The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 2

A 14 THE COLRIER-JOURNAL TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 1977 Music review Fan Fair concerts prove you need not be U.S. born to sing country music rM 7 hh-E (Sit Alanna Nash is a Louisville free-lance writer who occasionally covers movies and musical events for The Courier-Journal. Yesterday at the International Show with host Charley Pride, performers from such countries as Czechoslovakia, Germany, Holland, Japan and Australia tried hard to acquire twangs and whines. Although their native accents broke through, the applause from the crowd of 5,000 showed that its members appreciate country music in any lan- they make up for that with enthusiasm and reverence. Jimmie Tokita, a Japanese cowboy who wore a Stetson and sang with Hank Williams inflections, pined for his "Mississippi home and sweet magnolia down South" to guitar and fiddle accompaniment.

The audience particularly enjoyed Holland's Saskia and Serge, a male-female team who sang strong English versions of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" and "C'est La Vie (It Goes To Show You Never Can Tell)," recent By ALANNA NASH Courier-Journal Cwitributfni Critic NASHVILLE The concerts present ed at Municinal Auditorium this week. end as part of Fan Fair activities Suage. proved that you don't have to have an entertainer's voice, be a rhinestone cow- boy, or even live in the United States to play and sing country music. If the foreign singers can't understand everything about the American culture that produces country-western, Music review Charline Arthur is back to save Nashville show V- Staff Photo by Ken Htikhn stopping point for passenger trains was in 1969, when the Chesapeake 6s Ohio made its last stop. Could one dare to think that she might have inspired him? "It's possible," she said, knowing a visitor was hanging onto every word.

"Could very well be. We were very close. He used to tell me his mother bought my records all the time and made him listen to me." The train will be stopping at this Maysville station starting today. The last time the town was a regular By ALANNA NASH I Centribulim CourHr-JournsI Critic i NASHVILLE The people who put together Fan Fair said the Annual Re- union Show, featuring performances by the old-timers and the pickers and sing- erg who make up the backbone of country music, always is among the most That would lead one to believe that popular of Fan Fair events. But the show, which drew 4,000 fans she had hits, then.

to Municipal Auditorium yesterday, was "I'll just put it this way," she an Passenger trains will start stopping in Maysville today after eight years '-going pretty slowly until midway through when a small woman with a big guitar took the stage. 2 Charline Arthur was back in town. Twenty years ago, she had left Nash- i ville, her four-year contract with RCA canceled and her marriage on the rocks. swered. "I was a top ten female singer in the 50s.

Kitty Wells was No. 1 in 1955 and I was No. 2. I was associated with almost everybody in the Country Music Hall of Fame. "Let me tell you about three girls that I know patterned their style after me.

You might have heard of 'em inc. iuu uugm nave ucaiu ui cm "I thought my world had fallen out -from under me," she explained back- pat cu Brenda Lee and WanJa stage sitting alone, apart from the rest JaeksQn know that a Wanda I of the entertainers "And I decided to told me that nersdf and friend of away from the big scene for a pat said patsy told him was her while, at least until I was strong idol. Brenda used to do all my songs on enough. 'Ozark Juhilee' when she was a kiH Anrl ly a hit for Emmylou Harris. Another favorite was 73-year-old Wilf Carter (Montana Slim), the yodeling cowboy who was a major country star in Canada in the '30s and '40s.

On Friday night, the first annual Ca-jun Music Show offered a form of coun-- try music that not even some of the staunchest fans there had heard. The word Cajun refers to the music brought to Louisiana (particularly the southwest) by French Canadians who settled there in the 1700s. Cajun is based on variations of the waltz, the one-step or two-step. Its best-known practitioner probably is singer-fiddler Doug Kershaw, who offers a commercial and progressive brand. Allen Fontenot and the Country Cajun, a New Orleans-based band that closed Friday night's show, mixed a few modern tunes with a repertoire of traditional Cajun songs, such as ''Jollie Blond" and "Lafayette." Even with his stylized versions, however, Fontenot and his five musicians on guitars, drums, bass and hte basic Cajun instruments of fiddle and accordion played an ethnic sound set to danceable rhythms that led one member of the audience to all him "the Lawrence Welk of Cajun." Between songs, Fontenot, a middle-aged man dressed in a red coat and black string tie, spiced his music by chanting, "When you're hot, you're hot" in a thick French accent.

