He's Been Gone Four Years Now....

If it wasn't for Dan Skuce I am not sure there ever would have been a Sing-Out South. He was the person left behind in late January, 1966 with the prime responsibility of molding together one of the first local Sing-Outs in the wake of the national cast's (Sing-Out '66) triumphant tour of Nashville.

He was perhaps a strange selection for the job. For one thing, he was Canadian (and so here in the South, we thought he talked funny). Secondly, I am not sure Dan had much of a musical pedigree. In fact, I am not sure he could carry a tune in a bucket. But he had such energy, spirit and enthuisiam.

And so, it was his powerful personality that in many ways helped mold together several hundred Middle Tennessee high school and college students into one of the finest singing and performing groups I have ever seen or heard in this town.

Dan Skuce, at the microphone, on stage during a Sing-Out South rehersal at the War Memorial Auditorium in February, 1966 (click to enlarge)

I think one of the finest tributes paid to Dan's work with Sing-Out South was how many of our cast members were recruited to join the expanded national casts after the Action Now! Conference in Estes Park, CO in the summer of 1966. But he also trained us well who stayed behind, and Sing-Out South continued to be a major force (along with a lot of other Tennesseans) in the Sing-Out and Up With People movement throughout the late 1960s and up until Sing-Out South ended in 1971.

After Sing-Out South, Dan repeated his great work with other local sing-outs across the country, but we like to think he always did his best work here in Music City....

Dan could always hold an audience. Here he is during one of Sing-Out South's earliest pratices held in the gym of the old Father Ryan High School.

We lost Dan to cancer four years ago today (October 26, 2005). In the weeks leading up to his death, and at the request of his friend Jaine Place, I was fortunate enough to be one of those who wrote him a letter of thanks for what he meant in my life. Here are some excerpts of what I wrote:

"One of the key people who shaped my life is you, Dan. Thank you.
...If you had not been willing to come and stay in Nashville in the winter of 1966 to mold together the cast of Sing-Out South, I am sure the rest of my high school days and the rest of my life might have been very different. I think it was in Sing-Out for the first time that I learned to dedicate myself to something greater, something beyond myself.

"...I strongly suspect I am not the only one who feels this way about their Sing-Out South experience. It was a wonderful time, filled with wonderful people...We may not have changed the world, but we changed ourselves, and mostly for the good, I think."

The intensity that was Dan Skuce.

If you have memories or stories you'd like to share about Dan Skuce, please feel free to leave your comments below.

Rest in peace, Dan.

Words To Live By...And Always Remember

I mentioned in the previous post how the recent funeral Mass for Mr. Curry Barry was such a wonderful celebration of his life and of the entire Barry family as well.

Sons Rick and Phil shared some great stories about growing up in the Barry household (complete with 9 children) back in the
1960s. Phil closed their comments with a poem sent to him by his father. It's by an unknown author, and Phil said he edited it a bit to reflect his life with his mom and dad, who were also such special folks to so many of us in Sing-Out South:

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING....

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang pictures of all your children all over the den and I immediately knew you loved us most.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed "Speedy" the squirrel and the foxes on the beach, and I learned it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you made Christmas cookies and bourbon balls to give to all our neighbors and I learned that the little things can be special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always talk to, and I learned to trust.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to our cousin who was sick, and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing, and I learned that those who have something should give to those who don't.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how hard you worked, even when you did not feel good, and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grew up.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good person.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say: "Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking."


How true this poem is in capturing the lives of Mr. & Mrs. Barry, and for that matter, so many of the "cast parents" we had in Sing-Out South.

We've Lost Another Of Our Wonderful Sing-Out Parents

I received word late last night (Friday, October 16) that Curry Barry, the father of Sing-Out South cast members, Buster and Beverly Barry, had passed away at the age of 87. According to another one of his children, Brazo, Mr. Barry died from complications following a recent surgery.

At this time, all I know about arrangements is that the funeral will be Tuesday, October 20 at the Cathedral of the Incarnation Catholic Church on West End Avenue. I will post more details as I receive them.

UPDATED INFORMATION (Sunday October 18): Mr. Barry's funeral mass will be at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, October 20 at the Cathedral with Father Joe Pat Breen as the celebrant. Vistation with the family will be on Monday, October 19 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.(with a rosary at 7:00 p.m.)at Marshall Donnelly Funeral Home located next to Centennial Park.

