Jack Boswell from a Cabin to a Stage

Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Born in 1935 in a log cabin, left-handed Jack Boswell taught himself to play the piano in high school, reaching over to play the melody with his left hand, Jac while playing the bass rhythm and chords with his k Boswe right. Within two weeks he could play by ear any Jack Boswell tune requested of him, and his cross-handed piano style became legendary. ll From a Ca Jack’s career in country music spanned over thirty years and was followed by a country gospel music From a Cabin ministry that covered another twenty-seven years. bi

His band, The Country Starliters, served as the warm- n to a Sta up band for many Nashville headliners, an experience that not only afforded him the opportunity to build to a Stage

friendships with these stars, but also provided years g of priceless memories. By the time he entered the e gates of Heaven in 2011, Jack had performed with nineteen artists who are now enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Larr y Boswe ll

Larry Boswell Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview.

Jack Boswell From a Cabin to a Stage

Larry Boswell Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview.

Copyright © 2019 by Larry Boswell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America First Printing March 2019 ISBN 978-1-64516-093-9 Paperback

Published by: Book Services www.BookServices.us Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview.

Contents

Dedication...... iii Preface...... v

Part One Family Memories ...... 1 Wanda Boswell’s Memories ...... 3 A Tribute to Jack Boswell from His Son, Mark...... 9 Larry Boswell’s Memories of his Brother Jack...... 23 Susie’s Memories...... 27 Janie’s Memories...... 29 Kelton Brice’s Memories...... 33

Part Two Memories of Band Members and Friends...... 35 Jim’s Memories...... 37 Sebern Campbell’s Memories...... 47 Pat’s Memories ...... 51 Brenda’s Memories...... 53 Judy’s Memories...... 57 The Shiny Silver Eagle...... 58

i Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Jack Boswell - From a Cabin to a Stage

ii Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview.

Dedication

Jack L . Boswell

February 19, 1935 – December 30, 2011

When people started telling my husband, Larry, that he should write a book, he protested, “But I’m not an author!” Ultimately, he decided to ask other people to write down their memories of Jack. He and I contacted several people, and this book is what happened.

The first section contains stories contributed by those closest to Jack—his family. The second section is written by band members and friends.

Several family members are carrying on Jack’s legacy. Jack’s son, Mark, sings with a quartet at his church in Avon, Indiana, as well as at other venues like the historic Royal Theater in Danville, Indiana; Larry and Shelby Boswell sing in any church that asks them; Jack’s nephew and his wife, Leonard and Kat Boswell, sing in their church in southern Arizona; Leonard and Kat’s son Kelton sings in the praise team at his church and also produces and records music; Noah Boswell, Jack’s grandson is carrying on his legacy, performing in several places; and Sarah Buell, Jack’s granddaughter, sings in her church.

I am privileged to have known Jack, to have heard him sing, and to watch him play the piano.

I have enjoyed reading these memories firsthand and learning even more than I already knew. I hope I have done them justice by typing and putting them together the best way I know how.

Hope you enjoy! Shelby Boswell

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iv Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview.

Preface

The earliest English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh settlers in Appalachia and the Northwest Territory, which included what became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Mich- igan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, were poor in material possessions, often arriving in the wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and a few tools. But these people brought with them two things that money couldn’t buy: their recipes and their music. When combined with the music and foodways of those who came as slaves soon after, a uniquely American musical culture was born. Over the years, this music has been called by many names—country and western, mountain music, country gospel, hillbilly music, Appalachian folk, the blues—but whatever it is called, there is nothing else like it in the world.

Jack Boswell, one of five children, was born in a log cabin in 1935, a hundred and one years after the settlement of the nearby village of Pittsboro, Indiana, which had a population of 500 at the time of Jack’s birth. Today it is hard to imagine life off the grid in an area of hot, humid summers and cold winters—no indoor plumbing, no running water, no electricity. In spite of the rigors of such a life, the Boswell family thrived and came to make beautiful music enjoyed by thousands of people.

