"One Promise Too Late," RICHEST WOMAN COUNTRY SINGER WOULD BE A

TO
TOSS UP between Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire. If you would choose between the two, which do you think would be the RICHEST woman in Country Music. I know, I know, I didn't list Wynonna Judd, but WY had a biography on CMT about her, and it wasn't very long ago that she nearly filed bankruptcy. She had to stop buying dinner for everyone in her crew. I think Toby Keith takes along about 60 workers, and they all have be paid for. So I am going to count her out. Now, how about Dolly and Reba?



Try that with Dolly or Dolly Parton. By the way, Reba McEntire is from Oklahoma. Oklahoma has produced more Miss Americas than any other state in the union. And, ... most of them graduated from Oklahoma City University, a Methodist university, that is next only to Julliard, in New York. Dolly graduated from high school and headed for Nashville. Not Reba.

Now, if you haven't gone to reba.com, now is the time to do it. Dolly doesn't own her own named webpage. ELVIS is copyrighted. Reba is copyrighted. Reba studied music at OCU, and probably with a minor in business. Look at the photos above. How old do you think Reba McEntire is? She looks 21, but she is easily double that, but you couldn't tell. I wonder why?

McEntire, like Dolly, is always on display. She owns her own line of clothing, beauty cosmetics, and runs her whole show, either out of her house or out of her offices in Nashville. I don't know. There is so much out there about Reba, that it is your job to find out as much about her as possible. Since you are going to college, then study other successful people, to become successful, yourself, if you want to.

Reba always sang the Star Spangled Banner when the National Rodeo Association, had their big rodeo in OKC. Record publisher heard her, and signed her. She still waited until she graduated, before Reba started happening. Both her and Vince Gill hit Nashville around the same time. See if you can find out what year she started singing, and figure out her first record. Yep, it would be vinyl.

Reba is VERY educated, and she realizes that her market is Country, and she talks the talks. Her speech actually makes you believe that she is just another one of the ranch hands at a cattle branding. Wrong. Her brother tried it in the industry, and came back to their ranch in Oklahoma. So, making it in Nashville is harder than a diamond, and she has done it.

Please use the Internet and find out as much as you can about her, because I want to be surprised! Both her and DOlly are multi-millionaires for sure. But Reba is Reba. One of her guards thought I was going to try to break into the Myriad Center, where her buses were being loaded.

"Not!" I said. "I'm just taking a shortcurt." And that is about as close as I have come to her. I don't even know if I have a Reba CD. I'll check and see. My favorite song of hers, is the one about, "One Promise Too Late." Where she is telling a boyfriend that she is married, and he was just too late. Hmm, the reason why I like it is that its chords are the same progression as C AM F and G7. A million songs were written to that, even DOlly's "I WIll Always Love You." Isn't it amazing that both of their best songs to me, have the chording progression the same.

Have fun looking and seeing and finding.

Woody Wilson Guthrie - The Man Who Took Oklahoma with him.

We have a new baby boy in our family, named Reed Michael Hill. He was born on June 14th, Flag Day, at 9:52 and weighed 8lbs 2 ounces. Reed had a tough start. His mother, Jill, would have to receive a grade of A+ on handling the delivery. I drove back home, which I can no longer do. My back is so painful, it is easy for me to get disoriented. I never could get the cruise control to work right. To be honest with you, this was the first time I drove Marcella's SuperCharged Mazda S6. I ended up exiting the tournpike at the wrong place and ended up driving the long way home. Forgot that they have a new cut-off that takes you straight from the tournpike to the University of Oklahoma.

One time, Nathan was stranded on that road, after he picked up a friend who had been in a psychiatric unit to get her medications re-adjusted. Their car stopped, so we jumped it and followed them home. My back is such, that I really cannot even open the hood and look under it. My days of tearing lawn mowers up and fixing them are over. Too hard on my lower back.

When I got home, Sassie, the greatest Blues Dog in the World, was waiting for me on the sofa. We went to bed, but, even with strong, Rush Limbaugh, pain killers, I couldn't sleep. Those things are like candy to my back. So, Sassie is sleeping beside me, while I am at the computer. I need to pull myself away from this computer for several days to give my back a vacation.

