Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies

Chapter 11. Music With A Western Beat: Eddie Jackson

169 Chapter 11 Music with a Western Beat Eddie Jackson When I was a kid, I’d sneak out of the house to play baseball, and my brother would drag me back to play music with him. One day, I came home and found him on the porch playing his banjo, surrounded by a bunch of girls. From that moment on, I knew that music was for me! —­Eddie Jackson1 After finishing his second set of the night, Eddie Jackson lit a cigarette, stepped carefully down from the bandstand at Caravan Gardens, and surveyed the bar. One of Detroit’s larger nightclubs featuring country music, the Caravan, as most people referred to it, was filled with friends and music fans tonight. Many had stopped in for a nightcap after seeing a show of country-­ western stars downtown at Ford Auditorium. Ferlin Husky, who performed at Ford Auditorium that evening, stood with his steel guitarist, Billy Cooper, and chatted with patrons. Jackson smiled and greeted everyone who caught his eye as he strolled to the bar for his usual shot of brandy and a beer chaser. After joking with Husky and sharing a toast,Jackson asked if he’d like to join him on stage during the next set. “You got it, hoss,” said Husky. “It’ll be my pleasure!” Twenty minutes later, Cooper and Husky took the stage with Jackson’s band, which included drums, piano, steel guitar, and Jackson playing rhythm guitar. Jackson introduced Husky’s alter ego, the buffoon Simon Crum, and Husky proceeded to rip through parodies of several hit country and pop songs to uproarious effect. After Husky scooted off stage, Cooper finished 170 / Detroit Country Music the set with Jackson’s band. Then he asked for a job.“See, my wife’s pregnant and she wants me to get off the road,”said Cooper.“Sure,”exclaimed Jackson. “But how does Ferlin feel about it?” Cooper disappeared into the crowd, in search of Husky. Jackson hadn’t even reached the bar when Husky stormed over, pressing his face into Jackson’s personal space, teeth gritted and shoulders arched in a menacing posture.“So you’re takin’ my steel player!” he breathed. Jackson coolly took three steps to the bar, asked the bartender for a fresh bottle of Husky’s favorite drink, and returned, holding the bottle by the neck like a club. With his free hand Jackson reached for Husky’s. As they shook hands, Jackson slipped the bottle into Husky’s coat pocket, stuck out his chin and grinned. Husky lost it, bursting into spasms of laughter as Jackson did the same. During the next dozen years, Husky—­ and other traveling artists—­ visited Caravan Gardens because they knew Jackson led good bands,and the reputation of his character and hospitality drifted all the way to Nashville. Too successful to leave Detroit, Jackson played in local nightclubs through five decades. James Edward Jackson, born March 3, 1926, in Cookeville, Tennessee, arrived in Detroit at age seven.Eventually his parents settled in a north-­central neighborhood of Detroit, near Grand Boulevard and Woodward Avenue. Jackson’s earliest experience playing guitar was sitting on the front porch of his family’s home to accompany his older brother’s banjo picking. Jackson sometimes took his guitar to his friend Bill Callihan’s house after school. “Bill was crippled. He had a room lined with shelves filled with 78s and a record player. Played a steel guitar Hawaiian-­ style,” said Jackson.“We practiced along with records by Jimmie Rodgers, Milton Brown, Hank Penny’s Radio Cowboys, Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and all those early country stars. I learned hundreds of songs by listening to his records.2 “A little restaurant on Bethune off of Woodward had a jukebox filled with Bob Wills 78s, and I used to stop there after I finished my paper route,” he said.“I wanted to sing like Tommy Duncan [in Bob Wills’ band]. I wanted to play western swing, so I learned all the chords I could on the guitar.” Music with a Western Beat: Eddie Jackson / 171 Another early memory conjured the vision of a café that Jackson’s parents operated on Mound Road.“Our family lived in the back of the building, and my folks hired black musicians to play jazz and pop music at night. Some nights I’d huddle beside the drummer and ask him to hit a wood...