Remembering the Sheriff, Faron Young

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 9 Dec 2010 5:23 pm

My former employer has been gone 14 years today. The cover bands I've worked with for the last 38 years have been big on Haggard, Price and Jones, but pretty slim on Faron's stuff, and I just don't get it. Ya don't get no better than "Wine Me Up" and "Hello Walls". WTF? Faron at Steel Guitar Insanity

Jack Harper · Post by **Jack Harper** » 9 Dec 2010 6:15 pm

cal, i'm with you.
the king of country class was the sheriff, bar none!
a few weeks back i got to do "wine me up" with you on steel at the jamboree in dickson, tenneessee, a highlight for me and when i come back i plan to do a faron song everytime 'til ya'll holler ...calfrope.
thanxxx for the memories ...faron young..forever!
country jack.........
merry christmas to cal & leeanne.......

Andy Jones · Post by **Andy Jones** » 9 Dec 2010 7:10 pm

Cal and Jack,I'm with both of you."Wine Me Up","Step Aside","Goin' Steady",and "Three Days" are my favorites by the Sheriff.I sing "Wine Me Up"every chance I get.

I saw Faron several times in my hometown of Meridian,MS at the Jimmie Rodgers Festival.He never let me down.

The best show I saw him do was at the historic Temple theatre in Meridian.Must have been around '81 or'82.Cal,you may have been the steeler then.I went on the bus after the show and bought a couple of LP's from the band.One of them was "The Deputies",an LP the band cut.Great music and vocals.I still have it and listen to it occasionally.

Andy

Will Houston · Post by **Will Houston** » 9 Dec 2010 8:30 pm

Hey who was that young, cool looking dude on the steel?
Thanks for sharing that clip you can't hear music like that anymore unless you get the old albums out, or now on youtube.

Dave Grothusen · Post by **Dave Grothusen** » 10 Dec 2010 4:55 am

My all-time favorite. I envy you getting to know the man and play for him. I know from reading that you probably had tough times being around him but also fun and memorable one. Same as with anyone. Cal I enjoy your web site. Thanks

John LeMaster · Post by **John LeMaster** » 10 Dec 2010 5:36 am

It is startling to realize it has been 14 years since Faron departed. I keep a CD of his greatest hits in rotation all the time.

Cal, I think that a lot of bands/singers do not perform Faron's hits because it is not easy to do them well. On occasion, I will hear a fair cover version of one of The Sheriff's songs, but many times they just fall short. I have heard lots of folks do plausible versions of "Crazy Arms" or "Silver Wings", but very few I've heard can do justice to "Step Aside", "She Went a Little Bit Farther" or "Hello Walls". Just my opinion.

I saw him in person way back in about 1970. He was quite a character on stage, but man, what a voice.

John L.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 10 Dec 2010 7:01 am

"It's Four In The Morning" is in rotation now on one of the country channels on Sirius XM radio.

Great site, Cal!

Sonny Priddy · Post by **Sonny Priddy** » 10 Dec 2010 7:04 am

Goin Steady Boy That Was The Song Back In 1952 & 53 SONNY.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 10 Dec 2010 8:21 am

I didn't know him personally, but from all I've heard, that is the perfect 'in your face' picture of him. A band I was in back in the day, specialized in doing some of the more obscure songs of his. Love "Steel Guitar Insanity" as well - keep it up, there's some of us still out here.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 10 Dec 2010 8:32 am

that is the perfect 'in your face' picture of him.

Yeah, he's like, "You talkin' to me, you talkin' to me?" <chuckle> That's Dave Dudley with the hat behind him, at a show in Canada.
Come back any time, Jack.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 10 Dec 2010 8:59 am

This article is taken from the Summer, 1953 issue of "Hillbilly & Cowboy Hit Parade".

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 10 Dec 2010 11:34 am

I think my all time favorite of his came out when I was a kid in the early fifties. It was called "Tattle Tale Tears" and had some of the nicest steel work on it I'd ever heard. No pedals but a lot of taste. Anyone know who the steel player might have been?........JH in Va.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 10 Dec 2010 11:41 am

First time I've heard his name was on a longplayer by British group Prefab Sprout which included the song
"Faron Young".
I didn't know who he was back then.
Years later I found the Jerry Kennedy produced "It's Four In the Morning" album.
I love this record because of the man's voice and the strings'n'things playing along.

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 10 Dec 2010 12:11 pm

Jerry Hayes wrote:I think my all time favorite of his came out when I was a kid in the early fifties. It was called "Tattle Tale Tears" and had some of the nicest steel work on it I'd ever heard. No pedals but a lot of taste. Anyone know who the steel player might have been?........JH in Va.