I think we are making inroads, on getting Jesse "Eddie" Davis, ready to smash the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, the next time the committee meets. I need to go up and talk to Byron Berline, one of the world's greatest fiddlers, who lives in Guthrie. He has played with "The Roling Stones," and bunches of other recording artists. He helps sponsor a music "shindig" (get together) in October. We have not gone there, but maybe this time. I'm not much on sitting and listening to artists play. I would rather find a group of musicians playing under the trees and sit in. A violin and fiddle are the same thing, except, when it is played in the orchestra, it's called a violin; when it's played with Bluegrass bands and Country bands, it is called a fiddle. I had to make that distinction quite emphatic, in one of my graduate level courses. The fiddle is tuned the same way as a mandolin, only it is played with the end, pressed against your neck or ribs and is played with a "horsehair bow."

Anyway, the meanest Prof wised-off about me and a violin, because he knew, ... well everyone knew, I played the guitar, and no one else could. He got a laugh, so at the break, I went over and sat down with him, back in the days I was drinking coffee by the gallon, and killing my guts.

"So, what did you think of my comment about you and the violin?" None of the other students would dare sit with him and was blown away that I would.

"Well, Prof," I laughed. "I could tell right off that you don't know a darn thing about music, either Country, Bluegrass, and roots music. You're an obvious orchestra man. You see, Prof, Country musicians and Bluegrassers never call a violin, a violin. They call it a fiddle." He laughed and didn't lower my grade.

Bob Dylan is a leach but won't admit it. He hung around Woody in New York in his final year or so of life. So did another musician named Jack Scott. Of the two, Jack will admit that he borrowed heavily from Woody. They called, Scott, "Rambling Jack Scott" because he hitched rides and hoboed with Woody for years. Woody had a profound influence on Pete Seeger as well. Guthrie took up causes, for the people and would write lots of music, many of them to tunes that wre already in Publica Domain. I'm wondering if any of Guthrie's music is Copyrighted. And don't forget, "You Can Get Anything You Want, at Alice's Restaurant," Arlo Guthrie.

In his final years, Guthrie was dying Huntington's disease, and his singing ability morphed into droning and elongation of final consonents. Dylan picked his style up from those Guthrie years. His chorea, caused him lots of problems, and he even spent a couple of years in a psychiatric hospital. Incredulous as it may be, Woody's mother had a mental break down and was hospitalized for the duration of her life.

Born in Okemah, Okfuskee County, many counties in Oklahoma have Indian names, in 1912. He was born into a hard life and his songs tell of the trials and tribulations during those dust bowl years. He left his first wife, and then married a gal in Texas. The marriage failed, and his Texas wife, is still bitter over it. In his final years, he hitched up with another gal, who really helped him in his schedules.

Now, we're going to do some stuff of Jack Scott. He was named a "National Treasure" in the Clinton administration, which he was very proud. Kris Kristofferson said this about Scott, "He'd get up on stage and piddle with his guitar by tuning the thing for 10 minutes. Good God, get the hell out there and sing a song."

Scott was a son of a doctor, whose name wasn't even close to Scott, and when his parents attended one of his concerts in Europe, his fans were blown away, that a person in the US could actually chose their own life style. Scott was a better guitar player than Guthrie and Dylan. He was an accomplished musician, who could yodel, do the Merle Travis pick, the thumb as the melody pick, or simply, open picking of flat picking, where he used a pick to play the chords or pick out the melody. I choose the later, thank you.

Enough said about Scott, because we will cover him in depth later. As far as I know, he is still alive. Ya' wanna read Woody's biography. Well, here it is. Click on it and see what you get, while I pull up a picture of ol' Woody. And, by the way, I will be adding more to this as I find pertinent (important) discoveries as I split the atoms in cyberspace. Hee, Haw!



By the way, Woody never was "bought and paid for by any music company." Once he had enough of the New York "big wigs" in music, he and Jack would head off to some other cause. If they ran out of money, they would simply find a full house of eaters, and get up and sing for 30 minuts and then pass the hat around. In their "lingo" that was and is called buskin. Bonnie Raitt lived that way for years. Now, that gal is a killer. Slide guitar will blast you up against the wall, and straddle ya' on a carpenter's horse. She is an artist.

