April 13: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times -Soapbox Jr.

Apologies to Charles Dickens and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn for the title paraphrasing “A Tale of Two Cities.”

As I was scheduling posts for April 13, it crossed my mind that “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That kind of sums up the day. There were two monumental events in the life of the Daniels family that took place on this date six years apart, so as the old saying goes, “I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.” 

I’ll give you the good news first.

On April 13, 1967, Charlie and Hazel Daniels packed up and moved from Newport, KY – right across the river from Cincinnati, OH with a $20 bill, the clutch out on their car and their soon-to-be two-year-old son, yours truly.

Dad’s friend and mentor Bob Johnston was the hottest producer in the business, and he was now working out of the Nashville CBS Records offices, home to Columbia Records and the CDB’s future home, Epic Records, and he asked Dad if he wanted to move down there and give Nashville a shot.

If it hadn’t been for Bob, none of it would have been possible. He cosigned a loan for Dad to help out with the move and he just happened to own a house in Donelson which he rented to us for at an affordable price and tried to bring Dad on for sessions when he could, but often, recording artists had their favorite and trusted studio musicians they felt comfortable with, and it’s well-documented that Dad’s experience playing rock ‘n roll covers for almost ten years put his style a little outside of the mainstream “Nashville Sound” so Dad had to take a lot of gigs around town just to make the ends meet.

Dad’s frustration grew to the point of driving to a spot near our house where the skyline of Nashville was visible and he would stare at the town which was both the key and the stumbling block to a burning desire to make music for a living, and he would shake his fist defiantly at the buildings saying, “You will not beat me!”

After about two years of scraping by, the skyline of Nashville opened with an aptly named project that Bob Johnston was working on, ‘Nashville Skyline,” the latest album by Bob Dylan, and his second recorded in Music City.

As has been discussed frequently by me, the Dylan session and his approval of Dad’s style was a pivotal moment in his career, and more opportunities began opening up, and he eventually started creating his own music, but even then, success was not immediate, but thanks to Bob Johnston – and strengthened by the first of three Dylan sessions, things started looking up. Dad was doing sessions with the likes of Ringo Starr, Marty Robbins, Leonard Cohen and Flatt & Scruggs.

Speaking of Scruggs, when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs parted ways, Dad joined Earl and his sons Gary and Randy in the Earl Scruggs Revue for a time.

And Bob Johnston’s success trickled down to Dad, as Bob had more projects thrown his way than he could handle, which resulted in him producing the third album for The Youngbloods – of “Get Together” fame called ‘Elephant Mountain,’ and later on, Dad and former Youngblood, Jerry Corbitt toured together and each produced the other’s solo albums on Capitol Records.

Soon, Dad was itching to get back on the road and make his own music, so he put a band together and signed with Kama Sutra Records, a sister label to Buddah Records.

Within a couple of years, he had his first hit single, “Uneasy Rider,” at the age of thirty-six, but true success didn’t happen until later still, with the landmark ‘Fire on the Mountain’ album, then a new record deal with Epic Records, and which would lead up to several solid but underwhelming sales, but then his career hit light speed with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia in 1979 at the age of forty-two.

Having your first hit at thirty-six and your signature song at forty-two, suffice it to say that Dad’s success could hardly be called overnight, so while moving to Music City on April 13 was the beginning of a difficult but rewarding time in his career, and most of the time the rewarding times are paid for with the difficult ones.

And now for the bad news.

Six years after the move to Nashville on April 13, 1973, tragedy struck, my grandfather, Carlton, had a heart attack and was called home.

I remember paw paw Carlton, even though I was only six – soon to be seven later in April. He was a good man who worked hard in the timber business, specifically Long leaf pine trees for telephone poles, and there are a lot of long leaf pine trees in North Carolina.

For Carlton’s headstone, Dad wrote, “Tall whispering long leaf pine trees sing his song” which he also used as the dedication to his early 1974 album, ‘Way Down Yonder.’

I’m not overly superstitious – although I am probably more so during football season - but there were a couple of factors which will make you make you go, “Hmmm.” 

First of all, in 1973, April 13 was Friday the 13th, the other is that Mom had a bracelet that was supposed to bring good luck, and for some reason it slipped off her wrist, for a moment, she scared herself into thinking that something bad was going to happen, then dismissed it thinking that it was just a silly notion in her head.

Do I think that bad luck had anything to do with my paw paw’s passing, no. I don’t think Friday the 13th and Mom’s bracelet took him out. Absolutely not, I believe it was a coincidence. I’m sure he was called home at his appointed time, not by superstitions.

One last note about his death, according to Dad’s book, “Never Look at the Empty Seats,” Carlton had Dad’s ‘Honey in the Rock’ album on his turntable, and the really tragic part of the story is that he never got to see Dad’s success. At least he got to hear it.

“Uneasy Rider” would go on to become a top ten single on the pop charts, but it wasn’t released until later in 1973, so he never got to see Dad continue to soar musically.

It’s heartbreaking that he never got to see what he was able to accomplish in his life. It’s my understanding that while Carlton was supportive of Dad’s music career, I think he hoped he would eventually tire of it, and would be back to work at the creosote plant again with him.

But with all the good things that were falling into place, you can’t help thinking that it would have meant a lot to Dad to be able to show Carlton what he was able to accomplish. Two years after his passing, Dad and rest of the CDB were doing national TV appearances on the syndicated ‘Pop Goes the Country’ -solo - and NBC’s ‘Midnight Special’ – with the full band, released the first full-length Southern Rock movie, “Volunteer Jam,” let alone the TV and film appearances which followed.

But I know Carlton saw Dad from a beautiful vantage point and was there to welcome him with arms wide open on July 6, 2020.

So, April 13 was both the next stage of a musical career that would last over six decades - starting when he left North Carolina in 1958 – and a painful goodbye, something I understand all too well. I’m just thankful I had a lot more time with Dad than he had with Carlton, who passed when Dad was just thirty-six.

So, it was indeed the best of times and the worst of times.

But Dad’s music lives on, and so does the legacy he leaves behind, and the heavenly reunion between father, son, grandparents and other loved ones will be beautiful one day.

Until then – as always - I’m keeping Dad’s legacy alive for future generations. May he never be forgotten.

What do you think?

Let’s all make the day count!

Pray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.

God Bless America!

#SonyReleaseHonkyTonkAve

#BenghaziAintGoingAway #End22

- Charlie Daniels Jr.