1 March 1952 [no. 2560] Castle Studio At The Tulane Hotel, 206 8th Ave. North, Nashville 3, TN - Faron Young (Billy Byrd [gt], Chet Atkins [gt], Jimmy Day [steel], Lightning Chance [bass], Farris Coursey [drums], Tommy Jackson [fiddle], Floyd Cramer [piano]. Producer: Ken Nelson)
001 9842-8/60485* HAVE I WAITED TOO LONG Capitol F2039 EAP2-1096/T 1096 DT-5022* BCD-15493 JASMCD-3570
002 9843-4/60491* TATTLE TALE YEARS F2039 EAP1-450 EAP1-1096/T 1096 DT-5022* BCD-15493 CMF-020 JASMCD-3570
003 9844-7/61995* WHAT CAN I DO WITH MY SORROW F2171/DT 5121* BCD-15493 JASMCD-3570

He has been one of my faves since I began listening to country music--a long time ago.

I loved to listen to him run off at the mouth on Ralph Emery's old "Nashville Now" show.

I only saw him perform once--in Sacramento, around 1980. He was sitting alone in the bar of this club before the performance and I considered approaching him. But his reputation had preceded him and I didn't say a word. I wish now that I had. Cal---who would have been on steel in 1980?

I think maybe he gets less respect now than Price or Jones because he didn't get a lot of airplay after the 1970s. Nobody under 50 recalls him in his heyday. I don' think he was on a major label for the last 15 years of his life. It's a shame because his voice was in good shape well into the 1980s.

Carl Smith is a similar situation. Carl chose to give it up at around 50 and didn't have to endure the last 30 years of what is laughingly called "country music". Carl must be even less known to today's nimrods than Faron.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 10 Dec 2010 12:25 pm

That looks like the Big E in that last picture.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 10 Dec 2010 12:51 pm

How'd you like to be that guy in the photo with his legs crossed?

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 10 Dec 2010 1:41 pm

My favorite Faron song is one of his early hits. " If Thats The Fashion". Faron Young. One of the greatest voices ever. Jody.

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 10 Dec 2010 2:07 pm

Cal, Thanks for this thread.

Faron Young was truly one of the greats. Some 20-odd years ago, I was fortunate to play steel guitar in a honky tonk cover band called The Wildsiders. The premise of the band was to play only the biggest honky tonk hits from the late 40's through the late 60's. Naturally, Faron's music was well represented. The band had three vocalists with great lungs, phrasing and pitch. Among the Faron covers we did were "Goin' Steady", "Live Fast, Love Hard, and Die Young", "Four In the Morning", "Wine Me Up", "Country Girl" , "Step Aside", etc.

During any gig, one of the vocalists in the band, his name was Mike Heil, would announce before the first Faron Young song of the night, "It's Faron's world, we only live in it!" That would always crack me up.

Man, that band was a wall-to-wall party every gig. Like many fun gigs, it didn't last nearly long enough.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 10 Dec 2010 2:17 pm

Mitch wrote

I only saw him perform once--in Sacramento, around 1980. He was sitting alone in the bar of this club before the performance and I considered approaching him. But his reputation had preceded him and I didn't say a word. I wish now that I had. Cal---who would have been on steel in 1980?

Not me, I started Jan '80 and never played Sacramento with him. But they did play somewhere in CA - maybe Sacramento - shortly before I came on the band and Faron was having so much fun that night that he wouldn't get on the bus to leave for the next gig, so they left his ass there and he had to fly down the next day, still wearing his Harvey Krantz rhinestone stage outfit.

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 10 Dec 2010 2:32 pm

How 'bout 'dis!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO02NGwvqPU

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 10 Dec 2010 2:42 pm

Here's an early one with the late Ben Keith on steel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQtf3bUol58

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

George Rozak · Post by **George Rozak** » 10 Dec 2010 5:44 pm

I believe that's Dicky Overby on steel in the "I Miss You Already" clip. Dicky wrote my all time favorite Faron Young song, "You Had a Call."

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 10 Dec 2010 7:26 pm

Yes, George, That's Dickey Overbey.

One of my favorite Faron tunes is "Leaving and saying Goodbye". I get to hear the Western Swing Authority play it every time I go listen to them.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 10 Dec 2010 9:37 pm

I guess I'm lucky. One of the bands I play with regularly plays "Wine Me Up", "Leaving and Saying Goodbye", and "If I Ever Fall In Love With A Honky Tonk Girl". Most bands I have played with over the years have done at least one Faron song. He had so many great songs.

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 10 Dec 2010 10:55 pm

Our band is strictly country golden oldies and we do five of Faron Young's songs on a regular basis.