Faron Young and Marty Robbins newsletter — 28 August 2013

MARTY ROBBINS MEETS THE GLASER BROTHERS
Marty Robbins always wanted his live shows to sound like the recordings. In 1957, with songs such as “White Sport Coat” on the charts, he needed background vocals. He found what he was looking for in Grand Island, Nebraska, when someone knocked on his dressing room door after a matinee performance. “Will you listen to my boys sing?” asked Louis Glaser, a farmer from nearby Spalding. Marty agreed. Glaser, who acted as agent and mentor for his three youngest sons, had brought Tom, Chuck and Jim (ages 23, 21, 19) to the show to see their musical hero and, hopefully, to meet him. They wore identical aqua-blue shirts, ready for an engagement that evening at a drive-in theater. “Dad came out front with a big smile on his face and the three of us followed him backstage,” Jim Glaser recalls. “I don’t remember which three or four songs we sang for Marty in his dressing room; I do remember he was obviously impressed with what he heard and promised if we’d come to Nashville in a few weeks, he would take us into a recording studio and make a record with us.”

TOMPALL GLASER (1933–2013)
Thomas Paul “Tompall” Glaser died in Nashville on August 13, after a long illness and three weeks before his 80th birthday. I always thought Tompall and the Glaser Brothers made beautiful music, and I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk with Tompall or Chuck while I was writing Marty’s biography. Jim was a great help, though. Both Jim and Chuck live in the Nashville area.

AUTHOR EVENTS
The National Traditional country Music Association is inducting me into America’s Old time Country Music Hall of Fame as a biographer. The ceremony takes place at the 38th annual Old-Time Music Festival at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in LeMars, Iowa, at 4:45 pm today. I’ll be autographing and selling my books all day in the main stage building.

This Friday, August 30, I’ll be at the South Dakota State Fair in Huron as a guest of Sherwin Linton. His shows are at 11AM, 2PM, and 4PM on the Centennial Stage, I’ll talk about A Farm in the Hidewood and Navy Greenshirt at 10:45, Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story at 1:45, and Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins at 3:45. I’ll also be autographing and selling my books after Sherwin’s shows.

Monday I visited with Karl Gehrke, host of Dakota Midday, on South Dakota Public radio. http://listen.sdpb.org/post/marty-robbins-faron-young-biographer is the link to hear the interview. The moment of silence near the beginning is because “It’s Four in the Morning” didn’t get on the recording.

Click on Belmont Country Music Book of the Year award for the 7-minute YouTube video of Don Cusic presenting me with Belmont University’s “Country Music Book of the Year” award for Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins. This happened in Nashville in May

LETTERS
TJ Litafik writes on Facebook, “Glad to see author Diane Diekman on Facebook! For those of you who have seen me post his music before, the late, great Faron Young is my favorite country singer. If you want to find out more about Faron and his remarkable career and story, check out Diane’s wonderful book Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story.”

Aileen Arledge says, “I have a real difficult time putting down my Faron Book. I Love it. What I’ve read sounds so true of him. I only knew him a short time whenever he came to Michigan to perform and my daughter, Tracey Lynne, was on the same bill. or when I saw him at Fan Fair in Nashville. He used to call me MOM and he was older than me. I guess because of my daughter. My son, Greg, and his band ‘The Mountain Express’ played for Faron when needed. As I told you before, most of the Deputies played on Greg’s session. Love your book and all the letters you receive from people all over the world who had little tidbits about Faron. Very enjoyable.”

Tom Wilmeth writes from Grafton, Wisconsin, “Just finished the Faron Young book — a good read. In some ways I found the book an uncomfortable read because it cut close to the bone on one topic: I am not nearly as abusive as FY and I am not a performer, but alcohol does me no good. I was angry, sad, and sorry by turns as I read of his . . . I’m not even sure I would call it a ‘battle’ with the bottle, as he rarely tried to stop. But I saw a bit too much of myself in there — and I think that did me some good. I know it did. . . . Huge amounts of talent get destroyed by the bottle. I think of Hank Williams, of course, but also of Ira Louvin and so many others.”

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