24
Aug

Some News and Thank Yous

Written by Don Reid on August 24th, 2016 Posted in General

I had some news to bring and some thank yous to extend, so I thought it was time to write another blog and get a lot of this said at one time.

 

  • The Academy of Country Music will hold an Honors TV Show special to be aired September  9th on CBS.  It is being taped next week in Nashville at the Ryman.  Lots of folks will be in attendance getting achievement awards:

Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Crystal Gayle, Tanya Tucker and of course, The Statler Brothers (or I wouldn’t be writing to you about it, would I?), and others.

We are receiving the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award.  A little history:

Cliffie Stone was an early record executive who was responsible for most of the west coast country music that came alive in the 1960s.  He was a good and powerful man in the record industry.   One morning, pre “Flowers On The Wall”, we were in Hollywood on tour and Cliffie took the four of us to breakfast at the Brown Derby.  The purpose of all this was to offer us a job.  He said if you guys will move to L.A., I can promise that you will become ‘the’ backup group for every record act in town – rock, pop, blues and country.  You can buy houses in Malibu, drive in to work each day and never have to tour again.  You can live the good Southern California life, raise your kids here and have it made for life.  It was a tempting proposition but our answer was more shocking than even the offer.  We said, “Thanks but no thanks, Cliffie.  We’ll take our chances living in Virginia.”

So isn’t it befitting (or not) that we are receiving the ‘Cliffie’ Pioneer award!  We are certainly honored and humbled by it.

And just one quick answer to all who may see this special and ask the obvious question:

Jimmy and I will be there to accept the honor.  Harold and Phil will not.  These two guys are firmly and totally retired.  They no longer make appearances or do interviews and Jimmy and I feel they have every right to do exactly that. They have assuredly earned that privilege.  Bless them both!

 

  • And a shout out to WILSON/FAIRCHILD. Their new CD is called SONGS OUR DADS WROTE.  And what an album of emotion it is for bro Harold and me.  Wil and Langdon chose the songs and planned the project and kept it a total secret from us until they came and handed us the finished product.  Nine of the ten songs were co-written by Harold and myself (the 10th one was written by Wil and Langdon).  The performances, their picking and singing, are fantastic and the cover is worth the price of admission.  I can’t praise or recommend this enough.  When I’m in the audience and they’re on stage, they hold my heart in their hands.

 

 

  • And then there is the FAREWELL CONCERT. Our final stage performance from October 26, 2002.  It has been on the market for thirteen years (13) now and this month the DVD went back to Number 1 on the charts for the third time.   I mention this only so I can say thank you, thank you to all who have kept our memory alive and forefront.  You are good and loyal friends and fans and we love you dearly.

 

  • And now THE BEST OF THE STATLER BROTHERS TV SHOWS – SEASON ONE is out there and soaring. It’s all from the first season and I think it may bring back a few good memories for you from 1991-92. (A couple of the outfits I had on have brought back something besides ‘good’ memories, but other than that, I’m kinda having a good time watching them myself.)

 

 

For past blogs – donreid.net

For everything else – statlerbrothers.com

 

 

DSR  – 8/24/16