Dee Fisk Martin

Rhythm and Blues Singer & Recording Artist

As read by Russell Ingle, Former Director of Chamber Programs, McNairy Regional Alliance
June 12, 2015

It’s been a good year for the Martins, so far. 2015 started with the great news that Dee had beat cancer into remission…AGAIN. It doesn’t get much better than that. Then in the spring, Jack was awarded the Governor’s Arts Folklife Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor in the arts. Not too shabby for a McNairy County farmer. In his acceptance speech at the governor’s residence, as in every interview and speech that went before it, Jack noted that he was just a broom maker, the real artist in his family was Dee Martin. He attributed the success of Hockaday Handmade Brooms to the creativity of his wife—or more accurately his “Baby Doll”—who was the first to recognize the cultural and artistic possibilities of the family business. True as this may be, Jack was not the first to recognize Dee Fisk’s boundless creativity. While we like to claim her, and do, Dee’s talents as a vocalist gained her respect and notoriety in the music world long before she came to call McNairy County home. That is a whole other story. It goes like this…
 
Dee Fisk was born in Kansas in 1947. She was a singing sensation practically from the womb. The age of four found her singing at local talent shows and drive-in theaters around her hometown. At the ripe old age of seven, Dee made her debut on the national stage with an appearance on the groundbreaking television show Ozark Jubilee hosted by country music legend Red Foley. From there it was off to the races.
 
While just a teenager, Dee met Don McMinn and struck up a musical partnership that would last more than ten years taking them from coast to coast performing soul and blues for appreciative audiences. The couple later married and at the age of sixteen Dee and Don landed a recording deal with Hi Records which would be pivotal in making Memphis a base of operations for the duo who soon had two young children to think about. They recorded one record with Hi, but Dee would go on to work on other projects at some of the most fabled studios in the South including Ardent in Memphis, and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, in Muscle Shoals Alabama.
 
Dee and Don’s careers and lives began to diverge on separate paths in the 1970s but Memphis would always seem like home. Dee embarked on an incredibly prolific and diverse recording and touring schedule while “Papa Don” acquired the honorary label “The Pale Prince of Beale” for the instrumental role he played in reviving live music in Memphis’ traditional home of the blues. Dee would eventually return to the Memphis area, performing for several years with Don’s band at the hottest live venue on Beale Street, The Rum Boogie Cafe. During the same period, she appeared at B.B. King’s, and a number of other Beale Street institutions, recorded a live album on Beale, and performed by invitation at the W.C. Handy Blues Awards two subsequent years.
But from the early 70s through most of the 80s, Dee would spend most of her time on the road, touring and recording with some of the country’s best blues and rock n roll acts of that period. In 1972 the legendary blues/rock guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck came to Memphis to record an album for release on the Epic label. Dee, already a familiar voice on the Memphis music scene, was hired to sing backup vocals. The critically acclaimed, self-titled, album would turn out to be the last recorded by the Jeff Beck Group, but it would also prove to be yet another open door for the ambitious young vocalist. Dee boldly walked through it.
 
In 1974, She began a collaboration with the blues revivalist, John Mayall that would lead to a three year affiliation with the legendary bluesman. During that time, Dee recorded three studio albums with Mayall and made extensive concert tours of Europe and North America with his band, often stealing the show with her soulful blues vocals. To say it got her noticed again is an understatement. Through the mid 70s Dee rubbed elbows and performed with such legendary artists as, Joe Cocker, Greg Allman, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Milsap, Robin Trower, Jimmy Jamison, Eric Burden, Rufus Thomas, Buddy Miles, Q.T. Macon, Fabian, and the Average White Band. She made the acquaintance of so many other notable artists that it just seems like name dropping to recite the list. But as they say, it’s only bragging if you can’t back it up. Trust me, Dee can back it up.
 
1976 marked another landmark year in Dee’s musical evolution. She set her sights on a solo career and began to tour with her own band and develop original material. In 1977, with some fresh ideas for new tunes under her belt, she went to New Orleans to collaborate with yet another music legend, the great producer, musician, and songwriter Allen Toussaint. The two each contributed songs and cowrote new material, releasing the record, Motion in the Ocean, with none other than the Neville Brothers as a back up band. How’s that for a first solo record?
 
Dee continued to work on various recording projects and perform live as both solo and backup singer through 80s. During the Beale Street years, she bumped into the Bearded One who somehow persuade her that making brooms was a more glamours life. The two were married in 1987 and, truthfully, life on the farm hasn’t seemed to slow her down too much. Dee has continued performing at the Broomcorn Festival and other area events ever since “retiring” to McNairy County. We use that term “retiring” very loosely. You can still catch her singing on occasion at area events. Just a few weeks ago, at Jammin’ at the Latta, Dee got the longest and loudest ovation of the evening when she took command of the stage—from a chair no less—and belted out a withering version of House of the Rising Sun. It brought the house down. Don’t be deceived, after two hard fought victories over lung cancer, Dee Martin can still get it done.
 
