, and front person of Karen & The Sorrows. “We lose so many songs because of this.”

Americana’s charts include a few LGBTQ+ artists, but there are nearly none on mainstream country radio, where a vast majority of country fans learn of new music.

And the songs that address queer themes on the radio are not told from an LGBTQ+ perspective, says Rachel Cholset, music journalist and editor of “Rainbow Rodeo,” a newsletter and zine focused on LGBTQ+ country music.

Mainstream stars sing these songs for those who fit the artificial construct of a country fan,” Cholset suggested. However, she believes these songs may be useful for those who need an example, even an artificial one, of life outside of cultural norms.

Pittelman says the industry needs to change if it wants to be welcoming to all its fans and those called to make its music, staying true to its perceived ethos of hospitality.

“But we still need space to come together with those who share our experiences,” she explained. “We all need a place to two-step, get drunk, and do all the good stuff that happens at a honky tonk.”

Pittman feels that “the music lives when performed live — it creates a scared space.” And if that space doesn’t honor all those who come to it, “then you aren’t doing it right.” w

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The Chicago Hustle with Lawrence Peters Hello from Chi-Town!

It’s still pretty slow-mo in this murdery ol’ town, so scene biz remains minimal, but here are a coupla points of interest: Donnie Biggins has left Fitzgerald’s Nightclub to turn his full attention to his own bar and music joint, The Golden Dagger. He took over as head of programming at Fitzgerald’s in 2017, working with the venue’s founder Bill Fitzgerald, and staying on when Will Duncan bought the bar, just days before COVID-19 hit in March 2020. During these last two years, Biggins was a steady force in keeping the place afloat. The patio events and truck bed performances were major bright spots in those darkest of days. He has been very good to my band, The Lawrence Peters Outfit, and the rest of Chicago’s music family, and I wish him well in his newest venture.

Will Duncan has taken the reins as head of programming at Fitzgerald’s, and the transition seems to be going smoothly.

Local favorite Cosmic Country is back up and running at full speed. The most recent show at the Hideout was fun and full of surprises. Andrew Sa started the evening with a stellar version of Jim Lauderdale’s “Planet Of Love,” leaning into the powerful sounds of an all-star house band that featured Spencer Tweedy, Sima Cunningham, Liam Kazar, Sully Davis, and Dorian Gehring.

Sa also handled emcee duties for the night. This is one of Chicago’s best music events. It deserves major kudos for getting younger folks interested in country, Americana, and other roots music, and also giving the LGBTQ+ community and people of color a chance to make the music their own.

I mentioned in a recent column that L.P.’s Happy Hour was making a comeback in 2022, and it has actually come to pass. So far, I’ve had the

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pleasure of hosting Nathan Graham, The Girls Of The Golden West, Mulefoot, and Grit & The Double Knit, with many more heavy hitters on the docket. If you live in Chicago or plan on visiting, kindly mark your calendar for 6–7 p.m. every Friday at The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia.

Another of my projects that have been de-iced for 2022 is A Day In The Country. We went virtual for the 2020 event and had to skip it entirely for 2021, but my 14th annual day of country music, B.B.Q., and pie will happen at the Hideout proper, right here in Chicago.

I just inked a deal with the great West Of Texas to headline the festival.

This will be the first Chicago appearance

by Jerry Zinn and his killer band, which is doubly auspicious. Their 2021 debut “Heartache, Hangovers & Honky Tonks” is one of my most favoritest honky tonk albums of the last decade. Be sure to make your way to my lil’ fest from 2-11 p.m., Sunday, June 12, for the good times.

On a very sad note, Chicago recently suffered a major loss, with the passing of Greg Bartik. He was commonly known as “The Nurse,” because of his decades of work in veterans hospitals.

Greg was a complicated guy, to say the least. He could be mouthy, intense, and insulting, but also funny, friendly, and supportive. His skills in a crisis were unrivaled.

He gave nicknames to the folks he considered worthy. Though those names were often abrasive when taken at face value, there was a fondness at their prickly core, much like the man himself.

My “Nurse Name” was Jack Russell, and I was lucky to have one of the least caustic names he gave out. Jack Russels are a sturdy, loyal, hard-working dog breed, but shortly after I got to know him, he asked what would happen if I was a dog left alone in a station

wagon full of groceries. I had to admit that the food wouldn’t stand a chance, so that meaning was also in there.