The Barrys were one of the very active families in Sing-Out South from the very beginning. Buster, the oldest son, was a member of the original cast of Sing-Out South, and traveled with Cast B of Up With People beginning in the summer of 1966 following the National Sing-Out Conference in Estes Park, CO.

Buster continued with the national cast and left Father Ryan to take his junior and senior years of high school on the road with Up With People, although Father James Hitchcock, the principal at Ryan, made sure both Buster and Robbie Rourke, another Father Ryan student traveling with UWP, got the chance to come back and graduate with their Ryan classmates in the spring of 1967 (Robbie Rourke) and the spring of 1968 (Buster Barry).

After Buster left Sing-Out South his sister,Beverly,the oldest daughter,joined the cast and stayed with the show for several years while she attended Saint Bernard Academy.

Beverly Barry is fourth from the left in this photo, next to Jill Walters. Others in this photo are (from the left) Kenny Swider, Lee Lee Luken Dorough and Mary Jane Varley.

Beverly & Buster's mom, Mrs. Marian Barry, was one of the cast mothers who was almost always there for practices along with helping to car-pool cast members to both shows and rehersals. She also helped store and carry around a lot of the Sing-Out materials (record albums, books, etc) that we sold at our shows. I can remember that old blue Chevy Impala station wagon the Barrys had filled to overflowing with cast members and SOS sales materials as we set off for one more show.

Mr.Barry was also a frequent attendee at practices and shows, and their home on Clairmont Place just off Woodmont Blvd. was often a site for cast members to hang out(even though the Barrys already had a house full of children of their own).

Of course, when one of the national casts of Up With People would come to town, the Barrys always took some into their home. That also included when the cast of Sing-Out Asia arrived in Nashville in September, 1968.

Sing-Out Asia practices on stage at West End High School in Nashville in September, 1968

Here's what Mrs. Barry once told me about the time Sing-Out Asia came to town.

"I remember it well. We had six boys (from Sing Out Asia) staying at our house on Clairmont Place and I had to farm out six of my own children to neighbors (to find them a place) to sleep. Of course, they all came home to eat. It was a hot summer and we managed to find swim trunks for the boys and took them to the Knights of Columbus swimming pool (on Bosley Springs Road near what is now St. Thomas Hospital) for a swim. They really seemed to enjoy that. One (Sing Out Asia) cast member spoke almost no English and I spoke no Japanese. But we managed to communicate through sign language."

The Barry's frequently opened their home to others...even on Christmas Day. I fondly remember going by there every Christmas Day for their Open House while I was in the cast. It remains one of my favorite holiday memories growing up.

Mr. Barry was a 1940 graduate of Father Ryan and retired after a 40-year career with the Clements Paper Company. He was an Air Force veteran and a 50-year member of the Knights of Columbus. Memorials may be made either to Father Ryan High School or the Sisters of Mercy Convent. He and Mrs. Barry were married for 61 years and had 10 children and 12 grandchildren.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Barry family at this difficult time. If you have any thoughts or memories to share, please feel free to do so below.

May Mr. Barry rest in peace.

The Hermitage Hotel Hits The Century Mark

Nashville's Hermitage Hotel is celebrating its 100th birthday.

Like many places, of at least a certain age throughout the community, it's a venue that Sing-Out South had the honor to perform in several times back in the 1960s.

The first time I can remember performing there was for the ZONTA International women's group which held a major convention in the city in October, 1966. I can remember waiting in line just outside the Hermitage Ballroom with the rest of the cast just before we ran on stage.

It was one of the first big shows we did that fall. It came after we reformed the cast, under the leadership of Eddie Lunn and Ted Overman,following the national Sing-Out conference in Estes Park, CO where a large number of SOS cast members were recruited to join the national cast.

I had not performed on stage very much up until that time, so I remember being a bit nervous. I think the show went well. Frankly, the other thing I remember was trying to catch a World Series score while we were waiting to go on stage. It was the year (1966) the Baltimore Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers and baseball fans were kind of in shock about that. It was also a time when World Series games were played in daytime, which almost never happens anymore.

The only other record I have of Sing-Out South performing at the Hermitage Hotel was for a meeting of the Downtown Nashville Kiwanis Club on June 14, 1968. I have no memory of that show. Does anybody else? There are other downtown civic clubs I have records of SOS performing for over the years, and it's possible we did those shows at the Hermitage, but I have no records to confirm that.

