| Author |
Topic: Buddy Emmons in Missouri, 1949?? |
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 15 May 2019 7:43 pm |
|
http://www.123minsida.se/cowswing/29138388
https://dailyjournalonline.com/news/local/a-king-of-western-swing/article_8a3932fa-c58c-55cb-9e2f-991a6c342447.html
The above 2 links concern lead guitarist Johnny Patterson, who had a long career playing or recording with Bob Wills, Joe Carson, Merl Lindsay and The Oklahoma Night Riders, The Miller Brothers, Moon Mullican, Charlie Pride (live album), and others. He was born in 1935. I don’t know if he is still alive, but if so, he might be around Longview TX or his native Missouri.
Summarized:
Patterson was born in Missouri in 1935 and was a pro by 1946. He worked with Skeets Yaney on TV in Saint Louis by 1948 at age 13.
He moved to Chicago in 1949 and was working with Roy Meese in a band (just a duo?) when Buddy Emmons asked to sit in. Buddy was hired into that band (apparently just a trio, formal name unknown) and they all (including Buddy) moved to Kennett, Missouri in 1949.
“They had a big group of 5-6 playing on KBOA Radio daily.â€
KBOA is a Kennett, Missouri station to this day.
Does anyone have more knowledge of this?
Is it a tall tale?
How long did this go on?
Not too long I guess. By 1951, Patterson is in OKC with Wanda Jackson and Merl Lindsay.
My kingdom, such as it is, for your hoarded air-checks of the KBOA daily radio show. I’d be grateful—not sure about anyone else. |
|
|
|
Bill Fisher
From:
Oklahoma, USA
|
Posted 15 May 2019 8:40 pm
|
|
Johnny passed away in April of 2010. Don't know exact date.
Bill |
|
|
|
Jerry Jones
From:
Franklin, Tenn.
|
Posted 16 May 2019 4:55 am
|
|
That 1949 date is probably incorrect. These are tidbits I've gleaned from different Buddy interviews.
- Left home 2 months after 16th birthday [Jan 27th, 1953] to work YoYo Club in Calumet City, Ill.
- Played with Stoney Calhoun and Bill Hensey [Hensey came w/Buddy from South Bend]
- Played 8 hour gigs 6 days week
- To Chicago on days off to play @ New Buckingham Palace on Madison Ave. and Andy’s 1509 Club
- Had H. J. Hise put a lever on Fender to change tuning.
Most likely the Kennett move came in late '53 or early '54
_________________
Jerry Jones |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 16 May 2019 8:33 am
|
|
You might be right about the dates, Jerry.
1951 seems a bit early for Wanda being with Merl Lindsay's band. I have a pic of that band with Wanda, but I think it's more like 1953 or 1954. I don't have any independent info on when Patterson may have been with Lindsay.
Prior to my post, had you ever heard of any connection between Emmons and Missouri or between Emmons and Patterson in Buddy's earliest days?
I'm just wondering if the Patterson/Missouri connection is simply not true at all, regardless of the date. You wouldn't think Patterson would be off by 4 or 5 years in his own personal history. I assume the info in those links came from Patterson in some fashion.
I've heard Stony Calhoun recordings, but nothing with Buddy.
I have heard tales of Buddy being in Calumet City, which I guess was a wild town in those days where under-age performers wouldn't be given a bad time by the police.
There is photo evidence of Buddy with Bill Hinsey in Mishawaka, circa 1952.
It's a shame his pre-Nashville career is so poorly documented.
Last edited by Mitch Drumm on 16 May 2019 8:42 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
|
|
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 16 May 2019 8:38 am
|
|
I agree the 1949 does not sound right. That would have made him 12 years old.
_________________
GFI Ultra Keyless S-10 with pad (Black of course) TB202 amp, Hilton VP, Steelers Choice sidekick seat, SIT Strings
Cakewalk by Bandlab and Studio One V4.6 pro DAWs, MOTU Ultralite MK5 recording interface unit |
|
|
|
Jerry Jones
From:
Franklin, Tenn.
|
Posted 16 May 2019 8:42 am
|
|
BTW - Buddy must have met his first wife (Cappie Brown) in early '54. She was from Leachville, Arkansas only a few mile south of Kennett, MO.