Greg was a constant and generous presence on the music, bar, and restaurant scene, and his loss continues to be felt every day. R.I.P., ol’ buddy.

Before I sign off, I want to mention a couple of records getting steady play on my radio show and in my cold, squalid apartment. I highly recommend giving them a listen and then supporting the artists by buying the tracks, CDs, or vinyl. We all know that musicians don’t make shit from Spotify plays, so just streaming won’t cut it if you want to call yourself a music lover.

I’m a big fan of Geoffrey Miller’s 2020 “All Night Honky Tonk Man” album, so I was stoked to see that he released a new one Feb. 1. I just got my copy of “Leavin’ 101,” and I’ve already got some faves. Also, you can’t go wrong with that double entendre title.

Jake Vaadeland’s second EP, “No More Pain In My Heart,” came out in November of last year, and it’s great from start to finish. Canada should be proud of that talented youngster.

I recently saw that Brennen Leigh has a new one in the hopper. “Obsessed With The West” is slated for a May 6 release. It’s a western swing flavored collaboration with Asleep At The Wheel, and if the track “If Tommy Duncan’s Voice Was Booze” is any indicator, it’s gonna be a good’n!

Summer Dean’s “Bad Romantic” is still clocking regular spins on my turntable. It hit the stores in August 2021, and I think it’s her best yet.

My computer’s about out of ink, so I should call it a day.

Take care of yourselves until we meet again in April. w Later Taters!

Lawrence 23

Wayne Willis: Hairstylist to the stars

BY AUSTIN STAMBAUGH For the Honky Tonk Times Nashville’s legendary hairstylist Wayne Willis, also known as the “Opry Barber,” has cut hair for innumerable country music stars, including Ray Price, Justin Tubb, Jimmy Day, Porter Wagoner, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, and Willie Nelson. He is the longtime owner and founder of Wayne’s Unisex Salon, historically located on Gallatin Road across from Dino’s Bar. He continues cutting hair today and can be found at Don Ramon’s Barbershop in Madison, Tennessee, where he rents a chair. He and his wife, Margie, make their home in Nashville and will celebrate their 61st year of marriage this summer.

AS: So, Wayne, when did you come to Nashville?

WW: The 22nd day of August in 1960. I started barber college, and I had to get me a part-time job. I got me a job at (the stockyards) down on Second Avenue . . . and I worked during the day, three days a week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, seven hours a week, making $21 a week.

I’d walk to barber college at 3 o’clock in the afternoon at the stockyard. I’d stop off at Tick Tock restaurant there in the arcade, and that’s where I met my wife, Margie.

She was in high school there at Hume-Fogg. I really didn’t work but 21 hours a week, a $1 an hour, when I was in barber school. But I’d been used to making 50 cents an hour up in the country in Kirkmansville, Kentucky, and 75 cents at the most.

AS: How did that start from where you were learning and going to school to where you owned your first barbershop?

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Known as the “Opry Barber,” Wayne Willis moved to Nashville in 1960 and soon began catering to the likes of Willie Nelson, George Jones, and Ray Price. — Photo by Austin Stambaugh WW: Well, right after I got out of school, I started working down on Main Street at (Bill’s Barbershop); right there at Six and Main on the left coming out of downtown. Then, I heard that Mr. Copley had an opening at the corner of Gallatin Road in Nashville. (Bill Tisdale of Bill’s Barbershop) didn’t have much business anyway, so I went up there and started working for Mr. Copley. That was on my 19th birthday, the 29th day of April, 1961. Then from there on, you know, you build your business — word of mouth, it’s something like that.

The first country singer that I ever

waited on was Darrell McCall. He’s still around! Then I started cutting Willie Nelson’s hair, and he’s still around. All of Ernest Tubb’s band, they started coming too. Willie Nelson was one of my real early customers.

He went by, I can’t remember if it was ‘Country Boy Willie’ or the ‘Red Headed Stranger.’ I believe he was going by ‘Country Boy Willie’ first. I don’t know why they used to have to have a title back then.

