Print |
E-mail to a friend
LIFE
Bobby Maynard to join greats in Country Music Hall of Fame
Bobby Maynard, who has played in nearly all 50 states with such artists as Dolly Parton, Lee Greenwood, The Jordanaires, Little Jimmy Dickens and many others, is being inducted into the West Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday evening.
Purchase this photoBobby Maynard is picking at the famed Renfro Valley Barn Dance in Kentucky tonight before hauling back across Kentucky and the length of West Virginia on Sunday on his way to the Eastern Panhandle to Jim and Bertha McCoy's famous honky-tonk The Troubadour, where Maynard has a little date with history.
Maynard, who has played in nearly all 50 states with such artists as Dolly Parton, Lee Greenwood, The Jordanaires, Little Jimmy Dickens, Jack Greene, Jean Shepard, Don Rigsby, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Melvin Goins and many others, is being inducted into the West Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday evening.
The ceremony takes place during The Troubadour's annual Labor Day tribute to Patsy Cline, who played music with Jim McCoy.
Maynard, who has played music for 30 years, won the 2000 Bluegrass Banjo Competition and has put out four solo CDs that helped earn him the top sales producer at Tamarack in Beckley in 2004.
On most of those records, Maynard, also a sought-after teacher, plays every instrument. He has played The Grand Ole Opry, Philadelphia Folk Festival and Wintergrass Festival in Tacoma, Wash.
"It was kind of a big surprise and even a bigger honor," Maynard said. "I am going in with Hawkshaw Hawkins and Charlie McCoy. That's some pretty big company there, so it is pretty humbling, and still kind of a shock. It's cool because they do recognize musicians like Don West, a great steel player. In country music, us pickers kind of get overlooked by those good-looking singers."
Joining Maynard for the Hall is Nashville harmonica legend Charlie McCoy, who is also getting inducted in November to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in Charleston.
The Eastern Panhandle-based group the McCumbee Family, veterans of the now-gone Wheeling Jamboree and some of the early country music radio performers in West Virginia, are being inducted as is the late, great Huntington native Hawkshaw Hawkins, who died March 5, 1963, in the plane crash that also killed Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and others.
The four inductees join an illustrious group in the West Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame that includes Red Sovine, Billy Edd Wheeler, Stoney Cooper, Buddy Starcher, Don West, Charlie Dick (Patsy Cline's husband) and DJs such as Sammy Moss and Virgil Ruppenthal.
A life-long classic country musician and a former DJ from of Winchester, Va., McCoy said he started the WV Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 at the Troubadour to honor the Mountain State's heritage of singers, musicians and DJs.
"One of the things we started this for was to get people to think about some of the artists like the McCumbee Family -- they will probably never get recognized by the hall of fame in Charleston or the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville so this gives these people some recognition they might not otherwise get," McCoy said.
McCoy, who is 79, said the Hall of Fame induction always takes place the same weekend as his Labor Day celebration of Patsy Cline at his establishment near Berkeley Springs.
He was the first person to play Patsy Cline (who was then 14 and went by the name of Virginia Hensley) on the radio (WINC), and was good friends with Cline and her husband Charlie Dick. This is the 44th year that the McCoys have hosted a celebrations for Cline. They also host one in March called Remembering Patsy Cline.
McCoy said putting Hawkshaw Hawkins into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is long overdue as Cowboy Copas is already in the hall.
"I can't believe it that I missed putting him in before now," McCoy said. "I was like where have I been because he was one of the main guys on the Opry back then. Somehow he disappeared in my mind, but we got it straight now. I feel honored to do it and to remember him."
McCoy, who is only 5-foot-6, got to laughing when he talked about meeting Hawk, who was a giant for his day at 6 feet, 6 inches.
"I always looked up to him literally, and with his music," McCoy said with a laugh. "He was a tall dude."
Hawkins, who grew up in the West End of Huntington, was a top headliner with the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling from 1946 to 1954, and joined the WSM Grand Ole Opry in 1955.
An avid horseman, he did rope tricks and stand-up comedy as well as singing.
Like his fellow Huntington musical partner, Clarence Jack (with their duo Sherlock and Hawkshaw) Hawk served with honor in World War II. The Army Staff Sergeant earned four battle stars fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, winning four battle stars.
He chalked up four Top 10 singles as well a No. 1, "Lonesome 7-7203," that spent 25 weeks on the chart and a month at No. 1 after he died.
McCoy said the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is set up to shine a light on such near forgotten stars like Hawkshaw.
"The Music Hall of Fame in Charleston I love that because they recognize all types of music," McCoy said. "We just recognize the country music people and some of the, I guess you would say pioneers in the music field. We all did it with one microphone and a small PA, and thought we had something."
For more information about the McCoys' lounge and the West Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame, go online at www.troubadourlounge.com.
1940s Radio Hour 
J. Chris Newberg 
First Friday and Second Look Saturday 
Lions Arts and Crafts Show 
"The Nutcracker" 
Christmas Tour of Homes 
2nd annual Holiday Candlelight Tour 
Marshall Artists Series: "Wizard of Oz" 
16th annual Joy to the World Holiday Concert 
"Cowboy" Bill Martin 