"I certainly never expected this kind of a show tonight," remarked a woman in the crowd of 3,500. But did she like it? "Yeah, man," she answered. So apparently did James Barnes, a senior citizen from Rocky Mount, N. who comes to Fan Fair every year. Halfway through the show, Barnes was caught up in the spirit of Fontenot's music and began to dance a vigorous two-step in front of the stage.

Later, he returned with a female partner, and five other couples joined in. Also appearing on the show were Jimmy C. Newman of "Alligator Man" fame, who sang parts of his songs in Louisiana Cajun dialect, and Rufus Thi-vodeaux, whom Newman introduced as the "world's greatest Cajun fiddle player." Thivodeaux, something of a Nashville legend, played with his fiddle tucked into his elbow and danced as he yelped the familar Cajun "aieee" call to punctuate his performance. Joel Sonnier demonstrated that an accordion can be just as passionate and versatile as the electric guitar when he squeezed out rock and blues versions of Cajun-based songs. One of the more enlightening, if least-attended, shows of Friday's Fan Fair events was the third "Songwriters' Hit Parade," in which 15 writers sang their songs that, for the most part, had been made hits by established stars.

Proving that the famous versions are not always the best was Linda Hargrove, a young woman who has a career as a singer as well as a writer. Miss Har Continued From Page One Maysville twice a day for some time, but as Redmond noted, "The engineer and the conductor just pass us and wave." The resumption of passenger train service marks the end of a local effort that began when the Chesapeake Ohio's George Washington made its last stop in the river town April 30, 1969. Most officials agree that the Riley's primary benefit will be to give local residents another means of traveling to Cincinnati, about 70 miles to the northwest. Aside from driving, the only way now is to board a bus in Aberdeen, Ohio, just across the river. That trip takes an hour and a half each way, and the roundtrip fare is $10.30.

The train will take as long as the bus, but a roundtrip ticket will cost $6.75. The westbound train will head out of Maysville at 9:32 each morning, and the eastbound run will leave here at 8:15 p.m. One of the people largely credited with persuading Amtrak to take a chance on Maysville is Ann Parker, described by Redmond as "a -believer in Maysville and downtown." Mrs. Parker, who runs a travel agency, is going to miss the inaugural stop, how- ever. She's in Mexico with a tour group.

Al Kaletta, Amtrak's regional' sales manager in Chicago, said the Maysville stop was added after a study by Amtrak's marketing research office in Washington. He said the stop is an experiment but one that Amtrak can afford because the train goes through Maysville already and no expensive switching is involved with making a stop. "We're going to watch this with a lot of interest," he said, "because the people in that area are very enthusiastic." Kaletta said the Riley "has never been one of our great trains" that is, it has run late often but he said that it has Amtrak's latest equipment and that plans are to add sleeping cars as soon as they're ready. It takes the train 21 12 hours now to make it from Chicago to Washington, but Kaletta said adding a stop such as Maysville adds only a few minutes. He noted that Maysville is a "flag stop," meaning the train will stop here only if there are passengers getting on or off.

If it turns out there aren't enough passengers here to make a stop worthwhile, it will be discontinued. But Redmond doesn't plan to let that happen. "You can betcha that we're going to try every way in the world to use fiat train," he said. For him, the new passenger service is a victory in what he calls "an illjage battle." Between 1960 and 1970, Maysvilla lost about 1,100 people. It now has a population of 7.411.

Most of the decline, been attributed to a lack of jobs. i i The city has unsuccessfully tried 'for years to get the, state and federal government to improve the old roads leading into Maysville in hopes that it would spur industrial growth and tourism. And then the train quit stopping. Overall, the image has been one oil a town on the decline. But there is new industry, the train is stopping again and Redmond said an "interested partyl'' considering opening "a modern chain motel" here, something that could boost tourism and highway construction.