_________________
Jerry Jones |
|
|
|
Fish
|
Posted 16 May 2019 10:48 am
|
|
Everything Jerry Jones has stated above is accurate.
I've decided to offer a quote taken directly from Buddy's personal memoirs to help answer these questions. I was deeply honored when Buddy bequeathed his memoirs to me when he passed with the understanding I would complete a book about him. Please don't ask me when the book will be finished or I might jump out of a tall building. :0) I want to get it right.
Here is Buddy writing in the 80's about the year 1953, after leaving high school at age 16:
"When Stoney left the Yo-Yo, I started working the Ozark Club with a couple of musicians out of St. Louis by the name of Roy Mese (sp) and Johnny Patterson. Together, we wrote an instrumental we called "28 String Swing," which I recorded later on the Columbia label under the name of "Country Boy Bounce."
Back in Cal City, I met a drummer named Henry Shropshire who had just started working in town. Henry hated the place and wanted Roy, Johnnie (sp), and me to go back to Kennett, Missouri with him. We were looking for something new, so we took the job. I was glad to find a way out of Cal City. The father's side of me was having a good time but my mother's side was making me feel like a real sleaze bag."
I hope this helps clear the air about the above-mentioned 1949 date discrepancy.
Steve Fishell |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 16 May 2019 11:24 am
|
|
Thanks for that, Steve. I was having trouble with 1949, but it's good to know the story is true other than dates.
28 String Swing? Three 8s is 24. I guess that makes Mese a bass player?
Have you any knowledge whatsoever of this daily radio show? I'm wondering if Buddy ever spoke of it. |
|
|
|
Jerry Jones
From:
Franklin, Tenn.
|
|
|
|
Fish
|
Posted 16 May 2019 7:11 pm
|
|
Hi Mitch-
Buddy only mentions KBOA in his memoirs one time, saying when they moved to Kennett, he, Henry Shropshire, Roy Mese and Johnny Patterson all "worked a radio show on KBOA in the mornings and played surrounding towns on week nights." |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 16 May 2019 7:48 pm
|
|
Jerry and Fish:
I've been researching this for most of the last 6 or 8 hours.
The Shropshire interview Jerry linked to is 81 minutes, but rough sound quality, so you can't get all the details.
Apparently Shropshire worked with the Chuck Harding band in Kennett before ever meeting Buddy in Calumet City. Harding had a daily radio show on KBOA as far back as 1950 if not earlier.
Shropshire bolted to Cal City and hated it, working there for "a week and 4 days", during which time he ran into Buddy, Johnny Patterson, and Roy "Meesy" and talked them into going back to Kennett in Henry's Packard.
Henry had contacts back in Kennett, so they found work in a club there immediately and for the next 6 or 8 months in the surrounding area as far north as Cape Girardeau and west into Arkansas. Henry speaks of Buddy and Roy setting off firecrackers in his Packard.
It's unclear if this band included Chuck Harding, who by this time had made a number of records as far back as 1948. It's also unclear but likely that the 2 1/2 hour radio show was Chuck Harding's band, with Henry, Johnny, Buddy, "Meesy" and others. The show began at 9 am daily.
Henry decided there were easier ways to make a living. "Buddy went to Nashville". Henry was broke, but he, wife, and daughter got a ride to Oildale CA in 1957, where he and Red Simpson worked at a car wash.
That led to an introduction to Bill Woods, who hired Henry into the house band at the Blackboard in Bakersfield, replacing Johnny Cuviello. Henry worked as a drummer in the area for the next 40 years till his death in 1998.
Here's a pic of the Chuck Harding band at KBOA, somewhere in the early 50s. Henry Shropshire on drums. Too bad that isn't Buddy. Surely someone from MO can identify that steeler. Harding with the Les Paul.
The guy in the bow tie is Johnny Patterson. Is that also him with the Fender standard guitar? I'd guess not, since he was born in 1935. This band pic is likely before Henry met Buddy in Illinois, maybe 1950 to 1953.
I also found a picture and obit for Buddy's first wife. She passed away in Jonesboro, Arkansas 10 or 12 years ago. Survivors included Larry and Nona Emmons of Mt. Juliet TN.
 |
|
|
|
