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  MONDAYS: Bob Fuller's Hillbilly Night at the Wheel Club, 3373 Cavendish (below Sherbrooke), in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grass region (NDG).  Free admission, begins at 9PM.

    Hillbilly Night is an internationally-known event that welcomes all who are in favor of or at least open to authentic country music.  It is attended by the young and the old, the French and the English, the ladies and the gentlemen, the hip and the square.  Singers, whether amateur or professional, take turns backed by a pool of able players.  Styles include hillbilly, bluegrass, fiddle tunes, honky tonk, western swing, country boogie, rockabilly, folk, and skiffle.  This event has built a real and expanding community, and is a jewel in the cultural world of the city.
 

poster by John Parsons
 
 
 
 

    Bob Fuller, born in Nova Scotia in 1933, started Hillbilly Night in Montreal in 1966 and still runs it.   In a 2001 interview with Craig Morrison, Fuller said:

    “Hillbilly Night is a mission.  I’m a missionary.  I saw myself as probably the only one who could or would do it.  Nobody else would be foolish enough to put all the time and effort into it.  I have the equipment, put together over the last 35 years, to do whatever I wanted in terms of picnics, festivals, things like that.  I had the record collection to back it up, and the knowledge to make available all this stuff to anybody that was interested.  I always said to myself that some night I’ll come and nobody will show up and I’ll have to sing all evening, but it’s never happened.

     The mission came from the fact that they were manipulating the music.  Nashville was going downhill.  By the mid-1950s everybody was trying to be rockabilly and the powers that be in Nashville had to get together to decide what to do.  What came out of it was the Nashville Sound, which is not country music.  It went in two directions: either orchestral or rock.  And folk married rock music, and they manipulated it.  That’s where I got my sense of mission.  They made me angry by taking my music away.  I may not be able to do much, but whatever I can do, I’ll do it.  It’s something that has to be done.
 I can remember the particular time.  I was playing at the Blue Angel then, and I was sitting in my basement apartment watching the noon movie on TV.  Christ, I said, I’m sitting here watching a movie in the middle of the day, and country music’s going down the tube.  So then I started to formulate ideas, we can do this, we can get a newsletter out, we can have Hank Williams picnics [Fuller produced at least nine annual ones], use whatever, ‘cause I had band experience from out west.  It all started to come together.

    Country music is loyal people; you can’t change ‘em.  Somebody who likes a Ford will have a Ford for the rest of their life, same with this.  We have people that swear by old time music.  They might not like the particular artist that I like, some’ll like cowboys, some’ll like fiddling.  We lump it all together, the cowboy, the mountain music, the bluegrass, the hillbilly, and all the rest of it, call it old time music.  The club [The Old Time Country Music Club of Canada, Bob Fuller, secretary] gives us credibility.  We actually have members in about 20 countries.  They can’t come, but they want to be part of it.”
 
 

    Hillbilly Night is held every Monday in Montreal.  It is run by Bob Fuller, secretary of the Old-time Country Music Club of Canada, who founded it in 1966 at the Blue Angel bar.  Hillbilly Night  moved briefly to O’Leary’s, and is now at the Wheel Club, 3373 Cavendish Boulevard (below Sherbrooke St.) in Montreal’s Notre Dame de Grace (NDG) district.  See you Monday!

CD #1

1. Canada’s King of the Yodelers: Smiling Slim Rogers
    Slim Rogers was born in 1923 and died November 2, 2005, while this CD was in production.  When Bob Fuller started Hillbilly Night at the Blue Angel in downtown Montreal in January 1966, Slim was among its founding members.  Slim Rogers wrote this tribute to Wilf Carter in 1955.  Slim lived in Ontario in the latter part of his life and used to come down to the Wheel Club to see us about once a year.

2. Sweet Thang: Sophia Wolff and the Cubs, with L’il Andy (from the CD Afternoon Fun)
    Sophia Wolff (known to Hillbilly Night regulars as Daisy Mae) comes to visit whenever she’s in town.  She now lives in Chicago, where she’s pursuing her musical career.  A great favourite of ours, she’s young, cute, and lively, and she likes to growl for effect sometimes when she sings!  On our stage, she occasionally sings with L’il Andy who’s anything but little.