Jack’s cross-hand piano playing was legendary. His band, The Country Starliters, played in nightclubs all over Indiana. During his career, he played with nineteen artists who have been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Starliters fronted for musicians like Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton. By the time Jack passed through the gates of heaven, he had developed a unique brand of country gospel, which he and the Boswell family performed in hundreds of churches in Indiana. v Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Jack Boswell - From a Cabin to a Stage

The cabin where Jack Boswell was born.

Jack accomplished all this while holding down a day job for forty-three years, a practice that was common. Not so long ago, music wasn’t a spectator sport, something that involved hero worship of wealthy and colorful celebrities. It was regional, community-centered, and participatory. The groups who opened for better-known musicians like Merle Haggard, were respected and loved in their own right; they had staying power, because for them music wasn’t something you tried for a short time, something you did with your eye fixed on becoming a millionaire celebrity. It was part of your life, like breathing. It reflected the core values of America. I know this because I experienced this downhome musical culture myself.

I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for live music. One day, a brown-eyed young woman met a feisty young man strolling across a bridge and playing a Gibson mandolin. It was love at first sight, or more likely, at first sound. They married in 1906 and had five children. One of them was my mother, Annina May.

Like the majority of those in my community, I grew up embraced by music—live, homegrown, regional music—at home, at school, at church, at square dances, even on the street. (The high school marching band practiced right in front of my house.) Mama played the piano. She yodeled. Grandpa played the banjo and the harmonica. His older sister, Ora, could really belt it out, so ’tis said, and she was much in demand as a performer. The first money I ever earned came from playing an Irish song on vi Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Preface the piano, one of many songs that came to America in the hearts and minds of my Scots Irish ancestors. I was eight years old. Kids got together to sing and play music for the sheer joy of it.

A Grinnell upright occupied the front room of our house, the ivory worn off several keys in the middle octaves from forty years of heavy use. Appropriately, I Hear America Singing, an anthology of poetry, occupied a prominent position in our bookcase. Our carpet was threadbare in spots, the linoleum in the unheated upstairs bedrooms was peeling around the edges, and you could see bare earth through the cracks in the floorboards in our front room. But what we lacked in earthly goods, we made up for in music, music that seemed to permeate every pore of America’s heartland in the 1940s and 50s.

When conditions were right, radio signals bounced off the ionosphere from Nashville right into our little farm-and-paper mill village in southwest Michigan, and we could listen to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM or blues music on WLAC. As teenagers, we drove around Saturday nights seeking out a sweet spot to pick up the signal. I actually heard America singing every single day.

Radio stations weren’t categorized into genres at the time. The top ten on Kalamazoo’s WKZO AM might include Patsy Cline, Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, Spike Jones, Perez Prado, Mahalia Jackson, and light classics like Leroy Anderson’s “Bugler’s Holiday.”

I’m a fourth generation piano player. Uncle Dan Cassady was a fiddler. Cousin Nancy is a folk singer and dulcimer player who was funded by Stella Parton to bring authentic old-time music back to Appalachia. My friends and I sang our hearts out on the bus on school trips, in summer Bible school, and at get-togethers. When we had a chance, we’d travel to other churches in other towns to hear groups like the Boswells. I am thankful for Jack Boswell, who took country gospel into new territory.

My dream is that this book will inspire its readers to sing and “make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” As the earliest settlers proved, you don’t have to be rich to make music. I am in awe of Jack Boswell’s ability to bring out the music in everyone, whether as a player, a band member, or a listener.

Betsy Ann Hoyt Feinberg Editor

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Part One Family Memories

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Wanda Boswell’s Memories

My husband, Jack, started his music career while he was still in high school. One day he was home sick from school, lying on the sofa, and listening to the radio. They were playing the “Third Man Theme” by Anton Karas. He got up, went to the piano, and said to his mother, “I think I can play that.” Because he was left-handed, he picked out the melody with his left hand. Then, to get the rhythm, he crossed over with his right arm and played the rhythm with his right hand. That’s how he continued to play.