MORE TO COME.

Redwoods bloom and sand bass bite!

Howdy From Oklahoma! This time of year, the Red Buds are blooming and our pear tree is full of blossoms. My neighbor has started a garden, when he distinctly told me he was not going to make one. I will be successful, this spring, if I can get the Roto Tiller running again. I need to clean out the carburator, empty the gas, and put on a new throttle, and, of course, do other mundane things to the Troy Built, like adjust the new throttle, change the oil, and put in new gas.

Red Bud blossoms mean that the white, sand bass are biting at Fort Cobb Lake, and the walleye have moved into the rip-rap areas of the dam to spawn, feed, and move to the surface, around sundown. I've been fishing once, this year, but it is my goal to get over there and do some bait fishing.

I have been married to Marcella a long time. We have 5 kids who are all grown, 3 grand kids, not including a foster daughter and grandaughter, and two informally adopted grand children, who otherwise would not have grand parents. My daughter, Holli, is a Nationally Certified Music Educator, with a degree in Performance Piano, and has her own business in Lawton, Holli Hill Piano Studio, while Nathan plays the guitar and the bass, as he goes to Wesleyan Seminary, in Washington, DC. He is a free-lance writer and is considered a staff writer for DisciplesWorld Magazine. He has two books published and writes and performs music in Washington, DC at "open mic" venues in the area.

My oldest son, Darrin and his wife, Jill, both are interested in music and musical wordsmyths. Darrin works for the Oklahoma Wildlife Division of our state government, and Jill teaches Social Studies in the Edmond School System. Our youngest daughter, Drema, is an Oklahoma Certified Beauty Operator. She is breastfeeding, successfully, her baby, Seth, and works inside of one of the local WalMarts, cutting the hair of Army men and women from Ft. Sill, the US's artillery range.

I am a 34 year retired teacher. Marcella works at a hospital and is an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She spent one year at Ozark Bible College and then received her Licensed Practical Nursing degree from Emporia, Kansas Vo-Tech.

I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1968 and received my masters degree in 1976, from Fort Hayes University in Hayes, Kansas. While we were in Kansas, we lost our first child and then had a boy and a girl. So we have 3 Sooners and 2 Jay Hawkers. You can find out all about me by going to www.dalehill.us. You can also hit my web page by putting "googlezapp" (c) 2004, or "zelaxx" in google. A googlezapp is a word put in google's search machine, that leads to one web site and one only. I have a copyright on the name "googlezapp." In the United States, the instant you write something for publication or non-publication, it is instantly copyrighted. I want to dwell on that topic as we delve into the musical heritage of Oklahoma, which is diverse and significant, when it comes to the genre of Americana Music History.

Woody Guthrie migrated from Okeema, Oklahoma in the '30s and '40s, to protest work-place abuses, and supported worker causes. Just finished watching a movie about him. He caught trains to move from one place to the other. Back then, train-hoppers were called "Hobos." Jimmy Rogers, a prolific writer, who was from Mississippi, and was influenced by Guthrie as well; and Rogers' significant contribution to Americana music was, Country Blues. I sing a lot of Jimmy Rogers' songs and couldn't live without pulling much from his influence in my life.

Looky yonder coming, coming down that railroad track.
I said, "Lookie yonder coming, coming down that railroad track.
See the black smoke roling, roling out that old smoke stack.

If you don't love me baby, then I just don't need you.
If you don't love me baby, then I surely don't need you.
I'll just pull out my ax, and sing the hobo blues.
Yo De La De Lo De Lady O De Looo.

Merle Haggard's parents moved from Oklahoma to California in the 30's, and Hag grew up to be a petty thief and spent time in Folsom Prison, where he heard Johnny Cash, who came from this part of the country, Dias, Arkansas. "The Hag's" influence on Country Music is unquestioned, as a great singer, song writer, guitar player, and fiddle player. We will spend one blog topic on The Hag and possibly more, whose one song, "Okie From Muskogee," put him in the Country Music history book.