3. Joint Bank Account: Craig Morrison & his Bluegrass Buddies (from the CD Echoes From the Blue Angel)
    Craig saw an article on Hillbilly Night in the Montreal Gazette newspaper in 1985 and came to investigate.  At first he mostly played acoustic guitar and bass, but has been developing as a fine C&W lap steel guitar player (he plays on the Sophia Wolff song).  He directs the students of his Rock And Roll And Its Roots course at Concordia University to Hillbilly Night for a concert report assignment, and some of them become regulars.  He instigated the 40th Anniversary Vitality Fund campaign and this compilation CD, designed to be given away as a thank-you to donors.
    During the research for his book Go Cat Go! Rockabilly Music and Its Makers, Craig found this song on a vinyl LP called Rock & Rock-a-Billy again released in 1980 by the Dutch company White Label, during the period when the rockabilly revival took off in Europe.  That was when various labels, usually run by record collectors, began reissuing records that had been made decades earlier in the United States. The song, more honky tonk than rockabilly, was written and recorded in the 1960s by Bill Lancaster who released it himself on a 45rpm single.  It seems nothing more of him is known to collectors.

4. Trying to Get to You: Susie Arioli Band with Jordan Officer
    Recorded by Elvis Presley at the beginning of his career, when still signed to the Sun label of Memphis, it had previously been recorded by an R&B vocal group called the Eagles.  We’re always pleased to see Susie and Jordan on our stage when they can come down between their world travels, local concerts, rehearsals and recordings!  Although Susie usually plays a snare when she performs with Jordan, she has to find something else to do with her hands when she’s on our stage, ‘cause “Bobby don’t allow no drum playin’ around here”!  Never mind: we know she’s up to it!

5. Traveling Blues: Katie Moore
    This song was written by Jimmy Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman.  Katie thinks it’s a great song and likes singing it from the girl’s perspective: it gives the song a nice little twist!  Katie started coming down to the Wheel in around 2000 and says it is one of the places where she got her start in music.  Singing has always been her favorite thing to do.  Katie recorded Traveling Blues on her CD during the summer of 2003.  She has her own band--called, in a strange coincidence, "Katie Moore"--and a new CD coming out soon.  On this song Peter Hay plays pedal steel, Andrew Horton plays guitar, and John Dodge is on bass.

6. Gambling Bar Room Blues: Jitterbug Swing (from the CD Who’s Gonna Glove Your Hand?)
       Jitterbug Swing is a duo of Danielle Lemieux (vocals, washtub bass) and Brian Edgar (guitar, banjo).  Their music is lively and fun, but also deep and rooted in tradition.  Known around Quebec and internationally for their downhome blues style, here they interpret a Jimmie Rodgers song.  Danielle played several times at Hillbilly Night as a member of the Lew Dite Skiffle Group.

7. No More Nothing: Slim Sandy (the One Man Band)
    Peter “Slim Sandy” Sandmark is a veteran musician who played for years in Ray Condo and His Hardrock Goners, and The Crazy Rhythm Daddies.  Slim chose "No More Nothing" for its western swing rhythm and interesting chord changes.  When he performed it at the Wheel Club, fiddler Bill Bland also enjoyed the chord progression as it gave him something different to do during a solo.  It was written by Zeb Turner and is the only song Slim has heard by Turner; he found it on a British compilation of country, rock and roll, and swing called Jiving Jamboree.  Bob Fuller reports that Turner, an American country musician, actually lived in Montreal at one time.  Slim moved to Victoria in 2005 and we miss him a lot, but he drops by when he’s in town.

8. More Pretty Girls Than One/ Train Wreck: Terry Joe “Banjo”(from the CD Mountain Calling)
    This is a traditional song: Woody Guthrie did a version in 3/4 time, but Terry’s is 4/4.  Terry likes it “because it’s true!”  He wrote the last verse.  His band consists of himself on banjo and harp, Randall Laurence on mandolin, Peter Hay on guitar, and Andrew Horton on bass, with Matt Large on vocals.  There was a train passing by that interrupted the recording.  Terry decided he liked the sound, so left it in at the end.  Terry’s been a regular at the Wheel for several years: when he doesn’t show up, it usually means he’s being a white water rafting guide  somewhere on the planet.