I used to go up to Willie’s house and cut his hair and “Buck Nose” Wade Ray’s too. They lived across the road from each other, and they’d come

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down to the barbershop together and talk music the whole time they were there. I was probably the last — in 1969 — the last professional barber that cut Willie Nelson’s hair! I opened my own shop on the 15th of May in 1965. But already I was waiting on Ernest Tubb’s band: Jack Greene, Cal Smith, Jack Drake and Leon Rhodes.

AS: Buddy Emmons?

WW: Yeah, I waited on Buddy Emmons, but he wasn’t in Tubb’s band at the time. Buddy Emmons was the only person that Ray Price would hire on the road. I think that’s the way it was. Buddy Emmons could have made a lot of money in those days doing sessions, but he didn’t want to do sessions. He wanted to go on the road with Ray Price. Now, I didn’t wait on Buddy Emmons regularly, but the first time he ever sat down in my chair — I always like to strike up a conversation — he had on cowboy boots just like you do. I said to him, ‘You must be a musician, with them cowboy boots.’

He laughed and didn’t respond. Then I said to him, ‘Well, are you a truck driver?’ Truck drivers in those days wore cowboy boots a lot. They may still do, I don’t know. He laughed again, and he ain’t answered me yet. He never did say he was a musician or a truck driver, anything. He just laughed. I guess he took me for granted like I knew who he was. I didn’t know who he was!

They said he was a fantastic steel player. He may not have wanted to play like they wanted him to play in sessions. He didn’t like that, you know, he was into all the jazzy stuff that wasn’t commercial. That’s why Pete Drake got all the sessions. Pete Drake, Jimmy Day, and Buddy Emmons used to all hang out over at Linebaughs, and somebody’d come out wanting a steel player, and Buddy’d wanna keep playing pinball and drinking beer or whatever. Pete Drake would grab the session and take off. I guess he was hungry or something. I don’t know.

They say that the story one time

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was that Buddy Emmons played a lick on the steel guitar and said, ‘Take that, Pete!’ And then Pete reached in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money and said, ‘Take that, Buddy!’

AS: So, you have your own shop, and things are looking good.

When did you first meet George Jones, and how did you get to cutting his hair regularly?

WW: Well, a guy named Bill Starnes was coming to me, and they didn’t tell me this, but Pappy Dailey was George Jones’ manager down in Texas. Jack Starnes (Bill’s father) got to be his manager up here, and I think that’s how (Starday Records) got started. They named it Starday — Jack Starnes’ Star,’ and Pappy Dailey, ‘Day.’ Bill Starnes started coming to me.

I don’t know who sent Bill Starnes to me, he was kind of a big guy, and he walked with them webbed feet.

Anyway, he brought George to me.

George was wearing a flattop then, and this was in 1966. Well, one morning, he had an appointment with me there, George did. Bill Starnes brought him in and said, ‘Wayne, style George’s hair.’ I said, ‘I can’t style his hair. It’s too short. He’s been wearing a flattop!’

It had got kind of long. ‘Oh yeah, you can,’ he said back to me. They’ve always done me that way. So, I got my hot comb and put that Clubman gel on that flattop — a long flattop — and of course, I shampooed it first. I put that Clubman gel, and of course, cut his hair a little around the edges, and using that hot comb and a boar bristle brush, I got to crankin’ and dryin’ and crankin’ and dryin’ and put that hairspray on it.

I was surprised; it looked pretty good!

You know, the very next day they called me and got another appointment for George. He came in the next day wearing a flattop and his hairs stickin’ straight up off the top of his head.

We did this for seven days in a row.

He didn’t come on the eighth day; he came to me again later. But that’s how I started styling his hair. Was

first cuttin’ it in a flattop. That’s how I got started waiting on George Jones.

I went to Hee-Haw, cut and styled on the Hee-Haw set downtown on James Robertson Parkway. They put me down there, and I cut and styled his hair on the Hee-Haw set. I went out there one Sunday with him and Webb Pierce, out at Brandywine, and they was partyin’ and I cut and styled Webb Pierce’s hair, cut his hair, and just had a big old time. Of course, I put George Jones to bed!

AS: Yeah, tell us that story!