Recently Dee has had the pleasure of recording and performing with her own children and grandchildren in the 3G Blues Band—If you didn’t catch it, 3G stands for three generations. It is among Dee’s proudest accomplishments that she was able to pass along the love of music and the gift of song to her family—you’ll get a little taste of that in just a few minutes. Dee cowrote two songs for the 3G album, “Must Be Something in the Water,” and returned to Ardent Studios in Memphis for the recording. If you don’t have it, make sure you pick up a copy the CD. It’s an incredible testament to Dee’s influence, not to mention just a great blues album.
 
Dee Martin has known the admiration of some of the worlds best musicians, producers, singers, and songwriters. Her voice is heard on critically acclaimed recordings by music industry elites and she has enjoyed the applause of live audiences numbering into the thousands in several countries. Music has taken her from Kansas, to Beale Street, and to the wide world beyond. But nowhere is she more appreciated than right here in McNairy County. It is here that she is loved by friends, neighbors, and family who she inspires every day—yes with her music—but also with the courage and tenacity she has shown in the face of terrible pain and adversity battling cancer. She’s beat it twice, and we have to think she’ll keep on winning fight. And she’ll do it all with a song on her lips.
 
It is my great pleasure to induct Dee Martin into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the Class of 2015.

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Danny Churchwell

Gospel Recording Artist, Music Educator & Pianist

As read by Christy Whitten, Arts in McNairy Board of Directors
June 12, 2015

A generation of aspiring young piano students from the McNairy County area remember Danny Churchwell as a kind and long-suffering teacher, and that he was. But Danny’s journey begins long before he ever offered the first remedial music lessons. It is a remarkable life’s journey in music and Danny Churchwell would have been the last one in the world to tell you about it in detail, lest it seem like bragging. But we’re not afraid to brag on him a little bit this evening. That is, in fact, exactly why we are here.

Born in 1950, Danny began playing music by ear when he was no more than a toddler. As is often the case with the most gifted musicians, Danny grew up in a family where music was heard regularly in the home, and church. He tried his hand at guitar but it was the piano that really spoke to him. He took his first lesson at five years of age, and his natural talent was immediately recognizable to anyone with the slightest bit of musical savvy. Danny continued in music lessons with Mrs. Mazie Erwin at Stantonville, Tennessee until he was a young teenager, but by that time he had already learned as much as Mrs. Erwin could teach him. Always the dedicated student, his unquenchable curiosity, keen intelligence, and passion for music led him in a number of different directions even has he excelled at his formal training. In addition to the hours of practice he put in, Danny bought books on technique, and music theory, studying in his spare time, much to Mazie Erwin’s delight. It didn’t hurt matters that he had a God-given talent for music.

Danny was immersed in sacred music practically from birth, so this was the first, and most natural, outlet for his considerable talents. Gospel music would remain close to Danny’s heart his entire life. He began playing in church and with local gospel groups even as an adolescent. At eight years old, he was the church pianist. By twelve years old, he was a regular with the Ray Armstrong Quartet who had a weekly local radio program. His early proficiency with the keyboard, and obvious knowledge of music, were beginning to open doors for him.

By the mid 1960s, while still a teenager, Danny had landed a job as a professional pianist in the promise land of Southern gospel music, Nashville, Tennessee. He recorded and toured, first with the Frost Brothers Quartet, and later with the legendary Prophets Quartet. It was not uncommon for Danny to make the long drive back and forth from McNairy County to Nashville several times a week. He kept up a rigorous touring and recording schedule with these groups and worked on other music projects in those years rubbing elbows with some of the biggest names in Southern gospel music. Despite the demand for his talents in one of the most discerning and exacting music cities in the world, Danny’s heart and the family he loved were in McNairy County and he wanted to make a change. The constant travel was beginning to wear him down. Nashville’s loss was our great gain.
Needless to say, the prospects for playing professionally in Michie, Tennessee are a little different from those offered by Nashville, but Danny was determined to continue earning his livelihood through music. It was all he ever wanted to do, and it is a testament to his persistence, intelligence, and versatility as musician, that he found a way to keep working back home in McNairy County. And did he ever work!

If it could be played on a piano, Danny Churchwell could play it and this, as much as anything, was a key to his success. Any style, any music, any occasion, Danny could handle it. In the early 1970s, he began playing private events as a solo act and in combination with various other local musicians and vocalists. He played community benefits, and fundraisers; private parties and corporate events; pageants and receptions; sometimes paid, but often not. It was never about the money with Danny, but rather about the music, and he was generous, almost to a fault, with his talents. It’s probably safe to say, Danny attended more weddings than any Pastor in McNairy County. Indeed, it was a right of passage to have Danny Churchwell play your wedding for an entire generation of McNairy County couples. In fact, if Danny didn’t play for your nuptials, you might want to check the paperwork, just to make sure your union is legitimate.

