Billy Wagoner

Billy Wagoner will tell you that he’s no professional musician, that music is just a hobby for him. He’ll tell you that his long association with some of this region’s finest musicians happened quite by accident one day when he walked into Wayne Jerrolds’s music store in Savannah, Tennessee. If you press him a little harder, he’ll admit that it was all in the Divine plan, that his life panned out just as it did because God placed all those musicians and opportunities in his path. That’s probably closer to the truth.

Bill, with characteristic humility, sells his musical ability short. He is more than a little handy with a number of stringed instruments, including banjo and guitar, and we’ve got the recordings to prove it. But he is probably right that making music was never his primary calling. His greatest gift, the one that has earned him our enduring respect and admiration, the one that we recognize here tonight, is his role as a teller of stories. If McNairy County has a sage of local history and musical heritage, it is unquestionably Billy Wagoner.

Bill’s lifelong affinity for music began when he was no more than knee-high. Among his first memories are dancing until he dropped (literally), to the mesmerizing sounds of the old-time reels, breakdowns, and hornpipes at one room school houses and private homes around his native Stantonville, Tennessee. It was in these informal performance venues that he first became intimately familiar with the styles and repertoires of local masters like Ocie Humphrey, Con Crotts, and Hall of Famers such as the great Elvis Black. Like everyone else, Bill and his family were there to enjoy the music and dancing, but his keen powers of observation were already at work. He was paying attention.

As the young man’s interest in music grew, he would become a proficient musician, befriending and joining many of his musical friends and mentors in recording and making live music in every possible venue in West Tennessee and beyond. For many years he fronted his own band, Flatwoods Bluegrass, with popular regional success. If you have the chance, just ask him about his many years of experience and who he’s had the opportunity to play with, over the years, but set aside a little time. You’ll need it, but it will be well worth it. I don’t think Bill would mind me saying, of all the renowned musicians He’s shared the stage with, he reveres no one more than two of his friends and musical collaborators, Wayne Jerrolds and David Killingsworth, who are on hand to play a musical tribute for Bill’s induction tonight.

When Bill wasn’t making it, he was organizing and creating opportunities for others to showcase their music. For many years, he was the primary music coordinator for the Buford Pusser Festival, among other events, using his lengthy list of contacts to bring high quality local and regional talent to the stage, exposing thousands of annual visitors to the bluegrass and old-time music he grew up on and so loved. He was, in fact, so successful at tapping into the regional appetite for traditional music that it virtually demanded he do something on a more regular basis. In 1997 he joined an existing effort to promote live local music in his hometown by taking over management of the Adamsville Bluegrass Jamboree. It is no exaggeration to say that you would have been hard pressed, in those days, to find a better traditional music event anywhere in the state of Tennessee. On any given Jamboree Saturday you could reasonably expect to find some of the finest talent in the tristate area performing at the Adamsville Community Center—now known as the Marty—for very appreciate and enthusiastic regional audiences. Just as important, was the opportunity it gave local pickers to cut their teeth as performers and hone their skills as musicians, not to mention getting rubbed with a little bit of that green salve. The impact of the Jamboree on the local culture and economy is inestimable. The role of cultural ambassador suited Bill well.

Even so, I don’t think anyone would argue that Billy’s singular contribution to our shared musical heritage has been in the realms of music preservation and journalism. In the 1980s Billy was instrumental in creating awareness about a nearly forgotten archive of old acetate records that sat deteriorating in an Eastview closet. Most people would have thought nothing of it, but when Billy Wagoner learned that David Killingsworth was making cassette transfers from the acetate collection of Stanton Littlejohn, he convinced David to make him copies and even add a little commentary about the artists who had mentored him as a young musician. Bill immediately recognized the importance of these tracks and was the first to broadcast them over the airwaves on a radio program sponsored by the McNairy County Historical Society. This conscious act of promoting the value of local music was responsible, in part, for the rediscovery and preservation of these rare cultural artifacts by Arts in McNairy’s traditional arts team. The Littlejohn Collection is precious beyond measure and its significance has now been recognized by the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University, and the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, who have all invested heavily in its preservation. Bill knew it all along.

If you grew up near Adamsville, Tennessee or one of the other small communities in Eastern McNairy County, your home was probably never without the latest edition of the local paper, the Community News. The Community News was everyone’s primary source for local information and it was most often delivered to your home, with a warm greeting, by a trusted friend. Bill was the publisher, editor, writer, photographer, ad sales department, layout and design artist, distributor, janitor, repairman, chief cook and bottle washer at the Community News for every year of it’s existence. I am pretty sure, Mrs. Bobbie often wore more than than a few of those hats since it was a family business in the truest sense of the word, but their was no doubt that Bill maintained editorial control, and so got to write about whatever he wanted.

Through his Wagon Spokes column, Billy consistently shared interesting tidbits of local history each week accompanied by his characteristic wit and wisdom. It was always fascinating, always informative, and always eagerly anticipated by every regular reader. As often as not, the column seemed to feature the story of a noted musician, or some local music tradition. Over the years, Bill ran articles about Elvis Black, Pap Whitten, Waldo Davis, Dewey Phillips, Arnold English and the Dixie Hayriders, Carl Perkins, the Murray Brothers, The Whitten Brothers, Con Crotts, Wayne Jerrolds, The Holland Family, Merle “Red” Taylor, Eddy Arnold, Kay and Buddy Bain, Eddie Bond, Bo Jack Killingsworth, and many others. He wrote about the old-time home musicals and barn dance traditions, and the provenance and current whereabouts of famous local fiddles. He wrote about sacred music, Southern gospel, and the shape note singing tradition. He wrote about the Stanton Littlejohn recording sessions and Earl Latta’s old-time music jams held in this very building. He wrote about Johnny Cash performing at Stantonville and Elvis Presley appearing at Bethel Springs, before those were household names. Often, the period photos he dug up to illustrate these articles were as valuable as the narrative he so capably supplied. Bill also used valuable ad space in his paper to promote every kind of music event in the region. And that’s just scratching the surface. If there was a musical story to be told, Billy told it. It’s fair to say that Billy provided the first written record, of many local music traditions that might easily have been forgotten had he not called attention to them. If all those Wagon Spokes stories could be collected into one volume, what a treasure that would be.

It’s important to say that we are not just speaking in the past tense when we talk about Bill’s contribution. At 80 years old, he’s still playing music, as you will soon see, and he still writes the occasional guest column for the McNairy County News and Independent Appeal. You can bet, if there is good story to be told or a good tune to be played, Bill will be there.

If he is right that God placed all those great musicians in his path, and provided all those opportunities for him to share the stories of our musical heritage—and I have no doubt he is—then it only stands to reason that God sent us Billy Wagoner. For six decades Bill has served as a constant reminder that McNairy County has an unparalleled cultural heritage well worth preserving, worth crowing about, and worth passing on to the next generation. His spirit of optimism and unflinching faith in the power of music as a force for good in our communities and individual lives has taught and inspired us all. Just as importantly, Bill has given us an authoritative written record of our history and cultural heritage that will be consulted and valued long after we are all gone. Now that’s an accomplishment worthy of the highest praise and recognition.

It is my distinct honor to Induct Billy Wagoner into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2017.