Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: topical tom
Date: 03 Feb 11 - 03:23 PM

Doc was one of my all-time country music greats. I used to listen to WWVA on an old battery-powered Deforest-Crosley table radio.The antenna consisted of plain fence wire with a glass bottle affixed to it as an insulator! Saturday nights I would draw close to the speaker (conserving battery power, you know)and listen to the Wheeling Jamboree. I loved listening to Doc and Chickie sing "Beyond the Sunset", "MY Old Brown Coat and Me", "Mary of the Wild Moor", "Roses are Blooming", "Sinner Man" and so many more great ones. As a wannabee fiddle player, I loved the "silver fiddle" of Brother Cy Williams and the country humour of Hiram Hayseed. Thanks, Doc, for great childhood memories of beautiful music! RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 10:34 PM

Thanks all! I still try to sing those old country songs, but the passing years leave me a bit outdated I'm afraid! A child of the 50's and the 60's I renain!

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Beer
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 10:03 PM

God!! this is a very strange Obit thread. Hope you don't mind DOC.
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Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Beer
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 10:00 PM

Thanks Janie I just had a great tour.
Sandy, my transistor i won in a ticket draw. it was red with earphones included. i know it is an old cliché but Yes i use to hide under the covers and listen till I fell asleep. johnny Horton!! Still my hero in music.
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Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Janie
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 09:54 PM

Love the song, Sandy. Like Adrian, I would love to hear it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Janie
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 09:53 PM

Here is his Wheeling obituary. http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=93536

btw, the Jamboree has gone through some permeations over the years, been passed around from owner to owner and station to station, but is still broadcast live from Wheeling every Saturday night.

http://www.wheelingjamboree.org/history.php

I don't think Doc would mind bit having a link to the show included in his obituary thread.

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 09:49 PM

Thanks Adrien! When I was 16 my Christmas present from my parents was a transistor radio. Although we were rather poor it was the first one that any of my friends had. Late at night I would listen to CFNB in Fredericton, which played country music all night long, and I would switch to WWVA when the signal was strong enough. At times I would fall asleep with the earphone still in place and I would wake my parents singing Sink The Bismark along with Johnny Horton or The Cat Came Back with Doc Williams in my sleep. Oh, but to live those days again! Of course I would have to catch up on my sleep at school. No wonder that I'm such a fool! :-}

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Beer
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 09:09 PM

You are so dead on Sandy. Dad use to do the same thing.
Your song read just great. wish I could hear the melody.
I know this is an obit thread but I want to say that I also use to listen to the Detroit Red Wings on WJR 760 a.m. From Nova Scotia that is.
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Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 08:51 PM

Like Beer I listened to WWVA in my younger years when the signal would become stronger late at night in Nova Scotia,. Doc and Chickie and Lee Moore will always live in my memory. I was even inspired to write a song about it. RIP Doc!

THE MUSIC STOVE

When I was just a little lad so many years ago
Upon our kitchen table sat a Fleetwood radio
It was not a top line model and its tubes were growing weak
But I'd turn that dial for hours as stations I would seek
The local ones worked fine you see and music it would play
But others that I wanted were located far away
I tried to get the Opry but it would do no good
The Louisiana Hayride I really never could
But another one I wanted I could sometimes get, you see
It came from West Virginia and was called The Jamboree

To listen to Doc Williams, I would try my level best
But I'd hear the first verse of a song but then would lose the rest
I'd swear in frustration and underneath my breath
I'd threaten that old radio that it faced certain death
My father asked me what was wrong when he came in the door
A big wood-burning cook stove stood upon our kitchen floor
He took a piece of wire and he tied it to the stove
In loops around the radio the other end he wove
The signal was much stronger and I swear to you it's so
That I heard country music from an old wood burning stove

© Sept. 17, 2008
Alexander McLean

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 01:29 PM

The name Doc Williams is not known everywhere, but in the places where he was known he is greatly loved and appreciated. Doc and Chickie Williams and daughters Peeper, Pooch, and Punkin all made a lasting mark on country music radio. Thankfully, the family is keeping Doc Williams and his music alive through their website.

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: pdq
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:58 PM

A quick check shows that Doc Watson played for about eight years, 1953-60, for a Country and Swing band run by Jack Williams, not Doc Williams.

"Mary of the Wild Moor" was performed by Burl Ives at least back to 1944 on his radio show.

Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Beer
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:44 PM

Interesting Ron. I learned Mary of the Wild Moor from Mum and still sing it when the audience is right.
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Subject: RE: Obit: Country Singer Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:00 PM

He was one of my early heroes. We'd listen to the jamboree on Sat. nites. I had an LP of his when I first started learning the guitar and learned to play along. He flat picked a big Martin. I'll always remember the song "Mary of the Wild Moor" about some girl who died in a snow storm on the steps of her estranged father's house... that sparked my imagination and was likely one of the first folk songs that I came to appreciate

RIP MR.Doc

Subject: RE: Obit: Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Beer
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 10:34 PM

As a child living in Nova Scotia I use to pick up WWVA and remember hearing this very unique voice. He lived a long life and blessings to all his love ones.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Obit: Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Janie
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 10:08 PM

Not much available on-line to give folks an example of his music.

This will have to do for now.
Doc Williams Snow Deer

Thank you, Doc, for staying true to the land and the people.

Subject: RE: Obit: Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: pdq
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 10:05 PM

Didn't Doc Watson play lead (electric!) guitar for this man in the 1950s?

Subject: RE: Obit: Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: Padre
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 09:21 PM

Doc was one of the true greats of country music - he will be missed by all of us who used to hear him on WWVA

Subject: Obit: Doc Williams (1914-2011)
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 09:07 PM

This is from NPR, the Wheeling newspaper wasn't working when I tried it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133398867

Country music singer Doc Williams became a big star in small places through the power of radio.

In the years before World War II, his Wheeling, W.Va.-based radio show built him a following in Maine, Vermont and the Canadian provinces — places where he later toured, and where some fans still tap in time to songs from his band, the Border Riders.

Williams died Monday at his Wheeling home at age 96.

"I don't know if the state of West Virginia had a better ambassador than Doc Williams," Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "You thought of Doc Williams, you thought of Wheeling, you thought of the Jamboree," Anderson said, referring to Jamboree USA, one of radio station WWVA's most popular programs.