ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME® MERCHANDISE & SERVICES
Traditional Country Hall of Fame
No one made better country records than Carl Smith. Yes country music has had some gaint music makers and theymhave left their mark. However, the one and only Carl Smith is one of the greats of Country Music.
It just so happens that the 50's was a time when the best songs in Country Music were made. History has already left it's mark on those achevements and that much is settled. Carl Smith's songs were a part of that Country Music History. Carl had songs in the country charts for 10 years in a row and a lot of those songs became Top 10 Hits.
Some of Carl's hits were "When You Feel Like Your In Love," "Just Don't Stand There' - it was Carl's biggest hit. "And why not" even the title sounds like a Hit Song.
Carl Smith made movies, had his own TV show and when he retired in the 80's he had placed over a hundred hit songs in the charts, many of them were Top 10 Hits.
Carl Smith was born in Maynardsville Tenn. By the time he was 15 he was working his summer vacation at WROL in Knoxville. After high school, Carl joined the Navy. When he was discharged he returned to his old job at WROL, as a singer, guitarist, and bass player.
Carl made a demo and it was sent to Troy Martin of Columbia Records. Martin liked Carl's style of singing and signed him to Columbia Records. His first Hit was in 1951 with "Lets Live A Little".
Carl Made friends easy and many of them helped to get his career into high gear. Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb gave Carl songs to record. Hank gave him "Me And My Broken Heart" and Ernest Tubb encouraged Carl to record "When You Feel Like Your In Love", "Just Don"t Stand There" and it became a No 1 Hit. He quickly had follow up hits "Are You Teasing Me", "It's A Lovely Lovely World", "Loose Talk" and "Back Up Buddy".
He joined The Grand Old Opry and became very popular. In 1957 at the height of his popularity he left The Opry to take Top billing on the Phillip Morris Country Music Show. Carl stayed for a year then began to make guest appearence's on other televised Country Music shows. Carl was a guest on Red Foley's Jubilee USA he Co-Hosted on Five Star Jubilee and later got his own TV Show, Carl smith's Country Music Hall which was very popular and lasted through one hundred and nine shows.
In the early 80's Carl gave up Entertainment and settled down on his 400 acre farm in Franklin,Tenn to become a horse breeder. Carl has been married to lovely and very talented Goldie Hill for many years.
Fisher Hendley
The Drop Thumb Pickin Banjo Man
All my life early life was filled with stories about my Uncle Fisher and his Five String Banjo and how he could play it fast as lightning. And the crazy name of his band The Aristocratic Pigs.
My daddys side of the family are from Alabama my mothers side are from North Carolina. The Hendley's were a huge family streaching from Ashville to Badin. Many members including my mother and Uncle Fisher were born in the mountains of Western N.C., in the beautiful marvelious town of Marion.
Uncle Fisher learned to play the banjo at an early age and never had a real job his job was pickin that five string banjo. My grand mother would tell him Fisher got out of this house with confounded thing and go to the top of Black Mountain where you can't drive anyone crazy with it, maybe you'll scare the bears to Tenn.
In time a move was made to Salisbury N.C. and many members of the large Hendley family went there to work for the Southern Rail Road which had a large repair shop. Today it's one the largest Train Museums in America. Uncle Fisher went to Trinity College and Graduated in 1923. Trinity later became Duke University.
During the 1920's he entered in the Southern Banjo Championship Contest and won over thirty times for way he played his drop thumb style. After college he moved to New York and began to play professionally. In the 20's and 30's he played what was called Hill Billy ... today it would be known as Blue Grass Music.
Uncle Fisher develped a hill billy comedy act on the night club circuit which was good enough to get him on the NBC radio variety shows. He began his recording career with OK records and after weak record sales he left and signed with Victor records but with no better results.
In 1935 he recorded for ARC records in New York. After a bitter disappointment with the big city moguls not pushing his records and one night stands on the road. Uncle Fisher returned to N.C. to live in Charlotte and Salisbury playing in nights clubs around the area.
He was always a good draw because people loved to heard him play his banjo. He moved to Greenville,S.C in 1939 when a meat packing company signed him to play over radio station WFBC. He named his band The Aristocratic Pigs after the meat packing plant name. Well if they pay the bills why not. He dressed up in custom made Tuxedo's and he and his band began to get a lot attention for their style of playing and the image they protrayed on stage. This lead to a contract with Vocalion Records were he recorded over a dozen records.
From WFBC he signed a contract to play over Wis Radio in Columbia S.C. He and his band stayed there until 1947. He left WIS radio and went back on the road playing all over South Carolina were he was very popular due to his record sales and radio shows.
Due to bad health Uncle Fisher retired in 1948. The last time I saw uncle Fisher I was visting my grandmother Abernathy in Albermale, N.C. and Uncle Fisher came by, driven there by one of our relatives.I was a Senior in High School it was 1959.