9. La Route des Voyageurs: Bill Bland and the White River Bluegrass Band
    Bill is one of the Old Faithfuls of the OCMCC: he’s been coming down to Hillbilly Night for over 30 years.  He’s our standby fiddler: sometimes he fiddles for the whole evening, other times he has to take a rest and watch when the club is crawling with fiddlers, so they can have a turn too.  He was with the White River Blue Grass Band from about 1974 to 1982 with Bobby Cusson and Wolf Poll, and he’s the fiddler on several of the other cuts on these two compilation CDs, including Sweet Thang and Joint Bank Account.  Bill wrote this fiddle tune.  On this cut, the other musicians are Sid Gulick and Diane Rennie.

10. I Saw the Light: Bill Anthony
    Billy recorded this Hank Williams classic in St. Jerôme with Dougie Trineer, who did all the instrumentation.  Billy started coming down to the Blue Angel about 35 years ago and has missed very few Hillbilly Night evenings over the years.  He likes gospel songs, particularly this one because it’s lively.  Another of Billy’s claims to fame is his willing hand at helping the set up and takedown of the complicated OCMCC “set” at the Wheel: the stage and surrounding decorations.

11. A House Without Love is Not a Home: Dave Widders
       Widders interprets a song by Hank Williams, the King of Country Music and the iconic figure behind Hillbilly Night.  The anniversary of Williams’ death (January 1, 1953), is acknowledged every year at Hillbilly Night, when each singer is expected to sing at least one of his songs.

12. Last Thing On My Mind: Blue Ridge Blue Grass Band
    This song was written by Tom Paxton in the 1960s.  Gary White sang lead vocal and played rhythm guitar, Gilles Plante sang harmony and played lead guitar, John (Sam) Samborsky played bass, and Raymond St-Laurent (or Raymond Le Fleuve, as Bob Fuller used to call him) played fiddle.

13. Pictures From Life’s Other Side: “Graveyard” Johnny Fast
    This song is another Hank Williams classic.  Johnny’s always been fond of somewhat macabre songs, often those with recitatives, which is how he got his grim nickname.  John Parsons recorded a CD of his songs.  Unfortunately we don’t see Johnny as often as we used to.

14. The White Rose: Maurice Maither
    Maurice has been a Wheel regular for about five years.  He says “’The White Rose’ is a song I  learned off a Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys tape that Bob gave me.  I don't actually sing the proper melody, having rushed it to tape for this CD.  But I tried to capture the earnest melancholy of Monroe's version.  I know that Carl Butler (and possibly Wilma Lee Cooper) also recorded the song. The Monroe version dates back to the 1950's, I think.  He might even be the author.  But based on the almost Victorian romanticism of the lyrics, the song might be from a very old tune...The authorship of many of these old songs gets somewhat murky over time. Or even wrongly credited.”

15. Bob Fuller’s Talking “40 year Celebration” Blues: John “Lew Dite” Parsons
    In keeping with the mandate of the Old-time Country Music Club of Canada, songs newer than 1965 are not permitted at Hillbilly Night, but this one is an exception because it’s a celebration of some of the OCMCC’s regular denizens.  John wrote this song in the spring of 2005 to get the 40th year anniversary started with a bang.
    He spent over 70 hours compiling, transferring, sequencing, balancing the levels, and creating the master recordings of this double CD set.  He also created the graphics.  By the way, he’s known as John Parsons in his daily life persona as a visual artist, and Lew Dite (from the Luddites of the 18th century) when he’s playing old-fashioned music, or just grumbling about modern technology, even as he makes full use of it!

16. Revenez: Leona Dionne
    Leona translated “Y’All Come,” written by Arleigh Duff, into French. In the same way, she’s also made about a hundred other English songs available to French speakers.  “Mama” Leona plays Autoharp, an instrument that was played by Sarah Carter of the famous Carter Family, but not played by anybody else on our stage.  Leona recorded this song in 1975: how beautifully she could yodel back then!  We are glad to have this “golden oldie” to represent our “Miss Dynamite,” still a fine singer and entertainer and our most enthusiastic line dancer!
 

