The Monitor • Naples, Texas 75568-0039 • Thursday, July 27, 2017 • Page 9 Doug Davis is the man behind the stories behind the Texarkana Gazette songs Photos By Evan Lewis

By Aaron Brand “When I started, you walked week end editions of various pa- scriber is the first recipient he this thing get on record?” Davis Texarkana Gazette into a radio station and you had pers. He did a column for them hears from. “She almost every says. For Doug Davis, a song isn’t just turntables, cart machines, reel- titled “Sound Country,” he recalls. email says, ‘Mr. Davis, you’ve done Along the way, he ran out of the lyrics sung and the instrumen- toreel,” Davis recalled. Carts were “It was at one time running in it again. I sit hear just crying read- interviews, so he had to do more of tal accompaniment. It’s also the the forerunner to 8-track tapes 1,200 papers across the country,” ing your newsletter because it them. He estimates he’s conducted story behind how it came alive. with an endless loop to record com- Davis said. It was a news biz high- brings back so many wonderful about 200 interviews. Davis, a longtime music writer mercials and play them back. Now, light. memories.’” “Some of the most interesting and musician in his own right, things are different. In the late ’90s, he became in- The work has thus introduced people to talk to were Jerry Reed, pens a weekly column for the “Computers have taken over the terested in computers. He claims him to both nice people and inter- for one,” Davis said. “Of course, Texarkana Gazette and also de- world. Sometimes I think that’s he’s not a computer geek, but he esting characters. And for Davis, he’s known as a wild man.” lights thousands of additional read- not too good, but that’s the way it noticed people started sending enjoying the column writing is all Reed was a Chet Atkins protege ers with his “Country Music Clas- is anyway,” Davis said. email newsletters. A “cooking about a sense of history. and told Davis that Chet Atkins sics” email newsletter. He’s spun For him, it was and still is all freak” sent him one about cooking. “I enjoy digging up the informa- was the reason he was doing what country tunes as a radio deejay about classic country. There’s a That inspired him to start his own, tion. I love research if it’s some- he did for a living. Reed also told here for decades. reason for that. “Country Music Classics.” thing I like and I like this. That’s him about the song “Misery Loves For Davis’ faithful readers and “I just like that old way back in “Printed out it’s about seven or what I really like about it is re- Company,” a song he wrote for listeners, the columnist and on-air the early ’50s and ’60s what they eight pages,” Davis said. He started searching,” Davis said. Many of Porter Wagoner. personality stirs the memory with call the 4/4 shuffle beat music,” with seven subscribers. “Today I his columns deal with the artist, “He said, ‘It’s kind of funny how old songs they treasure fondly. Davis said. “Old Ray Price records, have over 20,000. That’s all free. I songwriter or producer, and many that came about. I never even At his Texas-side home, Doug’s that kind of stuff.” This style en- don’t try to make a dollar out of it. of those industry folks he inter- thought of that song before I wrote office is filled with musical his- ticed him to fall for country music. It’s just something I love to do.” viewed himself. it,’” Davis said. Reed, waiting tory, whether it’s shelves crammed “I loved it then, I still do. I never And his readers share his love “I tell these guys, I said, I don’t around for an appointment one full of LPs or old recording equip- get tired of it.” for music. care what your favorite food is, day, just came up with the song, ment that recalls an era of bygone It’s the kind of music he and “To them, it brings back memo- your favorite color, how many kids impromptu-style. For Wagoner, it technologies. It’s here where he some other gentlemen perform ries. One of my subscribers is 96 you have, if you drink, or smoke became a No. 1 hit. records radio shows, too, using his weekly at local retirement centers. years old, lives in Baltimore, Mary- dope, I could care less. I want to “That’s what turns me on. That’s computer, and where he simply “We play the nursing home circuit land.,” Davis said. The email goes know where the idea for this song my thing,” Davis said of the re- writes. every Friday morning,” he said. out overnight Wednesday night came from. That’s the whole idea, search, the story behind these “Just junk I’ve collected in the He plays the guitar, a self-de- into Thursday morning. That sub- that’s what interests me. How’d songs. last 70 years,” Davis says mod- scribed “flustered guitar player.” estly of what’s around him. A ga- He suffered a stroke and that rage and storage buildings out back makes it tougher, but he still wants contain more music. He’s a pack to play for the people. rat, but now that he’s getting on in “I don’t have sense enough to years he realizes it’s time to give up, to quit,” Davis, sporting a downsize his life and trim the col- black Sun Studio T-shirt, admits lection. He hates to think about it with good humor. but knows the time is coming. His “Story Behind the Song” idea “Years and years ago, I started originated from phone interviews really counting and I got tired at he did for the radio way back in the 5,000 and quit,” Davis recalled early 1960s. He recorded them. “I about tallying his albums. He re- kept those tapes all this