"If I were to die," said Merle. "I would want to be remembered as a great fiddler."

He actually learned the fiddle later on in life. A fiddle and a violin are exactly the same instrument, except in Country Music and Blue Grass Music, the violin is called a "fiddle." The fiddle does not have frets - a fretless musical instrument, which it shares with the tall, upright bass. Again, a part of the Americana Music History.

I have played with many bands, but none on a regular basis. I consider myself as an entertainer, rather than part of a band. I have the most fun, though, when I am playing my harmonicas with a band. Few people in Oklahoma have mastered the harmonica, and right now, it is a big part of Gospel Music and Country Music. Bob Dylan used it as the bridge between the chorus and the verses, as well as a bridge between the full verses and at the end of each phrase. Of course, Dylan took Woodie's harp and put it to use in most of his songs, including "Like A Roling Stone." My grandpa played the harmonica, and I was influenced, certainly by him. Once I learned to play the harmonica, I moved on to learn to play the guitar. And, dig this, I didn't really learn to play the guitar until I had graduated from college.

Yes, I have used my guitar extensively, over the years, in the classroom settings. It means that you can pick up the guitar at any age, and learn to play it. You can't play basketball the rest of your life, but you can die, playing a musical instrument, which has happened to two of my friends. David, in the Old Testament played musical instruments and soothed King Saul when the king was overcome with depression. Playing a musical instruments, like writing, helps those of us who are depressed.

Walking through Sears a few weeks, ago, I spotted a Vinci ukulele, which was made in China, and bought it, and within two weeks, I would not be scared to get up and play it in front of a group. In fact, ... considering the time that it took me to learn to play it, I would suggest that a guitar player, might be better off learning the ukulele first and then graduate to a guitar later. I actually knew a guy that did just that at the University of Oklahoma.

While in college, I had little time to learn to play the guitar, and the guitar that I had was worthless. When buying a guitar, we need to look at the distance between the strings and the frets. The frets are the little pieces of steel that go across the neck of the guitar. The higher they are apart, the less likely a student would be able to play the guitar. I have taught hundreds of people to play the guitar, and my advice has always been, if you want to play the guitar, then invest a couple of hundred dollars on your first guitar. Why? Well, a 200 dollar guitar would be considered an intermediate level guitar, which has potential for a first timer, to learn to play on it. Secondly, ... if you spend 200 dollars or more on a guitar, then you have a significant investment in the guitar and will be more likely to learn to play it.

I have taught students, individually, but the main way I have taught guitar is in a group setting or class for adults at Caddo-Kiowa Vocational Technical Center. I taught for over 20 years, until my blood pressure forced me to say goodbye to doing anything in the evenings, when my pressure tends to creep up. It was fun, over the years, and I have made a lot friends doing just that. My son, Nathan, and his friend, John, both signed up for the class, and I paid their tuition. They were beyond motivated to play the guitar, and by the second semester in the 7th grade, after one semester's work, they formed their own band and played throughout high school. John is the only student from his entire family to get a college degree, Social Studies major and a minor in Music.

Now go back to the Jimmy Roger's style verses, listed above. The second verse is mine, and the song would be an example of 12 bar Blues*. It is virtually impossible to write a 12 bar Blues song and not engage in this traditional form of the song, and I do believe that a copyright for any song that adheres to this style is still possible, in the aura of the groove and the nature of the new words. If you listen closely, there is a relationship between the 12 bar Blues and Rock and Role Music.

You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time.
I said, You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time.
You ain't caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.

Now, as we study this basic form of Blues, please note that each line receives its own line. This is the traditional method of pasting a song's word on paper or on the Internet. The words are not just jumbled together, but are published in a poetic form. Generally, too, the lines have two full spaces, with a space between each line. If you are interested in learning to play the guitar or Uke, then, on that blank line, we would place the chord above the chord changes. Virtually all songs written, start on one note and will end on that same note, with little exception.

