They Still Have Friends In High Places

From the first time the Colwell Brothers, Herb Allen and the original cast of Up With People came to Nashville in January, 1966, it was clear they had friends in high places. The sponsor of their week-long local tour was James Stahlman, the publisher of THE NASHVILLE BANNER, the city's powerful afternoon newspaper.

The paper was a veritable PR machine running dozens of articles and photographs (on the front page and throughout the paper) about the visit. In  fact it was a lead story every day THE BANNER published during the month of January (and that continued with the founding of the local Sing-Out South group).

Our local political leaders were also very supportive. The first show the cast performed the night it arrived in town (following a welcoming banquet at the Hermitage Hotel)  had the Governor, the Mayor, the Congressman and many other governmental and civic leaders in the audience.

So it was only appropriate that when the Colwells and Herb Allen returned to Music City last Saturday night, I contacted our current Mayor Karl Dean (seen above) to help us recognize these special gentlemen. He responded with the following proclamation:

WHEREAS, The Colwell Brothers (Steve, Paul & Ralph) and Herb Allen made a profound impact in Nashville over the last 46 years through their work as the musical creators of the international education program, Up With People, and,

WHEREAS, In January, 1966, Up With People made its first visit to Nashville for a week-long series of concerts, including a performance on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium, that led to a number of  area young people joining UWP casts and traveling the nation and the world, and,

WHEREAS, The Colwell Brothers have a long and distinguished history in bluegrass and other related musical genres, having performed with such country music legends as Tex Ritter and Little Jimmy Dickens, and Herb Allen is a renowned composer, arranger, teacher, pianist, percussionist, conductor and xylophone player, and,

WHEREAS, The Colwell Brothers and Herb Allen are returning to Music City for a special concert at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 23 to be held at the J.T. Moore Auditorium to fund scholarships for another generation of young people to have the opportunity to take part in the "Up With People" worldwide education experience,

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Karl Dean, Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County, do hereby recognize Steve Colwell, Paul Colwell, Ralph Colwell and Herb Allen for their contributions to Music City and encourage the citizens of Nashville to join me in expressing gratitude for their generosity.

I have hereonto set my hand on this 23rd day of June, 2012

Karl F. Dean
Mayor  

Mayor Dean's support mirrors that of one of his predecessors, Mayor Beverly Briley, who was mayor from 1963-1975. He strongly endorsed the first visit of UWP to Nashville and often issued proclamations in support of Sing-Out South and other UWP-related activities during the late 1960s The Mayor even made a special trip back to Nashville to introduce the SOS cast at its premiere show at Hillsboro High School on March 25, 1966.

Mayor Briley's sucessor, Richard Fulton (above, Mayor from 1975-1987) was also an UWP supporter. While he was a Congressman back in the mid-60s he made at least one speech on the House floor and into the Congressional Record, extolling the patriotism of the group.

And not to be outdone in their support for UWP were our state's governors, beginning with Governor Frank Clement (see below). Governor Clement made a special surprise trip to Cookeville, Tennessee where he introduced Cast A (and the Colwells and Herb Allen) when they returned to the state later in the spring (late February or March) of 1966 to perform for the students at Tennessee Tech University.

By the way the Tennessee Tech show was also significant in UWP history. It was where what later became THE VOLUNTEERS quartet (Lee Piepmeier, Joe Capers, Ken Ashby and Dick Smith, all students at TTU) first saw Up With People. Soon they briefly joined Sing-Out South, perfoming in SOS's premiere shows, before becoming part of the national cast to play a major role in the years to come.   

Frank Clement left the Governor's office in early 1967. But gubernatorial support for Sing-Out and UWP did not leave. His succesor, Buford Ellington (seen below) also issued several proclamations to support SOS and Up With People activities in Tennessee during his four years in office (1967-1971).

Finally, even out of office, former Governor Clement was a great supporter. In the summer of 1967, he came to one of Sing-Out South's funding raising concerts at the Bandshell in Centennial Park. SOS was raising funds to send cast members to the first World Sing-Out Festival at Ft. Slocum on David's Island just outside New York City and New Rochelle, NY.

During intermission, Governor Clement took to the stage and made one of his famous stump speeches in support of SOS. A large amount of money was collected that evening in those little blue buckets we had, which read S.O.S. on the front of them.

Sing-Out and UWP has always gotten great help and support in Tennessee, at least in part because of our friends in high places.