time,” he calls trading and buying when he says. Then, he realized, there could first afford it back in high wasn’t anything like it in newspa- school. pers, so the idea was born. Still, he continues to find more. At the Gazette, he convinced edi- On top of a freshly-purchased stack tor J. Q. Mahaffey to carry a col- of LPs sat a Jimmy Work record, umn. Although it didn’t pay much, “Making Believe.” Davis attends he just wanted to do it. He’s writ- estate sales with his wife. ten for the paper here off and on His interest in country music, ever since. you might say, originated in soap For a while, Davis wrote for a operas. That’s what his mother syndicate that sold his column to listened to on the radio. other newspapers around the na- “Of course they had singing tion. Eventually, his column be- jingles, you know, and commer- came part of a week end entertain- cials,” said Davis, a self-described ment package distributed for the “little bitty squirt” back then. “I remember asking her, ‘How’s those guys get in that little box?’” She DAVIS, THIRD FROM THE RIGHT ON THE BACK ROW, POSED WITH STUDENTS explained they weren’t actually IN ONE OF THE EIGHTH GRADE SECTIONS AT PEWITT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL inside the radio but rather in New York City or San Francisco and Davis spent one year of study in the new Pewitt School other places. They were broadcast- ing. Young Davis asked if people got It might have been his young music teacher paid to do that. Yes, they did-quite well, in fact-and so his interest was sparked. The first radio sta- who stirred his interest that continues today tion he saw was KTFS here in Davis spent one year as an But there were three boys in my if she had heard of Hank Williams. Texarkana. “I was just mesmer- eighth grade student when Pewitt class that made that school year She said she had and sang me the ized,” he recalls. School was first opened in the early bearable - Morris Craig, Ray chorus to “Your Cheating Heart.” I Now, so many decades later, 1950s and it could have been his Thigpen and Johnny Bob Lewis. really liked her and besides that he’s still a deejay, part-time, for music teacher that year that Those three came up to me - intro- she was very pretty! KPIG -FM. He records classic coun- spurred his love of music. duced themselves - and actually She was a hometown girl named try and gospel shows for the sta- When I was in the eighth grade, talked to me. Shirley Strickland, and her music tion, plus a short form piece called Mr. Paul Pewitt and Mr. Dave Hitt Morris Craig became a newspa- class was very interesting. “The Story Behind the Song” that hired my dad as cattle foreman for per publisher ... I believe Ray After that stint in the eighth runs on a dozen stations across the the Circle P Ranch. Thigpen was an insurance execu- grade my family moved back to country. He did a morning show We moved onto the ranch and tive - by the way - his son Todd is DeKalb and later moved into my up until a year ago, when he de- my dad began gathering, grading now my dentist in Texarkana - and dad’s old home place at Dalby cided he’d like to sleep in a bit in and culling the large herd of cattle I have no idea what happened to Springs. the morning. on the ranch and working to add Johnny Bob Lewis. I remember I went to Texarkana College two His first radio job was in the some premium blood lines to build Lewis was a baseball fan - could years and East Texas State Uni- late 1950s at KTFS. “I worked for a better herd of livestock. name all the players for all the versity in Commerce one year (I’m the guy who worked overnight. I Dave Hitt was his boss and gave major league teams and their stats. still dumb as a box of rocks) then made the coffee and ripped the my dad the freedom to manage the He was quite a character. got into radio broadcasting and news off the old teletype machine. cattle operation as he saw fit - and I have always been grateful to newspaper from 1958 thru 2001. You remember the old black that’s how I wound up in the eighth those three guys for their kindness I thought I retired but decided I clunkers? They were the source for grade at Paul Pewitt School. to me back in the eighth grade. was not ready to quit so today I news at radios and newspapers." I was the new kid on the block - We also had a music apprecia- still write a classic country music In his early years in the busi- didn’t know a single soul and was tion class in the eighth grade. Our column for six newspapers ... pro- ness, he worked an allnight gig. As scared to death! It might be hard to teacher was a pretty young lady duce a daily short form radio show a young man, the hours didn’t believe - but back in those days I fresh out of college and her first for twelve radio stations and write phase him. “The more the mer- was a severe introvert - almost teaching job. a weekly country music email rier,” he said. The three Texarkana scared of my own shadow. She had a portable record player newsletter for 20,000 subscribers. radio stations back then, he worked So here I was in a brand new and introduced us to the classics Some folks ask me if I’m not old for them all: KOSY, KCMC and school - surrounded by folks I didn’t like Arturo Toscanini, Mantovani enough to quit all that and I reply KTFS. He worked radio in Idabel, know and scared of my own - all the high class music. I was - “I don’t know - how old do you Oklahoma, for a while, too. A ROOM FULL OF MUSIC shadow. into country music and asked her have to be?”