The Hermitage was one of several grand hotels that once graced downtown. For a look back, courtesy of YouTube, here's a portion of a documentary done by WNPT,Nashville's Public Television station, entitled "Memories of Downtown Nashville"......

Seeing Mayor Richard Fulton in the video above reminds me of the key role he played in turning around the fortunes of the Hermitage Hotel after it fell into a deep decline in the late 1970s and early '80s. It was Mayor Fulton who actually had Metro Codes close the hotel and force its out-of-town ownership to sell the building to another group, which wished to restore it.

That has taken several years and several owners to fully accomplish, but now the Hermitage has once again been restored to grandeur and it has acheieved multi-star status nationally. The lobby is a knock-out to behold, as well as the Hermitage Grill downstairs where once upon a time band leader Francis Craig (Near You) and Dinah Shore performed.

And then there's another somewhat unique hotel amenity that was just named the best in the nation. Here's the news from YouTube....

For those of you still in Nashville, I encourage you to come downtown and re-visit the Hermitage. For those of you who have left and not been to Nashville for several years, when you get back to town, put the Hermitage Hotel on your list of places you just have to see while you are here.

There are lots of wonderful new things to see in Nashville these days, facilities like the Sommet Center and LP Field which we could never have dreamed of back in the '60s. But sometimes the oldies but goodies like the Hermitage Hotel are the best places of all to celebrate what is now Nashville.

(And no, the Hermitage is not a client of mine. However, did win a prize at church for an overnight stay there and breakfast in the Hermitage Grill. We will probably do that in April for our wedding anniversary and I can't wait).

Please leave your memories of the Hermitage or Sing-Out South below.

50 Years Ago....

I think I mentioned it in an earlier blog posting here, but I wanted everybody to know Shoney's Restaurants, one of our favorite places to eat and hang out when we were in Sing-Out South back in the mid-to-late 1960s, is celebrating its 50th birthday.

Mentioning this does get close to a bit of shameless self-promotion for me (since Shoney's is a client of my firm, DVL Public Relations & Advertising). But I don't work on the account, and besides everybody likes a party.

And that's what Shoney's is planning next Saturday, October 17.

Come to the original Shoney's restaurant location in Nashville out in Madison at 720 Gallatin Road from 10:00 A.M until Noon. More than 50 classic cars will be on display (much like the old days of 'cruising at Shoney's)along with music, specially prices menu items and birthday cake!

I don't think our old friend, the Shoney's Big Boy, will be there. Nor will some of dearly departed Sing-Out friends like Henry Swider, with whom I (and many others) spent many hours discussing (sometimes arguing) over the issues of the day at Shoney's, especially the old restaurant on Murphy Road.

I think Patty Mayer Higgins can tell the story about the time things got so heated, the manager asked us to leave. Heck, we'd already been there for quite a while, as I remember, and being kids without much money, we probably had only ordered some cokes and maybe a couple of hamburgers and fries. Or maybe it was a Slim Jim or the Big Boy hamburger, or a hot fudge cake or a sundae.

Yummm......makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Fun times, fun memories. If you'd like, leave your thoughts and memories below.

Smashville Is Back!

It's Opening Night in Nashville for the team's NHL hockey team, the Nashville Predators. Having won its opening game on the road against the Dallas Stars, early season expectations are up for the squad, which barely missed the Stanley Cup playoffs last year for the first time in a while. We will learn more tonight about this team as it plays the Colorado Avalanche.

Back when we were together in Sing-Out South in the mid-to-late
1960s, the concept of Nashville having a major-league NHL franchise would have been more than a bit far-fetched. But that wasn't because we didn't have a hockey team in town.

The Dixie Flyers played for nine seasons at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium as a member of the old Eastern Hockey League (EHL). And not surprisingly, Sing-Out South once performed at one of their games during a break between periods.

I remember being a part of the performance, and I have even been able to track down the date we did it: December 2, 1966. But beyond that, I have no memories. Do any of you? If so, please e-mail me or leave your memories below.

It's odd that I wouldn't remember more. I am pretty sure it would have been a strange experience. We would have had to walk out a bit on the ice, and probably perform on some rugs or something put over the frozen surface so we wouldn't fall (especially trying to do our choreography).

