Tommy Jones on "Hee-Haw"

[craigdobbins]

The first time I saw Tommy was on an NBC summer replacement series (remember those?) called "Music Country USA." I think it was in the time slot for the Dean Martin Show. Anyway it was early-mid '70's. Tommy was sitting on a pier by a lake, playing something like Shenandoah with all those harmonics.

On the same series was Chet at Tootsie's "finger-synching" The Claw, and Jerry playing Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms along with a different backing track.

The RCA/NBC also connection meant that we got to see Chet on the Today Show when he was in New York on business. I was late for school more than once because Chet was on Today, and they would usually save him for last.

Craig

[RandeDager]

The first few times I ever saw Chet was with Floyd & Boots and Chet was always last then too.

[Stuart]

It is nice to see Tommy remembered. He was my first cousin. His mother (Hazel) was my father's twin sister. I was one year older than he was. We both started playing guitar at the same time, and thats the last time we near equal on guitar. It was tough in summers. Dad would take us to stay with Tommy's family for two weeks every summer. Hazel would have Tommy play something, and then my father would tell me to play something. That was always the hated part of staying with them. I have a lot of family pictures of us sitting around as kids with our guitars. Once he went to Nashville I didn't see him much. I spent a few weekends with him and stayed at his home in Brentwood. We would sit up late and talk about family, and play guitar. I will never forget his mom calling me to tell me he had passed. It was a tough call to hear. I was just looking up some videos of him to show my son who never got to meet Tommy. I found this thread and just wanted to say I was glad that even he though he is gone, he isn't forgotten. Thanks guys....

[RandeDager]

Hi Stuart,

It's nice of you to visit us here. I was close to Tommy and both of his parents, Hazel & Otis. I talked to Hazel a few months before she passed away, just short of 90. Do you remember their pet buzzard "Barney" from the 80's? I have some of my time with them on VHS that I shared with Bobbie Lamar, who you must also be related to. Take Care!

[Stuart]

Rande, I don't remember the buzzard. I spent a lot of time with the family when I was young since Hazel and my father were twins. However, after my father died in 1970, we saw less of them because of the distance from Virginia (where I live) to Cross City, Fl where the family was centered. I saw Hazel a few years before she died as I had to go for Florida for work and went by Cross city to see family since it had been years. Tommy had already died by then, and Hazel had really aged. Between 1970 and that time, I managed to go to Nashville a few times. It was very strange. I had a friend with me and the three of us went guitar shopping at some store. Tommy was parking the car so my friend and I went in ahead. I picked up a guitar and the owner almost had a heart attack, and then Tommy joined us and the entire mood changed in the store. It was a different feeling to go round with him where it wasn't all family. Seemed strange. I would love to have spent more time with him before he passed. I look at the old photos sometimes, and get a little tear in the eye that he is gone...

[David Elliott]

It was very strange. I had a friend with me and the three of us went guitar shopping at some store. Tommy was parking the car so my friend and I went in ahead. I picked up a guitar and the owner almost had a heart attack, and then Tommy joined us and the entire mood changed in the store...

Hi Stuart (and Rande),

I'd be willing to bet you that was Gruhn's Guitars on Broadway! Some of those guitars are worth more than the car you arrived in!

David

[RandeDager]

Hi Stuart (and David),

I guess that Hazel never told me about her twin brother. Where do you live, Stuart? I'm guessing that it isn't close to Old Town, FL. or you would have known about Tommy's pet buzzard. It was also a novelty to tell people that I had a friend who enjoyed fishing "way down upon the Suwanee River"! So Stuart, if you were a year older than Tommy, I know that he would have been 58 this coming October 8, so that gives me an idea about your age.

David, I too have owned cars that were less valuable than one or two of my guitars.!

[Stuart]

David, it wasn't Gruhn's. It was just a normal Ma and Pa sort of music store and we were looking at regular new Les Pauls and Teles. Tommy knew I wanted another guitar so we went where I could afford to shop....

Rande, my father was Howard. I guess they didn't just didn't think of him in his absence. He left Cross City in 1934 to help support the family as a 16 year old in the depression. He came to Virginia with an older married couple that said they could find him a job up here, and they were right. Eventually dad started working for NASA and just never went home to Florida again except for vacation of a couple weeks a year. Hazel, Otis and Tommy came to our house for a vacation once before dad died in 1970. We bought the lot on the Suwanee net to Hazel's house and dad always said he was going to retire next to his sister, but he died from asbestos cancer before he could do that. We sold the lot and my part of the family stayed in Virginia. Actually dad's father was FROM Virginia, but he and his brother left here around 1900 and walked the Atlantic Coast Line until they ran out of tracks and heard that farther south there were still Seminoles. They figured that was far enough, and that was how they came to live in Cross City. We used to swim in the Suwanee behind Tommy's house, and Hazel or Otis did snake duty with a sawed off .410 snake gun. Can't even count the Coppermouths and Moccasins Hazel shot. Always felt like we were in the Everglades going there from here. Hazel/Dad's other sister Myrtle owned a motel and fish house on Shired Island and we would go fishing out there. Dad and Hazel loved to fish. I don't know if you knew Tommy when Hazel had the house on the river or later after Otis died and she moved to a trailer. I never saw the trailer, but have a lot of memories of being in their house.

Anyway, I have a number of pictures of me and Tommy playing guitar, swimming at Fanning Springs, fishing, holding up dead snakes, and just being kids. He always said he like Palladin on TV and wanted to drive a bull dozer or a road grader when he grew up, He never got to do that...and sometimes I think he might have been just as happy if he had.

[the-ocean87]

I have a question about Tommy.
When was "Chet Atkins presents Tommy Jones" recorded/released?

[AngusH]

I recently got lucky and found a CD copy of Chet Presents Tommy Jones on ebay - you can still get the cassette on there, but it's the only CD I've ever seen. Oddly there is no indication anywhere on the disc or the case of the year of recording or release. The inlay card simply says 'Recorded at CA work shop' - and on the back cover it says 'CGP Records 22393'. It's just a stab in the dark, but might that point to 1993?

There's a huge list of Chet credits on Allmusic as composer, performer, contributor, producer etc, but I've looked through it and it doesn't seem to be there...

I'm sure there are more knowledgeable people on the board who will be able to give you a definitive answer - happy hunting!

Angus