Note from Flapjacks: When Jim Ed
Brown died the other night, I wrote a quick obituary for Reuters News Service.
But in the process of gathering information, I had much more than they needed.
Which was fine. I thought someone else
in Nashville may be interested in publishing this, but I was wrong. Been wrong before,
so no big deal. Well, I liked the guy. I
didn’t know him as well as I know (or did know) some of the old school country
musicians, but he was a kind gentleman with one helluva voice. If you are
interested, his funeral is 10 a.m. Monday June 15 at The Ryman. Here is the
obit no one wanted, but perhaps you may wish to read:
Brown, 81, a Grand Ole Opry star for more than a
half-century and just elected to the Hall of Fame this year, died Thursday
night at Williamson Medical Center in Franklin after a battle with lung cancer.
“He had class and style,” said his old friend (and mine) Bobby
Bare Thursday night, voice cracking shortly after learning the news.
“He was not an Arkansas hillbilly. He had class and he had
style and he had a great voice…. He was a real artist,” said Bare of his friend
of more than 50 years.
Jim Ed Brown’s “class and style” showed through in the body
of work he helped create since leaving behind his upbringing without electricity
and conveniences on the family farm in Sparkman, Arkansas, where every Saturday
night the Brown family would gather around a battery-powered radio to listen to
the Grand Ole Opry on Nashville’s WSM-AM.
Bare said his earliest recollection of time spent with Brown
goes back to 1963 “or somewhere in there. I remember we were doing a show
somewhere down in Arkansas and I went with him to his mom’s house one morning
and she cooked breakfast for us.”
Brown’s ability to mimic the voices of the stars – Hank Snow
was his best – eventually got him into a talent competition at a radio station in
Little Rock, Arkansas. While he didn’t win the contest, he and his sister
Maxine were asked to appear again on the radio station, where their harmonies
were developed and then sprung loose on their first Top 10 Country hit, “Looking Back to See,”
written by the duo. Sister Bonnie joined
to make it the trio that is being inducted into the Hall of Fame this autumn.
As The Browns, Jim Ed, Maxine and Bonnie had country hits
with “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow, “I Take the Chance” and “I Heard the
Bluebirds Sing” and their trademark hit, the glorious and honey-coated “The
Three Bells.”
After the sisters retired Jim Ed Brown continued as a
country hit-maker as a solo artist on singles like “Morning” and “Sometime
Sunshine” and his signature tune, “Pop a
Top,” which later was a hit for classic country stylist Alan Jackson. “Set ‘em up my friend….”
Brown also continued to make music as a celebrated duet
partner with Helen Cornelius on a string of hits including their No. 1 country
hit “I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You.”
An Opry royal, Jim Ed really never stopped being interested
in singing, and in 2013, Bare produced a single by Brown, “In Style
Again.” “I became a brand new fan of Jim
Ed’s when I was in the studio,” said Bare Thursday night. “I’d forgotten how
good he sang.”
That single then was used as the title track of an album put
out by Brentwood-based Plowboy Records, which is run by Shannon Pollard,
grandson of longtime Brown pal Eddy Arnold, who died in 2008 at the age of 89. (I
loved Eddy Arnold. And Shannon’s a helluva guy, too.)
Shannon said Jim Ed’s relationship with his grandfather dated back
to the 1950s and included a joint appearance with The Browns at Carnegie Hall.
As for recording the new album in the summer of 2014 after a
long absence from the recording studio, the Opry star “really wanted to do it,”
said Pollard, adding “his voice was fantastic.”
Before he became desperately ill, Brown had planned to
participate with Bare and some other veteran performers on one of the stages of
this week’s CMA Music Fest in Nashville. “I knew three weeks ago that he wasn’t
going to make it,” said Bare, adding the show would go on, but he’d miss those
wondrous tones of his pal.
The Browns’ official induction into the Hall of Fame will
come in October. However, Country Music
Association CEO Sarah Trahern, Hall of Famer and friend Bill Anderson and Hall
of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young visited the hospital June 4 to present him
with a medallion commemorating his Hall of Fame membership.
“Fame is fleeting, hit records change every week, award show
winners and nominees change every year, but being inducted into the Country
Music Hall of Fame will be forever,” Brown said.
Pollard remembered that Jim Ed was mentored by his
grandfather and visited Arnold regularly when the Tennessee Plowboy was
hospitalized in his final days.
As for Jim Ed’s decision to record again, label chief
Pollard said “He knew we had the label that was up and running. He wanted to
put more music out, and it worked out.”
He said the memories of Brown’s friendship with his
grandfather made it doubly hard for him to accept that the singer had died. It was like saying goodbye to his grandfather
all over again, he allowed, sadly.
“We’ve been preparing for this for several days,” said
Pollard. “I got to say my goodbyes to him and I was very honored that I was
able to do that.
“He truly was an inspiration to me throughout this whole
battle he fought. He knew he was not
leaving the hospital, but he still was trying to make everybody feel
good.”
All the chapel bells will be ringing....