Jack had a friend in high school, Eugene Sipes, who played a guitar, and they would jam during their lunch hour. After high school, he played with different local groups until he was drafted into the U.S. Army on September 4, 1956. Jack was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for six months and then to Germany, where he was a supply sergeant. A guy by the name of Jimmy Paine played music for the Officers Club there, and he asked Jack to join them. Jack played music with Jimmy and his group until he was discharged in September 1958.

Locally, he joined the Charlie Haggard Band and played in a big restaurant in Crawfordsville, Indiana, as well as at fish fries and other special events. Jack and his group would front shows for artists like Johnny Cash, George Jones, Porter Waggoner, Dolly Parton, Mac Wiseman, Kenny Price, Jerry Reed, Johnny Rodriguez, Red Sovine, and several other Country and Western stars.

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Johnny Cash

George Jones 4 Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Part One, Family Memories - Wanda Boswell’s Memories

Dolly Parton

Porter Waggoner & Dolly Parton 5 Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview.

Part Two Memories of Band Members and Friends

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Jim’s Memories

It was around July of 1972 when a friend called me and told me that Jack was looking for a bass player, that his bass player had quit and gone to work for Leroy Van Dyke. He said he had talked to Jack and recommended me to him. I had very little experience at that time and in fact, did not even own a bass guitar.

I called Jack and talked to him, and he told me to be at Cowboy Bob’s in Brownsburg, Indiana, the following Friday night. I borrowed a bass guitar and was there on time. I knew a little bass, but not a whole lot. Years later Jack told me that the first night I played, Red (Red Harris, lead guitar) had asked him, “ You’re not going to keep that guy, are you?” to which Jack replied, “I think he’ll be okay as soon as he learns what we do.” Hah! I played for Jack for almost 39 years, and a few years after starting I overheard Red tell someone that we, i.e. the band, had an excellent bass player. Sure made me feel good.

Young Jack Boswell at the piano 37 Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Jack Boswell - From a Cabin to a Stage

During the years that I played with Jack, I just got closer and closer to him. At the time I started with him, it was Jack Boswell and the Country Starliters. The band consisted of Jack on piano, Jack (Red) Harris on lead guitar, Bobby Keller on drums, and me on the bass. We quickly became very tight in our music. Jack, of course, was the main vocalist with me singing a few songs each night.

I’m trying to remember all the regular places we played after I joined the band. We were at Cowboy Bob’s in Brownsburg, Indiana. Late in 1974 or early ’75 we started playing three nights a week at Ashley Motel and Restaurant in Plainfield, Indiana. From there I’m not sure of the progression. We played at the Suntan Club in Lebanon, at Cliff’s Place in Martinsville, at a club in Bloomington, at the Bobby Helms Club in Bargersville, and at several other venues around the state. We also booked a lot of private shows and fronted for a lot of big name entertainers. I believe that there are nineteen people in the Country Music Hall of Fame that the band fronted for. I was not with the band for all of them, as some of them Bobby Helms, known for his came before my time. 1957 hit “Jingle Bell Rock.” Over the years Bobby Keller left the band and was replaced by Roger Brown, who played drums with us for several years. The band switched from country to Gospel in the late 1980s or early ’90s. Red was starting to have some health problems and decided to retire. Freddy Vest came to work for us as the lead guitar and played for us three or four years. Then we did not have a lead guitar player, and we were looking for one. We used a few players to fill in, but finally in 1997 a friend of mine introduced me to Sebern Campbell and informed me that he was a very good finger style guitar picker. A few nights later I went to Sebern’s home, and we played some music. I called Jack the next day and told him that I believed I had found us a good guitar player; I asked Jack if he would like to talk to him. Again, Jack made me feel so good. Jack said, “Jim, if you say he’s good, then he’s hired,” and that’s how Sebern came to start playing with us. It was a musical match made in heaven. He and Jack hit it off right from the start and played very good together.

