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WELL, GUITAR, HERE I AM OLD FRIEND, back to sing some blues again....ain’t it funny...I always come right back to you. Stan Hitchcock and Ronnie Reno 1982
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I continued doing the radio shows with the Waymakers and we even paid for, and recorded, a couple of custom albums for the Boys Ranch to help raise funds to carry on the work.
One day, in the early part of 1962, I was in the studio of radio station KWTO to record some of our radio shows when the recording engineer, Wan Hope, asked me if I knew any country music songs. I said sure (thinking about the old Bryce Canyon Troubadours). He said he was setting up the controls and how about singing a couple, maybe three songs for him. You must realize that I was a total gospel singer up to this point, without a thought of being a hillbilly singer.
Well, Wan taped those songs I sang and he sent them to Bob Tubert who was running a publishing company for Si Siman in Nashville at the time. Bob had gone to school in Springfield and later was part of the creative crew of the Ozark Jubilee, but I had never met him. Bob Tubert took the demo of just me and my guitar and those old country songs to the grand old man of Columbia Records in Nashville.....Don Law.
Don was an Englishman who was responsible for most of the great stars of the country music roster of Columbia and one of the nicest gentlemen this music biz will ever know. Of course, I had never heard of Don Law in my life...so when the phone rang, at the Boys Ranch, and the man on the other end said, "Stan, this is Don Law of Columbia Records", it didn’t really ring any chimes in my head....but, I was polite, just like Mama raised me to be. He asked me to come to Nashville and talk to him and, of course, I thought he wanted to talk about the Boys Ranch. I said sure I would be glad to come see him, got the directions, and hung up.
I went into the radio station the next day and asked Si Siman about Don Law and he proceeded to fill me in on just who this man was, and that he had asked Bob Tubert to set up the meeting with him. Well, I don’t mean to sound dumb, but I was so consumed with what I was doing at the Boys Ranch that all I wanted to talk to him about was the work we were doing with the boys. By this time we had about thirty boys, had put on house parents and set up a board of directors of some of the leading business people in the area, and it was doing good.
Anyway, I went on down to Nashville for the first time, around June of ‘62, somehow found my way to Bob Tubert’s office, who then took me to Don Laws office and we went in to meet with him. He was the very epitome of kindness and warmth and I began to open up to him about the lives of these boys we were working with.....and...he’d stop me and say "sing me a song". Well he had a guitar over in the corner, so I picked it up and sang him a couple of good old gospel songs. Then back to the story of the boys....and, very quietly, he’d say, "sing me another song". A couple of hours later he finally pushed back from his desk and reached in the drawer for his checkbook....wrote me a check for $500 for a donation to the Boys Ranch...shook my hand and said, "You’ll be hearing from me soon."
I was elated at the gift of the check and went on back to the Ranch feeling like it had been a good trip and a wonderful opportunity to spread the word about homeless boys.
Three weeks later the postmaster up at the little country post office just a mile from the Ranch called and told me I had a big package from New York City. Shoot, I didn’t know anyone in New York City, but I went on up to the Store, Post Office and Gas Station that served as the closest tie to outside civilization and sure enough there was a big manila envelope with my name on it and it was postmarked New York City. Opening it up I found a long term Recording Contract with Columbia Records and a new life that was just starting to peek around the corner.
Dumb luck or the Fickle Finger of Fate? Beats me, but ain’t that a weird way to get in show biz?
Wishing you well,
Stan
stan@bluehighwaystv.com
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