Hickory Hill carries on 44-year tradition with another performance at MCT
It’s been 44 years now and Hickory Hill has certainly settled into a pattern.
The same five players come on stage, this night at Music City Texas Theater in Linden, smile, introduce themselves and then play song after song for the next two hours — standing up, no breaks. Pretty much the same songs, too.
They do this twice a year at MCT in February and August. Locals mark their calendar a year ahead and more than 150 turn out for each performance.
It all started with John Early of Avinger in 1979. When he added musicians, they would often be composers as well. Serious, in other words. Three who played in the earlier days have since passed on, one early and regrettably in an accident. These were Jimmy Dale Godwin, James Roland Foster and Jake Shea Jenkins.
Today’s group is Milo Deering on dobro and violin, Ronny Singley on mandolin, Bob Stegall on bass, Richard Bowden on B-Bender guitar, Don Eaves on banjo and Early as lead guitar.
They all sing, but mostly they play smooth melodic tunes such as by The Eagles. These are very well received, especially since they are the work of local hero Don Henley whose plaque, picture and supporting fingerprints are all over this musical building.
Hickory Hill calls itself bluegrass but adds the detail, “Original Acoustic Music.” Leader Early talks and smiles to the audience and to each band member. They tell jokes, often the same ones, spring and fall. Here’s a sample.
Early: “We did this … on our first album.”
Bowden: “I thought it was the one before that.” Another one.
Early: “Back in the seventies…and, oh, if you remember this you weren’t there.” Another. Deering, who has long locks: “They didn’t pay me much when I signed on. Haven’t received that bonus check yet.”
Early: “We paid you enough to get your hair cut, which you haven’t done yet either.”
Bowden is expected to sing his same self-composed and popular songs. This might be “Mail Order Dog” talking about ordering from a Sears-Roebuck Catalog. Or “Help Me Make It Through the Yard” about coming home inebriated late at night.
The music is so well-performed and satisfying that the audience stays put. Hickory doesn’t practice much either, since they live in different towns, but they are so good few mistakes or lapses in memory are made. It’s a parttime gig. The entertainers seem to entertain themselves as much as anyone.
The group has aged a bit. There are whiskers, thin hair, faded shirts and softer voices. But the enjoyable evening is worth every bit of the $25 ticket. It’s worth it just to see and hear the hoedowns that will be mixed in. For the hoedown, they will announce the song slowly, then play it as fast as they can. Fingers are a blur, but the notes are there. Hickory Hill’s played such a hootenanny as this many times — even hundreds of times — in 44 years.
Today, with each performance, Hickory Hill brings more memories. Spring and fall will not be the same when the musicians put their guitars in cases for the final time.
Then, it will be time for Bowden to tell a joke that’s been expurgated just for the bluegrass older audience or sing the song “Halleujah Anyhow.” This song exclaims, “When everything is down and out, just shout ‘Hallelujah Anyhow.” And everyone does.
Then, the evening will close with the group singing, perhaps, “I’m just a Pilgrim on this Road, Boys,” by Steve Earle who himself has also played at MCT in the past.
For a reprise, Hickory Hill may sing the song about finding a lost silver dollar and what have we done with it? Was it put in the church offering or wasted on booze?
Finally, Early will get to say, “Life’s really about not wasting time … because we are all in this together.”
It’s a fitting close for an evening with Hickory Hill. One can depart, quiet and satisfied.
“Life’s really about not wasting time … because we are all in this together.”
John Early