Happy Birthday, Sing-Out South!

It was 44 years ago this week (January 26, 1966)that Sing-Out South was born.

Nearly 600 young people and their parents (including my dad, myself, my uncle Frank, his children (my cousins) Gene, Mike and Becky) attended that first practice and organizational session held on a very cold Wednesday evening at Belmont College (now Belmont University as seen above).

SOS was organized in response to a week-long tour of Nashville by the original cast of Sing-Out '66 (soon to be called Up With People). The Nashville tour was sponsored and heavily promoted by the city's evening newspaper, THE NASHVILLE BANNER, which continued to be a major supporter of Sing-Out South throughout its existence.

This is what we wanted to emulate...the cast of Sing-Out '66 seen here performing "The Ride of Paul Revere" (photo courtesy of Stars & Stripes) during a tour of West Germany not long after leaving Nashville.

So excited were we that despite a snowstorm that dumped several inches of the white stuff on Nashville, over 200 people returned for the second SOS practice at Belmont held at Blanton Hall on campus on Saturday morning, January 29. I remember walking in the snow from my cousin's home on Brightwood Avenue all the way out Belmont Blvd. to be there.

This photo of an early practice at Belmont showed how hard the cast was working as we perform "Which Way, America." Within just a few days after the first Belmont practices on February 5, 1966, SOS would be performing its first show (a brief apperance by an SOS Task Force) at the Blue & Gold Cub Scout Banquet, Troop 300 at the Donelson Skychef Restaurant at the Nashville Municipal Airport. The evening also included an impromtu performance given for Tennessee U.S. Senator Al Gore, Sr. (More on this first show in a later post.)

What made you join SOS? Did you see one our shows or an UWP performance? Did your friends join and ask you to come along as well? Leave your stories below or e-mail them to me and I can share them here on the blog.

De Ja Vu All Over Again

West End High School in Nashville (now a junior high) holds lots of Sing-Out South memories.

I was reminded of that a week or so ago when I moderated a community meeting there to discuss the pros and cons of building a new convention center in downtown Nashville.

The session was held in the school's auditorium which is remarkable unchanged from the days back in the mid-to-late 1960s when Sing-Out South often practiced there. It appears all the orginal auditorium chairs on both the lower level and up in the balcony are still in use. Despite the passage of time (at least 40 years), the seating appears to be in good condition for the most part, although there were a few chairs I would be hesistant to sit in because of fears I might get some splinters in my backside.

What really brought me back when I arrived in the West auditorium was a row of flags across the front of balcony. Right in the middle was the flag of Japan and suddenly I had strong memories of the evening of September 4, 1968 when we hosted the Sing-Out Asia cast for a special concert.

Sing-Out Asia was not the only group hosted by Sing-Out South at West High. From October 31 to November 2, 1966 we hosted a regional Sing-Out conference that attracted cast members from all across the state of Tennessee. Cast C of Up With People also attended and performed assemblies at high schools all across the city while here. The shows were performed even as Nashville was struck by a freak fall snow storm.

A little over a year later in November, 1967 Sing-Out South hosted a regional Sing-Out conference at West attracting over 300 performers from 14 casts in 5 states (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Missouri). The conference was concluded with a joint show performed by all the casts (after several hours of practice). The show was performed at the War Memorial Auditorium downtown.

The War Memorial is another facility that holds lots of Sing-Out memories. We will talk about those in a future posting. Meanwhile you have any West High Sing-Out memories, please e-mail them to me or post them by clicking on the link below.

Got An Old Sing-Out Song Running Through Your Head?

One day last week I received an e-mail from Morris Lovette, a member of our Sing-Out South cast from 1969-1971. I believe he is in the photo above (the guy on the far left of the picture). I think this shot was taken by Alan Mayor during an SOS show at a local shopping center in Murfreesboro(?) back in the late '60s or early '70s.

Morris' e-mail said: "I awoke this morning with a part of a song running through my head. It keeps slipping away from me and I wondered if you remembered the song and perhaps had the score and lyrics..available?

"Can you build a new world on the ashes of the old,
when you heart is full of ashes and slowly growing cold?

Can you make other people want to care,
When you're all burned out
From finding trouble everywhere?"

Morris continued in his e-mail: "I know the song is part of the SOS musical inventory and I remember singing it...but the remainder of the lyrics and melody eludes me. I don't think it was part of the Up With People inventory...just a local effort...but I could be wrong."

Actually, it is an UWP people song, but it has a strong Sing-Out South connection.

The song is "Ashes" and it was co-written by Cabot Wade (seen above),who was a member of the original cast of Sing-Out South. Cabot helped write a number of songs for Up With People after joining the group in the summer of 1966 including "Is There A Reason Why?" (with fellow SOS cast members Ken Ashby and Dick Smith) and "Live It Live!"

While he was in Sing-Out South Cabot was part of the "Hickory Valley Trio," along with Eddie Lunn (left) and Ted Overman (on bass). The group is seen above during an impromptu performace by SOS on the steps of the War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Nashville just before the cast left for the Action Now! Sing-Out Conference held in Estes Park, CO in June, 1966.

One of Cabot's co-writers for "Ashes" is Glenn Close, now the world-famous star of stage, screen,and television. Since Cabot and Morris are both part of our SOS e-mail contact list, I urged them to get in touch (which Morris did) and Cabot gave some interesting details about how the "Ashes" song came to be.

He responded in an e-mail to Morris (that was forwarded to me): "I am complimented that that song (Ashes) stuck in your head. My co-writer was Glenn Close. She wrote the lyrics down on a sheet of notebook paper and handed them to me on a tour we were doing in Italy. I was amazed at their clarity and insight."