I've sung or studied songs all my life, and both, rather intensely, since I was 24 years old. So, if you are interested in a specific song's "lyrics," and that is what they are called, and have purchased a Uke, I will do my best to post the chords for the song. But remember, virtually any song ever written, by now, can be found on the Internet. So to save me time, be sure to put the words of a song, as written, and paste them into google. You should find a hit with the words and the chords published somewhere. I will also spend some time on tablature.

Then, I would love it, if you would repaste that song onto your blog in the form it is posted in the manner that you found it. It should be fun.

The amazing thing about the Internet, now, is that there are sites everywhere that help you learn to play a stringed instrument. So, ... as we work through this examination of Americana Music and indigenous music of Oklahoma, here in the United States, we should have much fun. And, remember too, that the crafter of song writing uses his craft to write songs that can reach each of us in an inclusively, different way.

So, let us plow forward, as we have fun studying the Music of Americana. Remember, always give credit to the song writer, and not the singer, only. The song writer makes more than the singer, when it comes to the retail value of the CD.


OLD RIVERS
Walter Brennan
Words and music by Crofford (that's all I wrote at the time I transcribed
it -- years ago)

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I FIRST SEEN OLD RIVERS?
WHY, I CAN'T REMEMBER WHEN HE WEREN'T AROUND.
WELL, THAT OLD MAN DID A HEAP OF WORK;
SPENT HIS WHOLE LIFE WALKING PLOWED GROUND.

HE HAD A ONE-ROOM SHACK NOT FAR FROM US,
AND WE WAS ABOUT AS POOR AS HIM.
HE HAD ONE OLD MULE HE CALLED "MIDNIGHT",
AND I'D TAG ALONG AFTER THEM.

HE'D PLOW THEM ROWS STRAIGHT AND DEEP
AND I'D TAG ALONG BEHIND,
BUSTIN' UP CLODS WITH MY OWN BARE FEET --
OLD RIVERS WAS A FRIEND OF MINE.

THAT SUN WOULD GET HIGH AND THAT MULE WOULD WORK
TILL OLD RIVERS'D SAY, "WHOA!"
THEN HE'D WIPE HIS BROW, LEAN BACK IN THE REINS,
AND TALK ABOUT A PLACE HE WAS GONNA GO.

(CHORUS)
SAY, ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GONNA CLIMB THAT MOUNTAIN;
WALK UP THERE AMONG THEM CLOUDS,
WHERE THE COTTON'S HIGH AND THE CORN'S A-GROWIN',
AND THERE AIN'T NO FIELDS TO PLOW.

I GOT A LETTER FROM BACK HOME THE OTHER DAY --
THEY'RE ALL FINE, AND THE CROPS IS HIGH --
AND DOWN AT THE END MY MAMA SAID,
"YOU KNOW, OLD RIVERS DIED."
I'M JUST SITTING HERE ON THIS NEW-PLOWED EARTH,
TRYIN' TO FIND ME A LITTLE SHADE.
AND WITH THE SUN BEATING DOWN, 'CROSS THE FIELD I SEE
THAT MULE, OLD RIVERS...AND ME

(repeat CHORUS) From: "Roy T. O'Conner"

Caddo County Harpman (ccharpman) google "googlezaapp"

NEWEST BLOG

http://okharpman.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_okharpman_archive.html
*

Understanding the 12-Bar Blues
The most common musical form of blues is the 12-bar blues. The term "12-bar" refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues song. Nearly all blues music is played to a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are four beats in every measure or bar and each quarter note is equal to one beat.

A 12-bar blues is divided into three four-bar segments. A standard blues progression, or sequence of notes, typically features three chords based on the first (written as I), fourth (IV), and fifth (V) notes of an eight-note scale. The I chord dominates the first four bars; the IV chord typically appears in the second four bars (although in the example below, Elmore James introduces it in the first four bars); and the V chord is played in the third four bars.

The lyrics of a 12-bar blues song often follow what's known as an AAB pattern. "A" refers to the first and second four-bar verse, and "B" is the third four-bar verse. In a 12-bar blues, the first and second lines are repeated, and the third line is a response to them—often with a twist.

(blues.com ... I think.)


(c) Dale Hill, 2006