WW: He come in, and you know, he’d be drunk a lot of times, and I remember one time I had a sofa back there in the back, and it was on a Saturday. He had to go out on the road, and he’d been drinking right after I cut and styled his hair and (his tour managers) parked the bus over there at East High, and I left and locked the doors and told them how to lock the door back and go, so they stayed there with him till he slept it off and they put him on the bus and took off. You know, George was quiet when he was sober, but he was really rambunctious when he drank.

AS: When he drank his Little Darlins?

WW: Yeah, I gave him a Little Darlin. He wanted a Little Darlin when he came in, so I’d mix up a Little Darlin and I used to keep — for a long time I keep booze there in the back — anyway, one day I sent him to kiss the shoeshine boy on the head, and he just laughed. I’ve got one brush still.

I’ve got a boar bristle brush still that I used with the hot comb. When I first started men’s hairstyling, I used a hot comb, and we used a lot of hairspray to lock that hairstyle in. We’d style and put this wet net on their head, and we’d spray that with hairspray and take it off and it’s ready to go! I cut his hair for 12 years, ‘66 to ‘78.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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Austin Stambaugh, Wayne Willis, and Margie Willis AS: So, putting two and two together, you had to have met Tammy Wynette.

WW: Yeah, I got a story about George and Tammy.

AS: We’d love to hear it!

WW: One morning, George had an appointment. It seemed he always liked to make an appointment real early. I was

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cuttin’ and stylin’ his hair. Tammy Wynette, Peanut Montgomery, and Melba Montgomery come up in front, and they says, ‘Where’s a good place to eat breakfast around here?’ I said, ‘Well, the Tico right up here just past Eastland Funeral Home on the left.’ So George says, ‘You all go up and eat breakfast, and I’ll come

on up there and meet you.’ And then Tammy says, ‘No, we’ll wait on you!’ Of course, I had used my smart mouth, anyway I says,’ Tammy, I was hoping y’all would leave. I was gonna give George a drink.’ Tammy says, ‘I can think of a lot of better places to get served than here!’ Oh George, he never could convince her that I was just kiddin’. She never did go for me kiddin’ about that.

AS: What would you say is the key to success? What do you think living is all about?

WW: Well, you know, if you enjoy what you’re doing, you never work a day in your life, they say.

And I’ve always enjoyed cutting hair and talking to people, stuff like that. That’s what it’s all about.

You got to enjoy what you’re doing.

AS: Do you have any advice that you would give to other people curious about how to live? Do you have any advice to give us?

WW: Yes, work hard and save your money. Don’t blow it on everything. It’s always do the best you can do and just be thankful.

HONKY TONK TIMES

A trip through the country music pages of time A brief history of hillbilly, honky tonk, and country music magazines

BY TAYLOR AUSTIN Honky Tonk Times Honky Tonk Times comes as one of the most recent publications in a long list of physical country music-themed magazines. Through the first year of running Honky Tonk Times, I have borrowed ideas from the different periodicals.

A few of them lasted for years, while some only saw four issues.

The history of country musicthemed magazines seems to coincide well with commercial radio through the years.

The Early Years In the 1920s, hillbilly music had taken hold in the United States. Folks would gather ‘round the radio and listen to the yodels of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family over the hum of the radio’s tube amp. By 1931, most households in the U.S. had at least one radio in their home.

Giant corporations such as NBC were buying up radio stations all over. Newsletters were going out to the stations and discjockeys. As music was taking over, the public began wanting to know more about their favorite recording stars. As television and the internet were not in existence, it wasn’t long before publications were being made available to the general public.

With bigger-name publications transitioning online in more

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The first issue of “Cowboy Songs” from the personal collection of Honky Tonk Times Publisher Taylor Austin. recent history, very few of these publications still exist today. Rural Radio Guide (1938-1939), is the earliest I can find. It was touted as being published exclusively for the rural listener. I have heard rumor of some publications being

available prior to this, but I have yet to actually find any of them in different collections or online.

These publications gave fans a glimpse into the life of their favorite country music stars. They CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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also highlighted many regional and local country stars that may not have necessarily hit it big or even released a record.