"We hope that we've reversed the trend, but we're not sure," he said4 s'lt's an image battle that I think I'm winning, but I'm not sure." He says that the resumption of passenger train service probably won't have any economic impact on Maysville but that "psychologically it's great." jmj uuu I'll tell you something else. Chet Atkins played on nearly all my sessions. He was just becoming RCA's (artist and repertoire) man then." Atkins happened to be in the next room. Did he remember those days when Charline Arthur was a superstar? "I don't believe we had any hits with her," he said dryly. "What happened to her? "You'll have to ask her," he said.

Charlene's mother, Edna Highsmith, explained, sitting in the bleachers watching the show. "She got her spirit bent when her husband told her she didn't have what it takes to be a musician." But Charline told it differently. "Female singers faded out, and then another thing, Col. Tom (Parker, Presley's manager) wanted me to sign a contract. But I didn't want to tie up my life and soul," she said.

"I have to be free. That's what America's all about." Does she have any regrets? "Not at all. I wouldn't change my life, even if I could." On reconsidering, Charline thought maybe she would. "I'd like to be recording again, sure," 11 TOOK nei UIIUl ycsiciuojr. Why, at 47, had she come back, all the way from Inkon, Idaho, where she I plays nightclubs and one-night stands? "Well, because I received the invitation after writing a few letters and because I don't think anyone gets too old lias long as they have something to offer the public." That Charline Arthur has.

On stage, 'she belted out a medley of the tunes in '54, songs such as "Too Lang Too Many Times," "The Good and Bad" and "I'm Having a Party All by Myself." i As she stood there singing into the "microphone, there was something about mthe way she looked that reminded one "of Elvis Presley. It was probably just tthe suit, a white pants outfit with or-ange, green and blue trim, a red tie 'the style that Col. Sanders now wears and the kind Elvis wore in the '50s and a piece of jewelry shaped like a banjo to hold the tie in place, i But just then Charline Arthur did 'something that showed her resemblance 4o Elvis was more than just the suit, plight in the middle of the fast numbers, she jumped in the air, crossed her legs, aimed her guitar at the audience as if it Single welfare form pushed to replace 6 she said. "The only time I'm alive is were a machine gun ana lanaea square on her feet, only to leap and do it when I'm in the stiudio or before a live again. audience, maKin people nappy.

Is that all she'd like? WASHINGTON (AP) Combining six complicated welfare applications into "Well," she added a little sheepishly, "I'd like to be in the Country Music Hall of Fame. There are times, you know, when I get the feeling that my The crowd hooted its appreciation and Charline Arthur's face took on a glow "that'rivaled her spotlight. "I've always been very active," she 'said, when asked about her choreogra-' phy. "It's like Minnie Pearl and her a single form would save $1 billion a year, a federal study commission said yesterday. name should be up there with Patsy's The Commission on Federal Paper price, tag.

The fans expect you to retain and all the rest of 'em." work recommended combining the appli She paused and rubbed the toe of her cation forms for Aid to Families with grove appeared late in the show, wnich didn't begin until almost 11:30 p.m. But she woke up a faithful, if tired, group of about 1.500 with her gutsy, rock rendition of "Let It Shine," making Olivia Newton-John's recording seem pale and syrupy in comparison. Paul Kraft gave a fresh performance of his "Drop Kick Me Jesus," the Bobby Bare hit, and Danny Dill got a hand when he sang a stanza of his "Long Black Veil" that all the recording artists have omitted. Also well received was Roger Bowling, co-writer of "Lucille." And Dave Kirby's "Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone" was particularly effective. Dependent Children, Supplementary Se curity Income, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Services and Section 8 of the some of your youth, and the jumping JJias always been a part of me.

They -called me," she added with a smile, "tittle Miss Had anyone else said she made them think of Elvis? i "Oh, yes," she said nonchalantly, flighting a menthol cigarette. "In fact, I llworked with Elvis when he was Elvis who," Housing Act. 25-year-old turquoise boots. "And I don't mind tellin' you," she said, gaining confidence, "in time, I think it'll happen. You see," she added, "I got lots of natural ability." (At the end of the concert, a special tribute was given to Merle Travis, a noted country guitarist from Rosewood, Ky.) Vt Si a The commission said the six programs involve almost $50 billion and will pro vide services to more than 60 million applicants in 1978.

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