CD #2

    MINI-FEATURE: Live from the Blue Angel
1. Home on the Range: Bob Fuller
    Well, here it is, 10 o’clock already, and our Mini Feature tonight is the founder of the Old-time Country Music Club of Canada, Bob Fuller!  Will you give him a warm welcome, please!  Singing with him will be Little Jeannie Arsenault.  He is backed up by some of our excellent regular musicians…
    Daniel E. Kelley wrote the music for this song in 1873.  It is said that Virginia Kelley helped write the words, based on a poem, “Western Home,” written by Dr. Brewster Higley in 1871.  It became the Kansas State song in 1947.  (Information from  http://www.cowboypoetry.com/Homeon.htm#Home  The original poem and the song are there.)

2. Farther Along: Bob Fuller & Little Jeannie
    This is a traditional gospel standard.  Bob and Jeannie love to sing harmony together and have been doing so for years.  They also like to sing Are You Mine? and The Flame In My Heart, among many others.

3. Buffalo Gals: Bobby Vail
    An old American dance tune, it also has some great words, which have been provided on our lyrics link, so that you can sing along with Bobby’s fiddling if you want.  Bobby Vail used to be one of our regular fiddlers, but unfortunately, we don’t see him down at the Wheel very often any more.  We miss his winsome smile and stage hijinks.

4. Grand Ol’ Opry Song: Bob Fuller
    Written by Hilo Brown, the song was made famous by Jimmy Martin, a member of the Grand Ol’ Opry, the stage show that has been an institution in Nashville since the 1920s.  Bob likes it because it mentions a lot of the folks who originally sang the songs that he wants us to know, love, remember, and above all, sing!
 
 
 

5. If Teardrops Were Pennies: Leo Fontaine
    Carl Smith wrote this song around 1951.  Leo’s been coming down to the OCMCC since he first sang at the Blue Angel in 1987, and made his debut with this song.  After that first night, he didn’t come for a few months, but one of our most faithful non-singing members, Jan Malone, spotted him sitting at the bar and sent Bob Fuller, who clapped him on the shoulder and asked if he could be persuaded to sing for us again.  He hasn’t looked back since.  His wife Denise, with the ready and beautiful smile, often contributes to our feasts and loves line dancing.

6. Waltz Across Texas: George Hill
    This song was written by Ernest Tubb, and George really likes his other songs too.  George has been performing in Montreal and many other places in the world since at least 1958.  His band, the Mighty Mohawks, includes Ronnie Martin on 6-string bass guitar, Gary Rice singing lead and harmony and playing rhythm guitar, Leo Diabo playing electric lead, and Liz Anne on drums.  Now 76, George used to come to Hillbilly Night when it was just beginning, but he hasn’t been down for a long time and we miss him.  George loves fancy country and western clothing and has seven complete outfits, each in a different colour.  He wants to spread the word that he has great country music at the Kanawake Golf Club every Sunday from 3 to 9 p.m.

7. The Yodel Song: Gilles Tremblay
    Gilles does best when he performs by himself on our stage, and he’s one of the best yodelers around.  He always gets an enthusiastic response from the audience when he yodels.  His health is poor so we see him rarely now.

8. Thank you for the Roses: Jeannie Arsenault
    Jeannie is known as “Little Jeannie”: she’s little but she’s LOUD!  She started coming to the old Blue Angel 32 years ago and she’s our Mistress of Ceremonies and the Goodwill Ambassador.  There's an art to keeping the tone and spirit of an evening going: a pleasant balance between slow and fast tunes, amateur and professional singers, sad and happy songs, and male and female singers.  And she has to be quick on her feet, too!  One night, a musician’s guitar strap broke and Jeannie caught the guitar before it hit the floor!  Another night, someone broke a string, and Jeannie had another guitar in his hands within two bars!

9. Sweetheart, Don’t Ever Forget: Kitch Hiscock
    Kitch started coming to the Club while it was at O’Leary’s on St. Jacques Street, about 12 years ago.  This recording was made by John Parsons.  Under the title “You’ll Forget” it was recorded by the Louvin Brothers in 1951.

10. Cowboy’s Sweetheart: Judy Ford
    This song was a huge hit in 1936 for Patsy Montana, who wrote it.  Judy started coming down to the Blue Angel 38 years ago.  She missed two years after going for about 20 years, and hasn’t been able to attend as much lately.  She started performing professionally in the 1960s, sang with Hank Herman for two years, and retired in the 1980s.  As well as gracing the stages of many of Montreal’s country and western emporia, Judy also played at some nursing homes and hospitals.  She first heard bluegrass music when she visited Bob Fuller at the Cat’s Den on the corner of Guy and Ste-Catherine.
    Judy paid $900 to make her first studio album in the 1970s.  Réal Robert was her sideman and he used “all kinds of fandangles” to accompany her.

