Opinion: New book strikes chord on Ozarks music

• Born in Joplin in 1880, Percy Wenrich wrote the beloved songs “On Moonlight Bay,” “Sail Along Silvery Moon,” “When You Wore a Tulip” and “Silver Bells.”

• Springfieldian Dallas Bartley played bass with Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, whose driving, humorous hit records such as “Caldonia” and “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” were worldwide hits and are cited today as the beginnings of rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock ‘n’ roll.

• At the age of 2, “Cowboy Charlie” sang country songs with his family on Springfield radio station KWTO. As Charlie Haden, he grew up to play bass with jazz legends Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes, Ornette Coleman and Chet Baker, and became a legend himself, winning three Grammys and 15 Grammy nominations. Now acknowledged worldwide as one of history’s greatest jazz bassists, Haden remains in the vanguard of music today.

What do these people have in common? They’re four of the gems in “The Ozarks’ Greatest Hits!” a new book that, in 544 pages and 1,300 photographs, illuminates more than 2,000 Ozarks musicians and their achievements in folk, country, gospel, pop, rock, big band, jazz, classical, etc.

Author Wayne Glenn, working from hundreds of interviews, photos and documents, has created the first truly accurate picture of the Ozarks’ musical heritage.

Where many know something of our country music, how many know that the four Hardin Brothers from Springfield’s Lincoln High School went on to sing at the Apollo Theater and Carnegie Hall, and performed with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Billy Eckstine?

How many know that the ultratasty piano on the haunting hit record “Moonglow and the Theme from Picnic” is that of Springfieldian Stan Wrightsman, or that Drury student Dottie Dillard with the Anita Kerr Singers won three Grammys and sang with Patsy Cline, Perry Como, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson and many other stars?

Glenn also brings to life legendary nightclubs like The El Morocco, The Grove, The Bungalow Supper Club, The Ritz, Half-a-Hill, The Flamingo and Riverside, with such orchestras, bands and combos as those of Forrest Wasson, Rancey Burch, Jerry Pettit, Johnny Mongell and Eddie Ball, and band singers such as Dottie Dillard, Margie Gillette and Betty Patterson.

“The Ozarks’ Greatest Hits!” is breathtaking in scope. It covers the region’s music from the 1800s into the 1970s, and along with intriguing vignettes about the musicians, provides the historical settings and events surrounding the music.

Glenn traces country music from its folk beginnings to the 1930s advent of radio and the new exposure it gave country musicians, including Lonnie Glosson, Clyde Copeland, Slim Wilson, Zed Tennis, the Goodwill Family, the Haden Family, Les Paul, Chet Atkins and Mother Maybelle Carter and the Carter Family, all performers on KWTO.

He then takes the music all the way through the “Ozark Jubilee” era into the 1970s and the country-rock Ozark Mountain Daredevils, whose hit songs “Jackie Blue” and “Standing on the Rock” are still played today.

Included are songwriters such as Wayne Carson of “The Letter” and “Always on My Mind” fame, and Tom Whitlock, lyricist on the Academy-Award-winning song “Take My Breath Away” from “Top Gun.”

Not all in the book found national fame, but all won local audiences, and many who found acclaim elsewhere returned to the Ozarks. Phenomenal jazz saxophonist John Park, after appearing on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and touring with Stan Kenton, chose to live in Springfield with his family. Another Springfield sax player, John Henry “BeBop” Brown, brought his rollicking spirit, humor and showmanship back to Springfield from the West Coast to open his own club, BeBop’s.

“The Ozarks Greatest Hits!” is coffee-table-size, hard-cover and printed on excellent glossy stock. Marcelene Middleton deserves credit for clean, crisp design, and Glenn’s wife Nira somehow produced images of perfect clarity from the book’s 1,300 photographs, many of which must have been worn with time.

In sum, this book seems indispensable for anyone who loves music or has affection for and curiosity about the people and spirit of the Ozarks. Self-published by Glenn, it’s available for $39 at Heritage Bookstore, 3897 S. Glenstone, or can be purchased directly from Glenn.

A history teacher for 14 years, Glenn said, “I hoped it would be for the time being a definitive history of Ozarks music, and I challenge others to build on it.”

Frank Shipe is a free-lance writer and editor.