Gaining Steam As the U.S. entered the rest of the world during World War II, radio became an important tool for folks to receive news updates, and of course, on Saturday nights, The Grand Ole Opry. At that time, the Opry was broadcast from the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville. Only two new publications had come out during the war, “The Grinders Switch Gazette” (1944-1946) and “The Mountain Broadcast and Prairie Recorder” (1941-1947). There are some great photos in these magazines of some of the country stars of the day in uniform. I always see pictures in these magazines that I have not seen in other places. They also have an interesting look to them as they were often in a single color of ink, such as purple or green.

“Cowboy Music World” (19441947) claimed to be the most informative cowboy and hillbilly music radio new magazine in the world. This was more of a standard black and white piece one would expect from the time.

The magazine featured listings for times and stations of radio programs of interest. In 1944, hillbilly music was recognized on the radio charts for the first time under the umbrella of “folk” music. The song was “Pistol Packin’ Mama.” The folk chart also included blues music.

The War Is Over The men came home from the war to start families and find a life closer to normal again. Peace

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The April 1957 issue of “Rustic Rhythm,” touted as a “unique brand magazine for a country-brand audience.” times brought a better economic state, and folks found themselves with more spending money.

The Grand Ole Opry had moved to The Ryman Auditorium.

Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys had created a new genre known as Bluegrass, and Bullet Records launched (Nashville’s first independent record label). “Song and Picture Barn Dance” (1947-

1948) hits the shelves. “Jamboree” magazine is either a magazine that has come and gone over the year or just a word used in many different magazine titles over the years. None of them seemed to last for very long. As the Honky Tonk Times collection of past publications builds, we are finding the connections between these different publications. One of

HONKY TONK TIMES

the most significant connections between different magazines was Charleton Publishing in Derby, Connecticut. The company had started under a different name in the early ‘30s publishing lyric magazines out of Yonkers, New York. Because they had not been getting the publishing rights for the lyrics they were printing, the owner, John Santangelo Sr., was sentenced to a year in jail. He ended up meeting a man by the name of Ed Levy. They decided to go legit and formed a new corporation to branch out and start printing more and more.

Along with comic books and many different magazines, they also printed “Cowboy Songs” (19481964), which was the inspiration for “Honky Tonk Times.”

The magazine consisted of only lyrics at first but eventually began running bio-illustrations: articles about the country and western stars of the day. That’s also where we got the inspiration for the spotlight feature. Charlton Publishing also had one of the longest-running country-themed magazines with “Country Song Roundup” (1949-2000), a tenure we can only hope to achieve.

The end of the ‘40s saw some magazines come and go in a year, such as “Songmakers Magazine”

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(1949-1950) and another ‘”Jamboree” magazine that lasted less than a year in 1949.

“Hillbilly Western Songs” also suffered the one-year curse making it a very short portion of 1950. There were many more magazines through the ‘50s and ‘60s that I won’t list as most came and went within a few years.

ran for many years in print.

Print to Digital, to Print again

What once was old is new again. As record sales started to plunder in favor of online downloading, as did sales of physical print media. The age of the internet was upon us.

Information is easily at our fingertips. Lyrics, tabs, photos and even videos of our favorite Beyond the lyrics stars were easily at our fingertips.

For me, it has become the age of By the 1970s, country musictoo much information. Everyone themed magazines started going beyond just being lyric magazines seems to have a comment or something to say even when it and short, cheap publications. is not at all nice. Part of finding Newspaper-style publications the joy of music again is being were coming out of Texas. able to put on a record and Another top supporter of the outlaw movement was a magazine disconnect from the digital world titled “Country Music Magazine,” in which we live. It is refreshing to hold something other than started by three friends in New York City in 1972. The publication the old pocket computer ran for years, being run by several and read uninterrupted and different companies until it folded undistributed. I think we will start to see magazines coming into “Country Weekly” (founded back again as the technology 1994) in 2003. In 2015, the publication was branded to “Nash disconnect movement comes to more and more of us. w Country Weekly.” Also starting Honky Tonk Times is working way back in 1970 and still going on building a library of older today is “Country Music People” publications. If you have any that over in England. It has been the you are willing to donate or part longest-running publication out of all of these. They are one of the with, please contact Taylor Austin, and we’ll see if we need what very few magazines still offering print today. “No Depression” also you have as part of our library.

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