Country '
Country
Story by Cort Fernald
Graphic by Shawn Bird
Western music - what Eugene fans want
^uva trn nan is oarK. s\ sen-out au
dience waits in silent anticipation. The shaft of light
from the spotlight funnels through the darkness to a
corner of the stage, catching an announcer in a circle of
whiteness.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Don Williams," he says
calmly.
There is a round of polite applause. No one shouts nor
whoops. Some members of the audience courteously
rise to their feet.
A tall man strides onto the stage, into the white
spotlight. Williams is simply dressed in blue jeans, white
shirt, blue jean suitcoat, boots — and of course a bat
tered cowboy hat. He seems modest, unassuming like
his apparel.
Williams sits on a stool and carefully takes up his
amplified acoustic guitar. With a murmur of thanks for
the applause, he and his back-up band begin playing.
Women smooth down their dresses, men adjust their
suitcoats as audience members rearrange themselves in
their seats. The audience, judging by their attire, is large
ly middle- to upper middle<lass. The age range is easily
early thirties to late fifties. There's a lot of grey hair in
this well-heeled crowd.
Williams voice is riveting, low and strong, with more
than a hint of mournful tone. He sings "Stay Young"
and "Love is on a Roll" with a gentle power that fills the
hall. He sings of simple values, personal dignity, and
redeeming love between a man and a woman.
The audience is quiet, waiting patiently between
songs. Williams appears self<onscious onstage. He
mumbles that he doesn't like to chit<hat in between
songs. Then he counts out and starts "Willimena." The
audience, with restraint, claps time.
It's odd, perhaps Williams' best known song, "Tulsa
Time", doesn’t receive an immediate response from the
audience. Danny Flowers, lead guitarist with Williams’
back-up band The Scratch Band, plays the song with the
same sound as Eric Clapton. Actually, that's backwards.
Flowers wrote "Tulsa Time" and Clapton covered it for a
more rock-oriented audience.
This Silva Hall audience doesn't fit the stereotype for a
country music audience. There are few cowboy hats in
evidence and more suits and dresses than faded blue
jeans.
Bob Bosche, program director for Eugene's KUGN-FM
would like to see this stereotype image of the country
music listener buried.
"The stereotypical country listener as such really
doesn't exist anymore, that's an old stereotype that
needs to be buried. The definition I once heard a resear
cher speak was 'Bubba'," Bosche says. "You have the vi
sion of the pick-up truck, the can of beer and the red
neck. His feeling was that Bubba' does not make up to
day's country music audience.
"I don't think you can define a country listener as a
personality-type," Bosche adds. "In research the Coun
try Music Association has done they've found our peo
ple who listen to country music are just people, from all
walks of life and income levels."
If there were any "Bubbas" in the Silva Hall audience,
he was probably Mr. Bubba from the law firm of Bubba,
Bubba and McCormack, specialists in corporate law.
Certainly the Don Williams' concert this month was a
sell-out. And it was only one of seven sell-out country
music concerts in the Hult Center's first year. The most
popular shows were Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride, Roger
Miller and Chet Atkins. Officials at the Hult Center
surveyed 30,000 patrons and found their preferred
entertainment was country music.
Eugene has been, and is, hungry for country
entertainment.
KEED sponsored most of the country music shows at
the Hult Center and Dan Williams, operations manager,
states proudly "we never had a show here that hasn't
sold-out and this is our second year."
"I would certainly say the box office receipts at the
Hult bear out that theory. The acts that draw the biggest
at the (Lane County) Fair — country," Bosche says.
According to Williams, tickets are getting scarce for
the KEED-sponsored Statler Brothers show set for late
October in the Silva Concert Hall. Also, there are only a
few seats remaining for Roy Clark's pair of shows in
November.
All this proves that perhaps beneath the cosmopolitan
polish of Eugene this is "country" country.
In addition to the hit that country performance is mak
ing in the area, country music is experiencing extraor
dinary popularity on Eugene's airwaves. Stations like
KUCN-FM and KEED are at the top in ratings surveys.
I think it's in the way country music has become pro
fessional, says Williams. "I was quoted a figure the
other day by one of the record producers out of
Nashville that 57 percent of the total number of radio
stations in the entire world are now playing country
music today."
Bosche believes the widespread popularity of country
music is due to its adult emphasis.
"A good country song is like a good soap opera.
There's a story. There's an opening, a middle and a
closing. It's easy to understand," he says.
I think there is a real feeling in rock music today that
people don't understand it. There's a certain something
about it that frightens them a little bit. I sense this
especially in those who are out of their teenage years
and out of their early twenties," Bosche says.
"Most of the entertainers I have talked to," Williams
says, "seem to feel the broader scope of country music
Continued on page 8B
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