Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies

Chapter 16. One-Way Ticket: Danny Richards

225 Chapter 16 One-­Way Ticket Danny Richards [Jack Luker] was the one that I auditioned for, when I first come up here. . . . It was at the Park View [nightclub] on West Vernor. There was a big bunch of those out there; Dixie Belle, Park View, Rose [Club], 3-­ JJJ. Some of ’em were pretty nice. And some of ’em, . . . when you walked in, your [health] insurance expired! I never had no trouble. . . . I’ve been lucky. I’ve met a lot of beautiful people and never hurt nobody except myself. And I’m thankful. —­Danny Richards1 Two young men wearing western clothes, Red and Stan, stood talking softly near a stage door while WLS National Barn Dance favorites Lulu Belle and Scotty sang a duet at the Carmichael Auditorium in downtown Clarksburg, West Virginia. The men had opened the show with their group, Patsy Jean and Her Hillbilly Pals. Patsy Jean’s husband, Mel Steele, nearly disrupted the band’s performance. If it weren’t for the musicians’ sober dedication to their craft and Patsy Jean’s stage presence, Steele might have embarrassed them with his drunkenness. “Don’t know if I can take much more of this,” said Red.“It’s like living in a damn prison.” Stan nodded. Red pushed his cowboy hat to the back of his head. “We play all his jobs and don’t get paid,” said Red.“He forgets to pay us and we got nothin’ to buy food, let alone rent, and guitar strings. Can’t get away, ’cause we ain’t got the price of the fare. And what do you think he’s doin’ now? He’s out back with the moonshiners—­ and our pay!” After a pause, Stan said,“I reckon I’m ready to leave town.” 226 / Detroit Country Music Red shifted his hat down to his forehead.“Buddy, I would welcome the opportunity.” “C’mon. Let’s go see if we can talk to him.”With a wink, Stan walked out the back of the theater. They spotted Steele laughing with a group of men gathered at the open trunk of a car. “Hey Mel,” Stan got the attention of his boss.“We found good stuff over here that you ought to try. Like a Chesterfield, it satisfies!” With wide grin and expectant eyes, Steele excused himself and strode with Stan and Red around a corner of the theater, into the shadows. Seven hours later, carrying a worn leather grip and his guitar case, Red boarded a train to Detroit. He rode all day, watching the landscape grow wintry, until he reached the Michigan Central Station in the middle of the night. Dropping one of his few remaining coins in a public telephone, he dialed a number scribbled on a scrap of paper. Thirty minutes later, two old ladies with scarves tied around their heads picked him up in a pre-­ war model car.After driving to an east side apartment building, one of the women led him upstairs. Red removed his hat, dropped himself on the couch, fell asleep, and plunged into dreams before his mother found blankets to smother his goosebumps. Joseph Daniel Richards was born September 11,1927,in Twinton,Tennessee, northeast of Cookeville. His parents separated when he was nine months old, and Richards’ mother raised him in Pennington Gap, Virginia—­ in Lee County, bordered by Kentucky (Harlan County) to the north, and Tennessee (Hancock County) to the south. Through the 1930s, Richards enjoyed listening to country artists on radio, including the WSM Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and the WNOX Midday Merry-­Go-­Round from Knoxville. He purchased his first guitar at age fifteen and soon found a job playing and singing with Roy Sykes and His Blue Ridge Mountain Boys at WNVA Norton, Virginia. The young men performed music full-­ time, with daily broadcasts and personal appearances around the region. The group included guitarist Carter Stanley (following his military discharge in 1946), Gaines Blevins (steel guitar), and Darrell “Pee Wee” Lambert (mandolin). They played a mix of traditional mountain ballads and cowboy, religious, and popular tunes. Known as“J.D.” in the band, Richards worked with the One-­ Way Ticket: Danny Richards / 227 group for three years, before heading to WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia . In October 1946 Ralph Stanley took Richards’ place in the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys. The Stanley Brothers performed together for a few months at WNVA...