Cabot did not say when the tour of Itay occurred. My memories of the "Ashes" song (while vague) was that I first remember hearing it when the SOS cast attended the second World Sing-Out Festival at Ft. Slocum in the summer of 1968. I don't any clear memories of our cast adding the song to the show right away, but obviously it did later, probably after I left SOS in the summer of 1969.

By the way (although many folks reading this already know it), Cabot Wade and Glenn Close were married from 1969-1973. And lest I forget to give proper credit, the other co-writer listed for the song "Ashes" is L. Reeder, while another co-writer for "Is There A Reason Why?" is F. Hadden.

Cabot Wade now lives in the Williamsburg, VA area and he has continued his musical work. He has a very active group called "The Wade-Smith Band" (with his old SOS/UWP colleague Dick Smith). The group was very much involved in the recent Sing-Out/UWP revival show performed in Branson, MO last summer called "A Song For The World".

Cabot and Dick Smith were also active in creating a musical show to celebrate the recent 400th anniversary of the founding of Williamsburg. VA.

As for Dick Smith and Ken Ashby, they joined the Sing-Out South cast after seeing the national cast perform at their school, Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, back in the winter of 1966Hundreds of SOS members attended that show as well, and soon the group seen above (which also included Joe Capers and Lee Piepmeier) were performing with SOS, as seen above from the NASHVILLE BANNER's coverage of our premiere performances at Hillsboro March 25-26, 1966

One final note, when Morris Lovette contacted me, he said he would like to find the sheet music, lyrics or even a *.wmv version of "Ashes." So far no luck. So if anyone can help him, or if you have a Sing-Out or Up With People song running through your head, let us know by leaving a message below or sending me an e-mail, and we will try and help.

The SOS Stage

Sing-Out South had a pretty elaborate stage we performed on during our shows. From the photo above (click on it to enlarge it) which was taken during a performance at the Tennessee State Prison in the spring of 1966, you can see that besides the steps in front, it also had some large platforms (with more steps) for the cast to stand on and even some almost vertical risers in the back (not sure how those folks did the choreography on some of our songs!).

Nevertheless, it was an impressive sight, especially when the cast on stage was close to 200 performers. According to information from an article in THE NASHVILLE BANNER, the stage was designed by Paul Elliot, a special education teacher with Metro Schools along with Walter England of the Nashville Bridge Company. Some years later, England served as Metro Codes Director under Mayor Richard Fulton.

Much of the wood for the stage was donated by William Eller, a Metro motorcycle policeman. Officer Eller was a member of Newman's Raiders, a group of motorcycle cops who often escorted the buses of SOS and the national UWP casts on our way around,out of, or back into Nashville.

The stage was even taken to Estes Park, Colorado when our large Sing-Out South delegation went to the national conference there in June, 1966. Unlike a number of SOS members who were recruited to travel all over the nation and the world with the new national casts of UWP (Casts A,B & C), the stage returned to Nashville intact later that summer.

I remember coming to Mike Rourke's house one day to await the truck bringing the stage back and helping to unload it. My first jobs in Sing-Out South were working on the Stage Crew and selling PACE magazine and other materials at the show. The PACE job was easy, hauling around and setting up that stage was a job. It was very well built and very heavy. I don't think it was designed to be hauled around much. I think it was made to be set up and left on stage somewhere. It was quite sturdy.

The platforms also took some time and effort to set up as they had to be pieced together then securely bolted to each other and the rest of the stage to keep everything stable.

Over the years as the cast decreased a bit in size, the vertical risers were no longer used, but the stage was there and set up for every show and almost every practice.

Add it all up, the stage, the sound system, the microphones, the show signage, it was a lot to haul around, set up and store. A lot of the times I believe all these things stayed at Henry Swider's home, although for a while I believed we stored the stage and other equipment where we practiced. I know that was true when we practiced at the St. Thomas Hospital School of Nursing and it may have also been the case when we practiced at the Boiler Supply, the Quanset Hut above at the National Guard Armory and maybe while we were at Trevecca? Does anyone remember?

When SOS disbanded in 1971, I have no idea what happened to the stage. It might have wound up making some pretty good kindling wood, but it sure served us well over the years.

For The Love Of Nashville's History

After posting so many recent stories here on the SOS blog about Nashville's Christmas Past from back in the 1960s, the new book above certainly caught my eye.

And I am pleased to say it has topped the non-fiction best seller list for several weeks now at Davis-Kidd Booksellers here in town.

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF NASHVILLE IN THE 50s, 60s AND 70s, edited by Ashley Haugen, is a 216 page trip back in time to the era when many of us were growing up here. The photos of Bob Grannis show both the growth of our city as well as a peek back at what we've lost over the years.

I think it's a must buy for anyone who grew up in Nashville or who has moved here and wants to know more about how this sleepy southern town began to evolve into the major city it is today.

The book retails for $395

Another great way to look back or learn more about Nashville's history comes from a new (but old) newspaper that began publishing here a few months back.

THE NASHVILLE RETROSPECT is a FREE montly newspaper devoted to Nashville history and nostalgia. The front-page of latest edition (January) can be seen above. According to its web site (www.nashvilleretrospect.com), the paper "features reprints of long-forgotten news reports, articles by local historians and remembrances by older Nashvillians."

The list of places in town where you can pick up a free copy each month is available on the website. If you live out of town or want a monthly home subscription ($24), you can call (615) 391-3666 to order by credit card. Or you can send your check, along with your mailing address and phone number to:

THE NASHVILLE RETROSPECT
1121 Airpost Center Drive
Nashville, TN 37214

Both the newspaper and the book are great ways to stay in touch with Nashville's great history!