I can sit here and think of a lot of funny stories. Like the time we played on a Great Lakes cruise for Edsel Ford II and Ford Motor company executives. We were one of two bands booked. Each band played 30 minutes and had five minutes to make the change. The lights flickered on the boat. Of course, the current was D.C. and converted to A.C., so when the lights flickered, the power surge blew my amplifier up. The bass 38 Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Part Two, Memories of Band Members and Friends - Jim’s Memories player from the other band very kindly let me use his amplifier for the rest of the show. During the 30 minute breaks the guys would kind of wander around visiting, but Jack and I sat out on the deck and just relaxed and watched the water and the lights.

Jack could sometimes be influenced by inserting a word just as he was about to say something. I had a habit of every once in a while saying something vulgar as he was trying to talk to the crowd, and if I did it just right, he would unintentionally say the word that I said. Naturally he didn’t think it was as funny as I did, and eventually I saw that it bothered him enough that I quit doing it.

I remember playing at a private party between Clayton and Belleville, southwest of Indianapolis. We set up on a farm wagon and sometime during the show Bobby Keller got so carried away that I heard a large crash and turned around just in time to see Bobby and the whole set of drums tumble backwards off of the wagon. He got up quickly, set the drums back up, and started playing again.

We met several entertainers over the years. One of the highlights for me was when we played at Buck Lake Ranch in Angola, Indiana, and we were appearing with George Morgan (Lori Morgan’s father). Roy Wiggins came to me and asked if I would play bass for them. There were two or three other bands there that day, so it was an honor to be asked to play for George. I told Roy that the only song I knew that George did was “Candy Kisses.” Roy said, “You stand by me, and I’ll tell you every move to make.” I did what he said; he told me every move to make before it was time to make it, and he never missed a note on the steel guitar. He was fantastic.

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The Shiny Silver Eagle

Jack Boswell’s Country Gospel Band and their bus, The Silver Eagle. Left to right: Mark Boswell, Brenda Keller, Pat Pittman Jarvis, Jack Boswell, Jeanne Walters, Jim Allison, Sebern Campbell. 58 Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. The Shiny Silver Eagle

When The Silver Eagle Meets The Great Speckled Bird Recorded by Porter Wagoner written by Damon Black C F We’ve got Silver Eagles rolling on the freeways everyday

G7 C Singing country music all across the USA

F But the wheels one day will fold up and our wings will take the curves

G7 C When the shiny Silver Eagle meets the Great Speckled Bird

F Then the Pearly Gates will open and all the angel band will ring

G7 C Standing on that golden stage we’ll hear the great ones sing

F We’ll have a Grand Ole Opry like no one has ever heard

G7 C When the shiny Silver Eagle meets the Great Speckled Bird

F C And when Gabriel blows his trumpet all the bands will be in tune

F C G7 And when that golden curtain rises there’ll be only standing room

C F We’ll entertain the Master in His Grand Ole Opry church

G7 C When the shiny Silver Eagle meets the Great Speckled Bird Repeat #3 Tag: G7 C When the shiny Silver Eagle meets the Great Speckled Bird

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The Companion CD

The Companion CD is available from: Square Peg Bookshop www.SquarePegBookshop.com Copyrighted Material Some pages are omitted from this book preview. Born in 1935 in a log cabin, left-handed Jack Boswell taught himself to play the piano in high school, reaching over to play the melody with his left hand, Jac while playing the bass rhythm and chords with his k Boswe right. Within two weeks he could play by ear any Jack Boswell tune requested of him, and his cross-handed piano style became legendary. ll From a Ca Jack’s career in country music spanned over thirty years and was followed by a country gospel music From a Cabin ministry that covered another twenty-seven years. bi

His band, The Country Starliters, served as the warm- n to a Sta up band for many Nashville headliners, an experience that not only afforded him the opportunity to build to a Stage

Larry Boswell