In my last newsletter I explained how I met Jimmy and Buddy at Tootsie’s on the main drag in Nashville. Tootsie’s just celebrated its 60th anniversary and I feel I should add that I was driving from Ardmore, Oklahoma to Norfolk, Virginia with only $30 in my pocket.
This had to include all my gasoline, oil and food. When Buddy found this out, he bought me a big hamburger and a something to drink in a brown bottle. I never forgot him for that because all I had been eating was pinto cheese sandwiches and drinking water.
Buddy Emmons? A very nice guy. Buddy Emmons has been known for years to be one of the world’s greatest steel players as most of you know. Curly Chalker was a steel player that was loved and appreciated by a large portion of the populous also.
I had met Curly on an airbase when I was in the service. He was working for The Billy Gray Western Swing Band. I’ll never forget walking in that front gate at the base, looking over to the right at the NCO club and seeing that big 29 passenger Flxible bus.
I naturally walked over to the club, in the front door and there was a whole band setup but not playing on the stage. I walked right up to the stage and there was a steel player tuning his Fender 1000.
I asked him what his name was and stuck out my hand and introduced myself. He said, “I’m Curly Chalker.”
I said, “I’ve sure heard a lot about you. If you’re half as good as what I’ve heard, you’re probably the best there is.”
He said, “I’m probably better than you’ve heard.”
I said, “Do you play a lot of Joaquin Murphey stuff?”
He said, “Where Joaquin note plays one note at a time, I can play two to four.”
I said, “Show me.”
He proceeded to do so. I went back to the club that night to see the band play but couldn’t get in because I wasn’t an NCO. Curly had to pull me into the dressing room window in the back of the club and put me on the stage so I could hear the band that evening.
I asked him how long he was going to be there. He said that they were only going to be there one night and they were going back to Kansas City to play the Riverside Rancho. I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Well, I’ve got the weekend off. I’m going to hitchhike up there and watch you play.”
He said, “Well don’t miss it because Saturday is my last night.”
The bus would be parked outside the club in Kansas City and Curly told me I could sleep on it to save a motel bill. This was the beginning of another long friendship.
Naturally getting to hear Curly play for the two days I was there was pure Heaven. He even talked me into sitting in one set. I met other musicians in the band which I would end up knowing forever. Most of these players including Curly ended up in Nashville. Of course, Curly got a job playing HeeHaw and some clubs around town. He always had steel players three deep around the stage when he was playing.
I talked to Curly about a week before he died here in Nashville. He said that he was feeling great and would be playing a lot from then on, so it was a shock to hear that he had died. When going over to visit him, I noticed a For Rent sign on a building. I stopped in and checked, rented it and it was the beginning of steel guitar Nashville.
Christmas is getting closer every day. Does Mrs. Santa know what you want?
Merry Christmas from all of us at Steel Guitar Nashville.
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
info@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
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