Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The Countrymen:
Dub Purvis: fiddle
Carlis Vannatter: steel guitar
Hank Telford: rhythm guitar
Zoomer Roberts: electric bass
Gordon Young: drums
recorded 1978 at Hines Lumber Co.

O Come, Angel Band

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Zoomer Roberts: lead guitar & vocal
Buddy Winston: rhythm guitar & vocal
Jerry Boyer: vocal
recorded 3 July 1981

Theme from "Father Knows Best"

Zoomer Roberts: mandolin
Buddy Winston: guitar
recorded September 1981

As part of our show, Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer used to play old TV themes and award a modest prize to the first person who could correctly identify them. I don't recall anybody not knowing this one! The only time we ever really stumped 'em was with the theme from the "Gillette Cavalcade of Sports." It was fun, and enabled me to get some melodies I loved out of my system.

It's Hank Snow on Country Music Time!

Country Music Time was a series of 15-minute radio shows distributed by the United States Air Force. Each show featured a "name" country artist, who would perform three songs, and a guest artist, who would perform a fourth song. About halfway through, a recruiter would talk about the opportunities to be had in "today's Air Force." The shows were sent out to radio stations on transcription discs, which often found their way into private collections after being broadcast. Along about 1963, a boy who was dating my sister handed me a half-dozen of these records (possibly to make me go away), including this one by Hank Snow. I was mesmerized. Snow's commercial records at that time featured background singers and Floyd Cramer's piano work, so it was a revelation that he still performed "live" with his Rainbow Ranch Boys: fiddle, steel, "sock rhythm" guitar and bass. Then there were the songs. "My Two-Timin' Woman" was one of Snow's older Canadian recordings. It had made a big impression on Johnny Cash (who recorded it for Sun) and Buddy Holly, who made a home recording of the piece -- including the guitar break -- when he was 13. "Little Buddy" is a heart-breaking recitation about a little boy whose dog is beaten to death by a drunkard, and "These Things Shall Pass" is a solemn-but-optimistic inspirational number. I learned all three of these songs and sang them often, but no usable recordings have surfaced. No matter -- these are the versions to hear. They still sound as good as they did 45 years ago, which was, as Mr. Snow would say, "so fur back I hate to think it was a matter of fact."

Marie

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: vocal
Buddy Winston: vocal & guitar
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & mandolin
recorded 26 March 1983

Written by Irving Berlin, this song was a hit in 1937 for Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. The vocalist on the record was the band's "boy singer" (yes, there really was such a term), Jack Leonard. When Frank Sinatra replaced Leonard, he inherited the song. A broadcast recording of Sinatra singing "Marie" with Dorsey's band has been in my collection for many years. However, it was an Original Texas Playboys record -- with a vocal by Joe Frank Ferguson -- that inspired Jerry, Buddy and me to try our luck with it. We threw in four bars of Charleston during the second instrumental break, and the ending is from the theme to the old Paramount newsreels. Eternally unable to devise a "hot" solo, I pretty much stick to the melody. I don't know what Irving Berlin -- or Dorsey, or Sinatra -- would have thought of this, but we loved it.

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

Jerry, Buddy & Zoomer
Jerry Boyer: lead vocal
Buddy Winston: vocal & guitar
Zoomer Roberts: vocal & mandolin
recorded 26 March 1983

We learned this from a 1952 recording by the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle. Songs with similar themes and titles have been around for centuries. Typically, "maidens" is used instead of "ladies." The moral is always the same: marriage will enslave you to a loveless life of drudgery.