Volume 38, Number 9 September 2020 Sad News NO DANCE I Repeat NO DANCE Sept. 6, 2020 DON BERKSHIRE ELANA JAMES Inducted Oct. 5, 1986 Inducted Oct. 6, 2019 Western Swing Society Hall of Fame Profile ~ Page 3 W H A T’ S I N S I D E Membership Dues to Re- Officials & Staff ............ 2 Bio’s Continued ............ 5 Meeting Notes from Rex...... 2 New Merchandise ................. 6 sume! The WSS board had a Letter From The Editor ...... 2 Mike Gross Top 10........ 7 HOF Profiles ................. 3 Mike Gross Review ....... 8 meeting and felt that we RIP Eddie Burr .............. 4 Other WSS Orgs ........... 9 Membership Application. ... 4 Monthly Music ......................9 need to start are member- Board & Volunteering ... 4 OPEN POSITION on the BOARD ship drive up. A lot of folks Please help us fill this position! have already paid their dues RIP EDD BURR (EDWARD BURHANS) and will be receiving their Page 4 cards soon, Thank You! WESTERN SWING SOCIETY MUSIC NEWS September 2020 - Page 2 The Western Swing Society PRESIDENT’S NOTES EDITOR’S LETTER PO Box 2474 Carmichael, CA 95609 Here are the notes Hey Folks, still here and still really westernswingsociety.net from our online missing seeing all my friends at Facebook: SacramentoWesternSwingSociety meeting this month: our monthly dances. Founded in 1981 by Loyd and Perry Jones Thanks Dave for set- Behind the scene we are still trying to enable performance, preservation and ting up the meeting to get it together one way or the perpetuation of the unique American art form known as Western Swing Music. and to all of you that other to keep everything going. attended, I will do my best with the This month we on the board dis- Officers: President, Rex Barnes (916) 704-1566 meeting notes. covered the technology called Vice Pres, Jimmy Boehnke (530) 886-8375 “Zoom”. It allows you to have a We voted two things in, First to do- Treasurer, Cheryl Dearborn face to face conversation with eve- Secretary, (open) nate $300 to the Youth Scholarship ryone on the board at the same fund in Edward Burhans name, I will Other Directors: time. You can read about our meet- make out a card and send it to his Tony Arana (775) 971-3070 ing in the President’s notes on this Ronnie Elkan (916) 765-4345 wife Mable. 2nd, we voted to contin- page. Linda McCarley (916) 870-7463 ue the Western Swing Membership Dave Rietz (916) 806-0520 Jeff Tilton (916) 798-9377 program as of September, Ronnie The main thing is making sure we will post this in the next newsletter are ready to have a dance as soon Staff and Committee Chairpersons: Admissions Coordinator, Linda McCarley to all of the present members. Linda as the authorities say it is legal and Bar Manager, Jimmy Boehnke said that she would mail the new safe. We have to be ready to re- Bartender, Cyndi Lee membership cards. I talked to Mable build our club so it will be neces- Decorating Chair, Rex Barnes Equipment and Staging, Gary Blodgett this morning she was not aware how sary to start collecting dues. If Historian, (open) Edd had these printed, I will talk to there is a problem please feel free Jam Room, Tony Arana some printing companies and see to reach out to us. Checks can be Master of Ceremonies, Jimmy Boehnke Membership Director, (open) what I can come up with. I will wel- sent to: Music Director, Ronnie Elkan come any suggestions. The Western Swing Society Newsletter Editor, Ronnie Elkan Photographer, Donald deMars Cheryl Dearborn has agreed to assist PO Box 2474 Public Relations Administrator, Jeff Tilton with the Treasure position at least Raffle, Bob and Virginia Kuykendall Carmichael, CA 95609 Slide Show, (open) until we can get somebody perma- I’d also like Sound Engineer, Gary Blodgett nent and help set up a new booking to tell the Website, Dave Rietz system maybe like Quick Books. family of Ronnie and Dave are going to come Eddie Burr up with a tribute concert in Edd’s how sorry Western Swing Society Music News name, more to come on that. we are is published monthly by the about his passing. He was a joy to We are going thru a rough time with Western Swing Society work with on the board and on this Covid thing, trying to fill the Views and opinions expressed by contrib- stage. He will be missed. You can uting authors are not necessarily those of the gaps and Edd’s shoes is going to be a read more about him on page 4. editorial staff or the Society. challenge to fill but we have a good Submitted articles, publicity notices and strong team and I think we will come Thanks to all our members for letters not relating directly to the Society or out of all this