Subject: Red River Dave
From:
GUEST,Just a fan
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 01:25 PM
This is from the Folk Alliance List Serve posted by Charlie Stewart:
Red River Dave was a member of my Masonic lodge and i had not seen his obit on the list if anybody plays cowboy music and has his stuff you might want to dust it off Charlie Stewart HandShake Mgt
Red River Dave passed away 01/15/2002 at the age of 87 Red River Dave McEnery has had one of the longest careers in Country music, beginning in the early thirties, when he sang on San Antonio radio, and continuing today, health permitting, to occasional outings at folk festivals and on local television shows, where he is as likely as not to debut a new song he has written on some heated topic of the day. His classic song "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" has inspired many a would-be folk-singer and at least one short-lived annual festival, and with the recent publicity surrounding the efforts of a Texas aviatrix to recreate Earhart's planned world-circling flight, a revival may be in order. When commercial television debuted at the New York World's Fair in 1939, Red River Dave was there to broadcast live what is still his most famous creation, along with other country and western songs, both traditional and original.This preformance made Dave the very first ever paid television preformer.In the early forties Red River Dave returned to San Antonio and broadcast his songs on Border Radio XERF, offering copies of his songbooks for sale as well. He also appeared in several Western films, including 1944's Swing in the Saddle, which featured cameos by the Hoosier Hotshots and Nat "King" Cole.But Red River Dave McEnery is probably best-known for his ballads written on the spur of the noteworthy news events. Among the topics covered in his songs over the years are the ill-fated flight of Gary Powers and the triumph of Apollo 11 as well as such gripping stories as Watergate and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst
|
sj
