The Legend-News

Meanwhile, Back At The Critter Ranch

New Critters: Rick Brash of Calgary, Canada, and Tracy Royse of Lexington, Kentucky.

In our last exciting issue, we presented a county fair poster which promoted an appearance by C.W. McCall. Also appearing at the fair was Leroy Van Dyke, and The Legend-News wondered "whatever happened to Leroy Van Dyke?"

Thanks to Mike Austing and Lynne Zink for updating me on Leroy's accomplishments. Mike said, "Leroy Van Dyke is best known for his song 'Just Walk On By (Wait on the Corner)'. I used to play that old 45 'til I wore a groove clean through it!"

Lynne pointed out that Leroy has a web site (doesn't everyone?), promoting "Auctioneering, Motivation, Success" and his recordings. Leroy's been an auctioneer since 1951, and he's the writer of the song "The Auctioneer", a fact that I didn't realize until Lynne mentioned it. I'm familiar with Gordon Lightfoot's cover of the song, on the Lightfoot album Dream Street Rose, but I never noticed who the writer was (despite accusations by some acquaintances, I don't really "know everything"). My copy of Dream Street Rose is a very worn cassette; I really need to get the CD, which was finally released last year. (Really trivial note: I've been told that the auction calls which Lightfoot performs on the Dream Street Rose version are done more slowly than what he did in his live shows.)

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The Ultimate C.W. McCall Playlist

As you probably know, most of the songs that were recorded by C.W. McCall are not available on audio CD. On the "Original Six" albums, there are 62 songs: each album contains 10 cuts, except for Wilderness, which has 12.

Bill Fries and Chip Davis wrote all of the songs on the first four albums, Wolf Creek Pass, Black Bear Road, Wilderness, and Rubber Duck. Of the 42 songs on those albums, 15 appear on either the compilations C.W. McCall's Greatest Hits or The Best Of C.W. McCall. Two other songs, "The Gallopin' Goose" and "Roses For Mama", come from C.W.'s fifth album, Roses For Mama.

Which means that, unless you've listened to the MP3 files, you probably haven't heard 35 of the songs from the Original Six albums. And none of the songs from the sixth album, C.W. McCall & Co., were ever reissued.

The question then, is how to best showcase the works of C.W. McCall, if you had the entire oeuvre (that's French for "bunch") of compositions from which to choose? That's the subject of this article.

Bill and Chip didn't create any "concept" albums, wherein a single theme joins all of the album's works into a storyline. But as a whole, the Bill/Chip songs can be arranged into a sequence which mirrors the life of the real C.W. McCall, Bill Fries.

The list begins with the beginnings of Bill Fries.

• Audubon
• Nishnabotna
• The Little Brown Sparrow And Me
• Roy
• Old Glory

Iowa and Omaha: the days of Old Home Bread and sudden fame.

• Old Home Filler-Up An' Keep On A-Truckin' Café
• Sloan
• Classified
• Four Wheel Drive
• Lewis And Clark
• Wolf Creek Pass
• Night Rider
• Convoy
• I've Trucked All Over This Land
• Sing Silent Night

Transitioning to Colorado, with a few side trips.

• Black Bear Road
• Crispy Critters
• Rocky Mountain September
• Old Thirty
• Four Wheel Cowboy
• Mountains On My Mind
• Telluride Breakdown
• Long Lonesome Road
• 'Round The World With The Rubber Duck
• Super Slab Showdown
• Windshield Wipers In The Rain
• Riverside Slide
• The Silverton
• Write Me A Song
• Wilderness
• Columbine
• Silver Iodide Blues
• Glenwood Canyon
• There Won't Be No Country Music (There Won't Be No Rock 'N Roll)
• Ghost Town
• Camp Bird Mine
• Jackson Hole
• Green River
• Niobrara
• Aurora Borealis

The end of touring.

• Milton
• Ratchetjaw
• Two-Way Lovin'
• Oregon Trail
• Night Hawk
• The Cowboy
• The Gallopin' Goose
• Silver Cloud Breakdown
• Roses For Mama
• I Wish There Was More That I Could Give
• The Battle Of New Orleans
• Watch The Wildwood Flowers
• Wheels Of Fortune

Retiring to Ouray.

• Take My Duds To The Junkman
• Livin' With My Means
• I Don't Know (& I Don't Care)
• The Only Light
• The Little Things In Life
• Hobo's Lullaby
• City Of New Orleans
• Flowers On The Wall
• Outlaws And Lone Star Beer
• Comin' Back For More

This list doesn't include the non-album songs, such as "Kidnap America" or "Pine Tar Wars", but you can insert those where you wish. And if you like the version of a song that appeared on 1990's The Real McCall: An American Storyteller, swap 'em. Original or digital, they're all good.

This really is the playlist that I've established in iTunes (my MP3 player): three hours of non-stop C.W. I might tweak it again, but the basic progression won't be changing.

If you've got an opinion on my choices, post a message to the Other Wild Places discussion list. If you're not a member of Other Wild Places, see the mailing list page for instructions for joining.

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Old Home Café: The Next Generation

Episode IX: Jon And The Cake Factory, Part Two

Oh, boy. 5:04, and already he had eight customers. This was not what he had expected. He turned towards the new arrivals, said "Any available seat, folks," and turned back to the booth.

Ben and Ruth McConnell were both of them were dressed for outdoor work, wearing waxed cotton field coats and five-buckle boots. Just an hour earlier, they'd been out in the field, feeding the cattle.

"What can I get you?" asked Jon.

"Coffee. Eggs. Bacon. Toast," said Ben, grumbling. "What's your name, son?" he asked.

"Jon, sir. Short for 'Jonathan'. And what will you have, ma'am?" Jon asked, turning to Ruth.

Ruth was more cheery than her husband. "I'll have the same; make 'em scrambled. And just ignore Grumpy here; he didn't get enough sleep last night. I'm Ruth McConnell, and this is my husband Ben."

Jon shook hands with Ruth. "Pleased to meet you. You too, Ben." Jon held out his hand to Ben, who shook it with the grip of a man who's done naught but manual labor all his life. "White toast," said Ben.

"Yes, sir," said Jon, as he poured a cup of coffee for each. The carafe was almost empty; he walked back to the coffee maker and placed the pot on an unused burner, then went into the kitchen. He cracked four eggs onto the grill and added a dozen strips of bacon beside them, then popped four slices of Old Home Bread into the stainless steel toaster.

Eight customers in less than ten minutes; this was more than Jon had expected to see in the first two hours.

To be continued…

Song A’ Th’ Week

Silver Iodide Blues
(C.W. McCall, Bill Fries, Chip Davis)
From the album Wilderness

Yeah, the government's still messin' with Mother Nature. I've read reports that the area around Denver was seeded late last fall, for the usual reason: making snow for the ski areas. Yeah, while they schuss, you slide.

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Next Issue

Coming to an inbox near you, on February 3rd: I Have Absolutely No Idea What I'll Write About; plus Old Home Café: The Next Generation; and a Song A’ Th’ Week.

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The Legend-News is published fortnightly — unless the fortnight is the fifth Monday, in which case it's published fortnightly-and-a-half — by TechRen Enterprises, reelin' with the feelin'. Contents Copyright 2003 TechRen Enterprises, except for anything that we borrowed from someone else. Thanks to Bill Fries and Chip Davis for the words and music. Will I ever know how the Super-Heroes defeated the Brain-Globes?"