stronger and better for weathering the storm with us, we its members may be published at the discre- hope to see you soon. tion of the Editor, as space permits. The staff all of it. STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY! reserves the right to edit any and all items If you have any questions or com- See ya soon! submitted for publication. ments please get back to me. Your Editor, Ronnie Elkan Deadline for Submittals: Best regards, All items, photographs, articles, and Rex ad’s are due to the Editor no later than the 10th of the month. WESTERN SWING SOCIETY MUSIC NEWS September 2020 - Page 3 DON BERKSHIRE ELANA JAMES Inducted October 5, 1986 Inducted October 6, 2019 Born April 26, 1936 Died January 21, 2006 Elana James grew up in Prai- Growing up in Wallace, Idaho, Don was the product rie Village, Kansas and began of an environment and family that encouraged him playing Suzuki violin at age to pursue life on his own terms. His adventure be- four. Her mother is a profes- gan at an early age, delivering groceries, working as sional violinist who used to a hard rock miner in a silver mine, and gandy danc- play in the Kansas City Sym- ing on the railroad trestles with a Northern Pacific phony. In junior high and bridge crew. Don would be the first to day the op- high school James took every portunities of those early years strongly influenced opportunity to play her violin, from busking on the the honest feelings and emotions he brings to his streets of Westport in Kansas City on weekends to music. playing in every orchestra, quartet and chamber group she could find. She also grew up riding horses He started singing at the age of 12 and soon bought and had her own horse, April, from fourth grade on- his first guitar and taught himself how to play. ward, with whom she shared wild adventures and Moving to Richland, Washington, Don worked mayhem throughout the Kansas countryside for grange dances until he found himself in the Army at many years. This combination of early influences Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He worked with a local band would eventually shape her career in unexpected where Red Foley took an interest and offered him and serendipitous ways. As it happened, it took work on the Ozark Jubilee when his hitch was over. James almost twenty years to decide between the The Army sent Don to Germany and he worked ex- violin and the fiddle, but in tensively on the USO circuit, appearing in as many her mid-twenties, after much as four countries in one day as a back-up musician soul searching, James found for touring entertainers like Hank Snow. When Don her calling in American roots was discharged, he returned home to Silverdale, music (and occasional horse Washington. wrangling) and has never looked back. Several nights each week, he would play music in the local Bremerton clubs. From there, he returned James is a founding member, to Wallace and decided on a full-time music career. along with Whit Smith, of the hot jazz and Western A chance to appear at Emil’s Inn lured Don to swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown. The Hot Club of Sweetgrass Montana, where once a week he would Cowtown was formed after Whit and Elana met take the band to CJLH-TV in Lethbridge, Alberta through an ad Elana placed in the music section of and rush 70 miles back to play at Emil’s the same the Village Voice in 1994 while she was working as night. Before he left, he was the music coordinator an editorial intern at Harper’s Magazine. Playing for seven of Ronnie Dion’s clubs in Montana. with Whit at night and on weekends, by the fall of that year James had became the managing editor of Returning to Seattle, he again worked local clubs Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and had every inten- before deciding to try his hand at movies in Califor- tion of living a normal life before music eventually nia as a stuntman. He brawled in saloons, got shot edged out everything else. By 1997 Elana and Whit off his galloping horse, played music and made lots had moved to San Diego where they spent a year of friends in the process. playing putting together a repetoire and playing for Don also displayed his talents at The Dunes in Las tips in Balboa Park, the Ocean Beach Farmers Mar- Vegas before returning to Seattlre to work at various ket, and at local coffee houses and cafes. They clubs in the area. At this point, a phone call from moved to Austin in 1998, joined up with bassist the Jake Erwin in 2000, and all three have been touring and recording as the Hot Club of Cowtown ever Continued on page 5 since.