As the battery would get weak, stations would start fading out.  Finally it was the powerful few stations that we could get down in the holler.  Of those few I had favorites:  WSM, Nashville and the Grand Old Opry; XERF, Del Rio, Texas, and XEG,  Fort Worth (the latter two both actually across the line in Mexico) where I could hear the Carter Family, the Chuck Wagon Gang and the Harrington Sisters;  but my very favorite was Sunday nights from WLAC in Nashville. 

 

On Sunday evening a man called The Hossman would play black gospel music on WLAC.  I learned to love the Swan Silvertones, The Roberta Martin Singers, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Clara Ward, and the Golden Gate Quartet.  But my very favorite group was the Dixie Hummingbirds.  Their front man, Ira Tucker, was one of the most dynamic singers to ever hit the stage or the airways. He started singing with the group when he was thirteen and sang with them for seventy years until his recent death.  He is considered to have influenced more singers than any man in gospel music, and I’m not just talking about black gospel. 

 

Two of the most influential quartets in southern gospel were among the great number of huge fans of the Dixie Hummingbirds and of Ira Tucker in particular.  The Blackwood Brothers covered their songs but the Statesmen used not only their songs but also copied Ira Tucker’s style.  Jake Hess and Hovie Lister’s rendition of “Get Away Jordan” was taken directly from Ira and the “Birds.”  The Statesmen also covered such songs from them as “Glory, Glory, Clear the Road” and “One of These Mornings.”—and guess who imitated Jake and Hovie and Ira?  Elvis Presley, of course.

 

Well, my folks finally got us a Zenith electric radio and I started listening to Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, Kay Starr, and those people, but I still miss the Hossman and the Dixie Hummingbirds, and I even occasionally miss the old Silvertone radio and Dry Holler.  By the way, did you know that you can put a dead radio battery in a woodstove oven for a few minutes and get it to play for a little while?  You never know when that might come in handy.  Maybe you could pick up WLAC and hear Ira Tucker and the Dixie Hummingbirds late some Sunday night.

by Bob Bilyeu

host of The Old Country Church

Ira Tucker

When I heard about the death of Ira Tucker on June 24^th, it brought sadness but also wonderful memories.  Down in Dry Holler where I was raised, we didn’t get electricity until I was 10.  At some point my folks had got enough money together to buy us a battery-powered Silvertone radio from Sears and Roebucks.  I was introduced to another world by that radio. Weekdays at 5:00 there was “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.” At 5:15 it was “Terry and the Pirates,” and then at 5:30 my favorite, “The Lone Ranger.”  Then there were the scary shows.  I still remember the opening of

     “The Fat Man”:

           “There he goes. He’s walking into the drugstore. 

He’s stepping on the scales. 

Weight—240 pounds. 

Fortune—danger.”