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13 Apr 99 - 10:07 PM (#70718) Subject: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: Banjer Heard on this morning's news, 4/13, of the passing of Boxcar Willie. Leukemia finally took him from us at 67 years of age. I know he was more into early classic country music than folk or blues, but in my book he was a heck of a perfomer. I never got a chance to see him live but enjoyed all the TV shows that he appeared on. He hobnobbed with Presidents, members of royalty, and rulers all over the world, but he always seemed more at home speaking with just plain folks. Farewell Willie, may that last freight you hopped take you to a land of milk and honey! |
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13 Apr 99 - 10:19 PM (#70720) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: catspaw49 I too enjoyed him as an entertainer and he always eemed to be having a good time himself. Several people have noted lately that a lot of performers act pissed at the whole thing...we never got that from Boxcar Willie. So long Willie and thanks for being entertaining. catspaw |
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13 Apr 99 - 10:22 PM (#70722) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: catspaw49 I too enjoyed him as an entertainer and he always seemed to be having a good time himself. Several people have noted lately that a lot of performers act pissed at the whole thing...we never got that from Boxcar Willie. So long Willie and thanks for being entertaining. catspaw |
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13 Apr 99 - 10:29 PM (#70723) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: catspaw49 Damn, I guess I really did enjoy him!!!!But the first time he just eemed, then he seemed so all's right with the world. catspaw |
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13 Apr 99 - 10:40 PM (#70726) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: Banjer I believe that's what I liked about him, he never acted like a "polished' entertainer. It always felt like you had just rung his doorbell and he was inviting you into his home, asking you to sit a spell. Of course, deep down I realize that was all a part of the act that he perfected over the years, and he was a professional in every sense of the word, but he still had the capacity to make one feel like he was talking to them and enjoying every minute of it! Yes Catspaw, it 'eems like you did like him! |
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14 Apr 99 - 05:14 AM (#70820) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: murray@mpce.mq.edu.au I think there is little good in the Nashville scene since the 50s; but Boxcar Willie was the exception. I am sorry to hear he died. By the wey he was host of the video "Greats of the Grand Ole Opre Vol 1--train songs", put out by Opryland USA Home Video. It captures his presonality nicely and at the end he picks up an acoustic guitar and sings a medly of all the songs he presented during the video as he walks away along some disused train tracks. Murray |
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14 Apr 99 - 12:54 PM (#70888) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: lesblank I,too, mourn Willie death. I saw him perform twice at festivals - one small and one very large. But I saw him a third time that I'll never forget. I was in London (sometime in the early eighties) sitting in the coffee shop of the Marble Arch hotel at 7:00 AM with an English engineering colleague. Willie walked in as any other customer might, looked around and seemed pleased no one recognized him. No one did, 'cepting me. As he approached my table, we made eye contact and he knew. I said,"Good morning, Willie, it's good to see you again !!" He asked and I told him of the two times I'd seen him perform and when the short conversation was over, he reached into his pocket and handed me two comps for the next night's concert at Wembley. Needles to say, IT was super. I'll never forget -- top performer and a great human being !! Rest well, Willie, rest well. |
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14 Apr 99 - 11:13 PM (#71000) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: CarterNut (inactive) You know, Mr. Roy Acuff asked Willie if he would keep the "Wabask Cannonball" from going to the wayside like some other songs do. I like to think that just like Daddy Claxton (or Cleaton, or more recently Acuff) he was "carried up to victory on the Wabash Cannonball." I learned from watching and listening to Boxcar how to blow the whistle like he did, and every time I sing a train song I use that. Now, every time I use it I will pay tribute to him. What a loss. |
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15 Apr 99 - 06:57 PM (#71169) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: Banjeray (inactive) Boxcar did indeed keep The Wabash Cannonball alive. On a recent Grand Ole Opry segment he started singing the song with Bashful Brother Oswald playing the dobro as he had with Roy Acuff for 56 years. Just before he started the last verse, he paused, let Brother Oswald play for a few minutes and then said, with great reverence, Thank you, Mr. Acuff. Having grown up listening to the Grand Ole Opry , and being different by listening to C&W stations while all my peers listened to the latest Rock & Roll stations, it just meant so much to me hearing a man who is a legend in his own right doing something like that. I hope that someone will pick up the ball and carry on where Willie left off. May the Wabash Cannonball roll on forever!! |
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16 Apr 99 - 09:41 AM (#71295) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: Roger the zimmer It's a pity most "country" singers, unlike Willie, got so far from the Hank Williams/Jack Elliotts/Jimmie Rodgers to become rhinestone cowboys. I mean, Garth (spit) Crooks- who can take the man seriously? (except as a money-making machine).Picture the scene: The round-up done for the day, the chuck wagon pulls up, the hands unload the generator to provide power for their pedal steels, Hawaiian guitar (imported by Sears Roebuck?), electric mandolins and electric fiddles while old Zeke is a settin' by the campfire sewing sequins on his satin shirt... [that last inadvertantly sounds like a potential lyric, perhaps I've found my all-purpose C&W song at last! If anyone wants to use it & develop it I won't sue for copyright!]
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16 Apr 99 - 01:46 PM (#71352) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: The Shambles I heard a bit on the radio last night about a place called Branson and that Willie (amonst others), had a theatre there. It sounded a stange place?????? |
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16 Apr 99 - 09:23 PM (#71456) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: Dale Rose Right about Branson AND the theatre. I drove by his theatre last Thursday and thought of him. Today I was up that way again, and was thinking of all his smiling faces beaming down at us from the billboards on Route 65 through Arkansas and Missouri. He made Branson his home, while many of the musicians there are merely carpetbaggers. He WILL be missed, no doubt about it. The story of the town of Branson, Missouri itself is quite unique, and beyond the scope of a paragraph or two. I'd have to do some serious research before I would attempt it. Maybe someone else has the facts at hand and would like to try. |
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17 Apr 99 - 02:33 AM (#71516) Subject: RE: Boxcar Willie-King of the Hoboes From: The Shambles Thanks Dale I have started another thread for Branson and will leave this one for Willie. |