Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993 TAG: 9309240010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But Monday night, the spotlight's on you, John Palmer.
What may be the biggest bluegrass concert ever in Roanoke will take place at 7 p.m. Monday at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The biggest names in the music will play, including the Osborne Brothers, the Johnson Mountain Boys, Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Del McCoury, Lynn Morris, the Bluegrass Cardinals, the Lonesome River Band, the Lost & Found, Bill Harrell, Mac Magaha, the Reno Brothers, the Bass Mountain Boys and others.
This galaxy of bluegrass talent will converge to pay their respects to John Palmer of Fincastle, who played a quietly essential role in one of the genre's legendary bands: Don Reno & Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups.
Palmer, who is suffering from inoperable lung cancer, spent most of the summer in Roanoke Memorial Hospital and was released two days ago. The concert, organized by fellow musician Herschel Sizemore and to be emceed by veteran bluegrass writer Bill Vernon and Jack Kirby, is designed to help pay some of his medical bills.
Palmer's wife, Lucille, said Wednesday the bassist will attend the concert in person if his strength permits. Sizemore says John Palmer will be the center of attention whether he's physically present or not.
Bluegrass bassists can give pointers on humility to Saint Francis of Assisi. Standing behind the lady-killer guitarist, the flashy fiddle player and the stone-faced banjo picker who dazzles the crowd with his right hand, the bass player is stuck on an instrument that rarely gets solos.
Worse, in some older bands it was the bassist who was dressed in permanent comedy garb and had blacked-out teeth while the rest of the band wore spiffy clothes.
Bluegrass musicologist Bill Vernon of Franklin County says that while many bluegrass pickers can double on bass, "That doesn't mean that anybody can be great.
"The level of greatness that John achieved is deceptive, like the baseball player who's sneaky fast: It looks easy til you try to hit him. A lot of people can play the instrument, but John is one of the true greats."
Palmer was part of the vintage Reno & Smiley band from 1955 to 1964, along with Roanoke fiddler Mac Magaha. Don Reno was probably the most dazzlingly inventive banjoist who ever lived, and the band was at its peak during Palmer's tenure. Palmer played on dozens of classic recordings with the group, and was seen five mornings a week on the band's "Top o' the Morning" show on WDBJ-TV in Roanoke.
During this period the Reno & Smiley lineup earned its reputation as the greatest show band ever seen in bluegrass. All four players had comedy alter egos and did improvised slapstick routines onstage that had audiences all over the Southeast roaring with laughter.
Palmer was Mutt Highpockets, Reno and Smiley were Chicken and Pansy Hotrod, and Mac Magaha was Jeff Dooly Tater. All the names, Palmer recalls, were Reno's inventions.
"The comedy was just something we made up as we went along," said Palmer. "There was one routine where I was supposed to be dead and they'd try to get me offstage. I'd kinda slide down the back wall like a snake."
Bill Vernon characterized the improvised comedy and Palmer's role in it as "brilliant" and said it was a major reason for the band's huge success.
"For the rural audiences of that day, money was scarce, and your entertainment dollar had to do it all: you had to get in your laughing, your crying, your gospel music all in one shot. And nobody gave better value for the money than this band when John was a member," said Vernon.
Palmer stayed with Red Smiley when Reno left, and later was a member of the Shenandoah Cut-Ups, which was probably the tightest and most hard-driving traditional bluegrass band of the '70s.
Carlton Haney of Reidsville, N.C., managed the Reno & Smiley unit when Palmer was a member. A semi-legendary figure in bluegrass himself, Haney calls Palmer "probably one of the two best bluegrass bass players who ever lived.
"John was the one who put that Bob Wills 4/4 time into bluegrass music - he could do that better than anybody. He'd even throw in some jazz, some 8/8 time, a little. John had job offers from everybody in the business, from Ernest Tubb on down," said Haney.
But Palmer says he doesn't regret turning down the many offers from mainstream country music stars to move to Nashville. "I wanted to stay with my family, and when you go to Nashville, you're just gone all the time," said the bassist.
Palmer said that, as it was, he was driving about 50,000 miles a year with the band - and they were hard miles. He recalled jockeying for the best seat in the car (in the back where you could sleep, because even the front passenger occupant had to watch the road and keep the driver awake).
He also recalls driving through thunderstorms with his bass strapped to the top of the car. "I've poured gallons of water out of that bass many a time," recalled Palmer.
Bluegrass music was not lucrative, and Palmer supplemented his income by starting the Daleville Body Shop in 1962. For the past eight years, till his cancer was diagnosed in June, he had been building and selling houses as well.
Herschel Sizemore, who played mandolin with Palmer in the post-Reno days, says that the bassist was known as a peacemaker throughout his career and tried his best to lubricate the frictions that develop among talented musicians living and traveling in close quarters.
"A band is a lot like a marriage," said Sizemore, and he credits John Palmer as being the prime marriage counselor for the Reno & Smiley unit during its glory days.
Probably because of his congenial and peaceable nature, Palmer seems to have made nothing but friends during his decades as a working musician.
"There was absolutely nobody I had to prod for this," said Sizemore. "I said what it was for, they asked when was it gonna be, and then they'd say, `Just put me down.' Nobody's gettin' one dime out of this, it all goes to John and Lucille. Even the rent on the Civic Center has been paid by fans who want to remain anonymous."
Sizemore said he tried to convey Palmer's thanks to banjo picker Sonny Osborne, and said that Osborne's reaction was typical. "Sonny said, `He don't owe us any thanks. He's already paid us.' "
Sizemore said contributions to the John Palmer Fund may be mailed to the Bank of Fincastle, P.O. Box 107, Fincastle, VA 24090.
by CNB