Uncle Fisher was 79 he played (ole man river) on the banjo. I never saw him again he died in 1961 at age 81. He's in Heaven playing a banjo not a harp and like Ole Man River he's just rollin along.
At The University of South Carolina in the music library there is a small section dedicated to Fisher Hendley for his contribution and Promotion of Blus Grass Music in The State of South Carolina.
Tom "Cat" Reeder
Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame 1997
I haven't seen Tom Reeder in years, or heard from him; but I can tell you this, Tom "Cat" Reeder
never was and never will be anything, but traditional country. I met Tom Reeder in 1969, when we
were disc jockeys at WDON in Wheaton, Maryland. Before Tom came to WDON, he was a disc jockey
in Abbyville and Mobile Alabama. Tom then joined the Air Force and was stationed at Andrews Air
Force Base, outside Washington, DC.Tom made friends with Jimmy Dean who was also stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. They both got out of the Air Force around the same time. Jimmy Dean formed the Texas Wild Cats and played around the Washington area and you know the rest of the story, sausage and all.
Tom went to work at WARL in Arlington, Virginia and became very good friends with Don Owens who had the biggest name in the Washington, Virginia, Maryland area. Matter-of fact Don Owens was known as Mr. Country Music until he was killed in a car accident. The crown was then passed to Tom Reeder, who moved to WDON to take over the early morning drive time Tom Reeder Show. Tom audiences was big thousand tuned in to hear the Tom Cat. They especially loved the closing of his show when he used a song called Tom Cattin recorded especially for him by Buck Owens. Tom closed his show everyday by saying: May the good Lord take a liking to you; May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live. Bye-bye darlin.
I met Tom while I was attending The National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, DC. I would come by the station early in the morning many times before he began his show and talk with Tom. It was a thrill and a privilege to be able to watch the biggest name DJ in the Washington, area go about his work. The phone never stopped ringing. I remember a time the phone rang and Tom said, "Hi, Buck how's everything in Bakersfield?" Tom and Buck Owens were very good friends. Tom had a big sponsor, who was a big fan of Buck Owens and Buck did the advertisement for the car dealer. Tom was also good friends with Jerry Lee Lewis. Whenever Jerry Lee played in the DC area, Tom was always the MC. I recall a time when Jerry Lee Lewis was playing at a club called the Dairyland. I was still in broadcasting school and Tom had gotten me tickets to the show. Jerry Lee had played a set or two when Tom spotted me sitting at a table. He came over and asked me would I like to meet Jerry Lee Lewis? Naturally, I said I would. Tom took me up to Jerry's dressing room. There must have been fifty or sixty people in there; big money people from the DC area, hanger's on back stage sues, other DJs. What a mixed crowd! Tom spotted Jerry Lee standing and talking with a bunch of them and walked up to Jerry who I remember as having one of those small cigars in one hand and a glass of bourbon in the other. When he saw Tom, he put his arm around him and said, "How are you doing "Killer"?" Tom said, "I'd like for you to meet Bobby Morris."
He wants to be a disc jockey." Jerry Lee looked at me and said, "You gonna play the "Killer's"records?" I stuttered and said," Sure, I'll play everyone of them." They both laughed and we all sat down and I listen as they talked then it was time for Jerry Lee to do another set.
How was I to know that I was sitting with two future hall of famers. Jerry Lee to the rock-n-roll hall of fame and Tom "Cat" to the country music disc jockey hall of fame. Jerry Lee has also been inducted into the rock-a-billy hall of fame in Burns, Tennessee.
Tom Reeder was a very nice thoughtful kind man. He was always helping someone. On another occasion, I came by the radio station late one morning and Margaret Corburn who was the station secretary was in her office. You had to go by her office to get to the studio, as I passed by she asked where did I think I was going? I said to see Tom. She said not today your not. No one is allowed back there except people on official business. About that time, Tom came down the hallway and said come on back Bobby. Margaret did not like me for a long time after that. I believe Tom Reeder knew about every country music artist in Nashville. He had a hand in helping many of them with their career. When Tom was a DJ in Abbyville, he played Jerry Lee Lewis's records when nobody else would.
I remember Tom had a Ford dealership on the air "Big Henry Woodfield" in Damascus, Maryland. One day a car and trailer pulled up to the station. It had a race car on it. It was the race car of Elmo Langley. We all got to meet him. As you all know, Elmo later became the pace car driver for NASCAR. Tom also helped Rick Nelson when he decided he wanted to do country music. He came by the station one day and tied up all the traffic both ways on Georgia Avenue, to the point that the county police had to be called to straighten out the traffic jam. The door to the station had to be locked as Rick Nelson was stuck with us inside. He was a big draw long after his TV show was over. Tom helped me get my job at WDON and was always helpful to me while I worked there. Tom had his own record and publishing company and managed several country music artist in Nashville. Tom later became station manager at WKCW in Warrington, Virginia. No one deserves to be in the country music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame more than Tom "Cat" Reeder. Tom where ever you are, Bye-bye darlin.
More to come soon!
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