And what did we do for music and musical instruments, especially our electric guitar or piano? And, for that matter, how did they mic us so we could be heard? Anybody remember?

The season we entertained at hockey game was a very good one for the Dixie Flyers. They were in the midst of winning their second straight EHL Championship and they remained very good for the next several years losing out in the playoff finals during the 1968-69 season.

Unfortunately, Nashville then, as it remains, is a "non-traditional" hockey market, and the Flyers struggled for fans, finally folding as a franchise after the 1971 season (about the same time I think Sing-Out South disbanded). Here's a video I found on YouTube that is a look back at the old Eastern Hockey League that operated from 1954 to 1973. You can also learn in the video where to order old jerseys on line, including ones for the Dixie Flyers....

There is some irony in all this. It was because the NHL expanded beyond its "Original Six" teams, that the Nashville Dixie Flyers and the rest of the ECHL was squeezed out of existence in the early 1970s. And now it is because the NHL has continued to expand, that Nashville again has a franchise, this time in the NHL itself.

Let's Play Hockey!

The Cars of Sing-Out South: Jerry Baker's Blue Mustang

During the years we were in Sing-Out, there was no hotter car on the market than the Ford Mustang. It had taken the country by storm when it was first introduced in late 1964 and sales continued to be hot throughout the mid-to-late '60s.

Jerry Baker of Sing-Out South had a car that looked a lot like the blue-colored one above and I remember riding in with him to all kinds of SOS shows and practices and even out to his home in Kingston Springs.

Mustangs of this era are still highly prized. Here, courtesy of YouTube, is what one owner has lovingly done to redo his classic 1966 blue Mustang coupe....

Looking at the inside of Mustang really takes me back. It also reminds me of Jerry bringing it down to Atlanta a couple of times in the summer of 1969, after I had left the SOS cast.

Once, I think, was on Fourth of July weekend when he and my cousin Gene Nolan, along with Henry Swider and Bob Sharp came down to visit me while I attended a broadcast school, Career Academy. Believe it not, while the rest of us of kicked around Atlanta for the day (gawking at the new-fangled lobby & elevators of the Hyatt Regency, going to the Varsity Restaurant and watching the Alanta Fourth of July parade), we also took Bob Sharp out to the Atlanta International Speedway, where he attended a rock festival.

That festival wound up having a lot of the same groups and bands that performed later that summer at Woodstock. Now if any of you knew Bob in those days (pretty straight-laced with short hair), the idea of him attending a long-haired rock concert might seem a little far-fetched, but he did it.

Bob Sharp celebrates his birthday in December 1968 as Rick Jolly looks on. Does Bob look like someone about to attend a rock concert?

My other memory of Jerry's blue Mustang and Atlanta came one other weekend that same summer of 1969, when he came down and we went to Stone Mountain and the Atlanta airport, where we saw LeAnna Whitehead's older sister come back to the U.S. from being overseas. Later that summer, I had my first airplane trip leaving Atlanta to come back to Nashville. I was almost 18. My how times change. My children and grand children took their first plane trips before they could walk.

I also attended my first major league baseball game with Jerry on that trip. We watched the Giants and Braves play at old Fulton County Stadium. We just missed seeing Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays hit a grand slam off Hall-of-Famer Phil Niekro. We missed it because Niekro, a knuckleball pitcher, wild pitched in a run with the bases loaded before Mays hit the next pitch over the center field wall!

That's Jerry Baker right in the middle of the photo above (wearing a tie). He and the other SOS cast members (along with Mama J, Bob Johnston's mom) are manning a booth at the Junior Achievement Fair. The Fair was held (and SOS performed) each year at the Municipal Auditorium. Based on some of the posters and materials on display, I would say this photo was taken in late 1968 or early 1969 after we attended the second World Sing-Out Festival the previous summer.

In addition to being on stage in the cast, Jerry, for a time, was also in charge of ordering, handling and selling all our PACE magazines, record albums, books and other items. I can remember helping him transport the many boxes of materials we had to sell. That Mustang really wasn't all that big a car to transport that stuff, but we managed to find a way to do it(many times with the help of the Barry family's big blue Chevy Impala station wagon).

More on that in our next installment of the the Cars of Sing-Out South.

If you have a favorite car or an SOS memory to share, leave it by just clicking on the link below.