11. Almost Persuaded: Glenn Fournier (from the CD From The Board Room To The Bar Room)
    Glenn first visited the Blue Angel and joined the Hillbilly Night community in 1982, skipped a few years while developing his professional music career, but happily has become a regular again.  Billy Sherrill wrote the words and Glenn Sutton wrote the music to this song in the early 1960s and David Houston recorded it and had the big hit.  It has won several country music awards.
    Glenn’s version was recorded in Nashville in 1995.  The musicians are: Chris Leuzinger (guitar), Michael Chapman (bass), Milton Sledge (drums), Bruce Bouton (pedal steel guitar), and Hank Singer (fiddle).  Just in case you want to record in Nashville, you know who to ask for!

12. Whispering Hope: Rosemary Turpin
    Rosemary started coming to Hillbilly Night in 1980 when it was at the Blue Angel.  She took some years off for educational purposes (with occasional visits) and started coming again regularly when the OCMCC started meeting at the Wheel about ten years ago.
    She learned this song from Freddy Martin at the Blue Angel, but after he stopped playing, she made it her own.  She loves the archaic imagery, the theme of hope, and the melody, especially when Leona or Eddie sing harmony.  The song was written by Septimus Winner in 1868, though the writer’s credit usually reads "Alice Hawthorne," one of Winner's several pseudonyms.  Although it is not a religious song (the most religious word in the first two verses is “angel”), it is often sung as a hymn. There is a third verse, but it is rarely sung by cowboys and country singers, possibly because it is rather theological.  All three verses are in our lyrics collection.

13. Smoking Cigarettes and Drinking Coffee Blues: Tennessee John
    Tennessee John has been part of the Club for decades.  TJ’s singing style has occasionally given Bob Fuller the perfect chance to exercise the bass-player’s traditional funnyman role on stage.  In this Lefty Frizzell song, for instance, when Johnny puts particular emphasis on the “all” in “all night long,” Bob feigns a surprised double-take, jumping and crossing his eyes!

14. Abilene: Don Wayne Patterson
    Don worked with George Hamilton IV, promoting him and his recordings, when George made this hit song, written by John D. Loudermilk, in the early 1960s.  The music track is one that Don paid for, and he doesn’t know who is on it.  He’s been a regular in the OCMCC for over a year and has been a great help in the fundraising campaign to improve the club’s sound system and fix the old doghouse bass.

15. On My Mind: Bob Comeau
    Flatt and Scruggs had the hit with this song.  Bob found the Club in early 2003 and started performing in 2004.  This song is one of his favourites.  He learns most of his songs off Bob Fuller’s tapes or from Ross Harvey’s Sunday evening show on CKUT.  Bob is one of the hardy volunteers who doesn’t toot his own horn but is always ready with a willing hand at set up and breakdown of the club “set.”  When not involved with country music, Bob is known as a famous carver of wooden birds.

16. Lost Highway: Gilles Deguire
    Gilles discovered the music of Hank Williams, now one of his favourite songwriters, when he began coming to the Wheel Club in 2002.  He has learned and plays close to 50 of Hank’s songs.  Gilles likes them because they tell a story.  He says, “the more vivid a picture is when you hear a song, the more successful a writer has been in conveying his emotions.”  He brings his musically talented son Eric down anytime he can (he’s our youngest singer) and we’re always delighted to see them both.

17. Just Call me Lonesome: Eddie Mailhiot
    Eddie has been attending the OCMCC sessions for at least 15 years and hardly ever misses a week.  He often plays lead guitar.  His library of old-time country and western lyrics, all in large black print and inserted into plastic sleeves, is the envy of many at the Club.  This song is by Eddie Arnold.

18. Faded Love: Brian Echenberg
    Brian began participating at the Blue Angel sessions 25 or 30 years ago, he’s not really sure when.  He plays pedal steel guitar on several tracks on these two CDs, including the last four on the second CD, on which Eddie Mailhiot plays rhythm guitar.  Faded Love is a Bob Wills piece.