There were always other piano players around, of course. So, why was Danny in such demand? With Danny, it was more than just background music. He always made every event special with just the right musical choices and his unmatched and unmistakable style. Danny worked, because Danny was the best. It’s just that simple.

Among the most memorable musical collaborations of Danny’s later career were the occasions he played with the inimitable Bessie Jarrett. To borrow a phrase from Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, ebony and ivory lived together in perfect harmony when Danny sat down on the piano bench and Bessie picked up a microphone. That song suggests, not so subtly, that if black and white come together on a piano keyboard to create beautiful music, people are without excuse. That is a fitting reflection on this occasion and one that Danny Churchwell and Bessie Jarrett proved a thousand times over. Danny and Bessie blended the various local influences from their varied backgrounds in southern and black gospel, old-time music and the blues, into a powerful and harmonious sound that would flat knock your socks off. I feel sorry for anyone who never had a chance to hear them together. They were so popular locally that they attained to first name status like Sonny and Cher. “Who is playing the event,” someone might ask. When the reply was “Danny and Bessie,” no further explanation was needed. Everybody knew. We are fortunate to have Mrs. Bessie here to sing a song in Danny’s honor in just a few moments.

All this being said about Danny Churchwell’s accomplishments, the man himself was perhaps most proud of something else: his students. Danny taught countless young musicians the mechanics of playing a piano but, more importantly, he taught them the love of music. When Danny tragically passed away last year, the legion of former students who turned out to say just how much he influenced them was nothing short of inspiring. Danny cared deeply about every student. Of course, he was payed to oversee their musical progress, but it went well beyond that with this piano teacher. He cared about them as people and it showed in his patient instruction, loving correction, and a thousand small kindnesses. He made a fair and honest assessment of each student and didn’t mince words about how they might improve, but no students ever doubted that Danny Churchwell had their best interest at heart when he gave them advice. Danny routinely passed up financial opportunity for himself by having a mom hold their son out of lessons until he was mature enough to gain from the instruction, or by honestly telling a father that he should discontinue his daughter’s lesson since she simply wasn’t interested in the piano. It was his just his way, but it was the right way.

Danny Churchwell made a life for himself in music and the truth is, he could have done that anywhere. How fortunate we are that he loved McNairy County and called it home. In the final analysis, Danny’s greatest achievement may be the profound and lasting impact he made, first, on his family, but likewise on the hundreds of students who were fortunate enough to have him as a mentor in music and life. 

It is a great honor to induct Danny Churchwell into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2015.

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Ernest "Pap" Whitten

Dance Fiddler & Entertainer

As read by Shawn Pitts, Arts in McNairy Founder
June 12, 2015

McNairy County has produced an astonishing crop of talented fiddlers over the years. To stand out in that company, you have to possess that intangible “something" which distinguishes a good fiddle player from a great one. Whatever that “something” is, Ernest “Pappy” Whitten had it in spades.
 
Ernest Whitten was born May 20, 1921 in McNairy County, Tennessee. Music came naturally to the young man and though he is now remembered for his fiddle prowess, his first instrument was guitar. His father, Joe Whitten, was an accomplished banjo player in the claw hammer style and he made sure that Ernest and his brother Julius learned to play music. Though he was good at it, Ernest soon became unsatisfied with the guitar and sought another creative outlet to set himself apart from the crowd. He greatly admired the local fiddler Elvis Black (a 2014 Hall of Fame inductee) and J.V. Walker, another outstanding fiddler who had his own band. Ernest began to closely observe these two, as well as other good fiddlers, at the home musicals and dances around the area. Observation soon turned to fascination and Ernest began to sit in with his mentors, whenever he had the opportunity. He was a quick study and remarkably self-disciplined when it came to music. He developed a lifelong habit of frequent and rigorous practice that undoubtedly sped his early progress and contributed to his longevity as one of the best fiddle players McNairy County has ever produced. That’s no exaggeration.
 
As he improved, Ernest found that his musical skills were very much in demand, especially for dancing. Organized dances were growing in popularity in the post war years, moving away from homes into more public spaces. The significance of this shift was not lost on Ernest Whitten. He formed his own band and named them, The Chickasaw Ramblers, after Chickasaw State Park where the group played a regular weekend dance. Ernest was joined by Francis Hendrix and Leonard Carroll on guitar and Rob Richard on bass. As their popularity grew, The Chickasaw Ramblers found regular work at Five Points in the Big Springs community, and occasionally played a dance at the Bolivar VFW. Around the same time, the band started playing radio shows such as the Hayloft Frolic, and made regular appearances on the Hank Huggins Show, broadcast from WDXI-TV, Jackson, Tennessee. Ernest Whitten’s reputation was growing. He would later make special guest appearances on the popular Eddie Bond show in Memphis.
 
As with most bands, the personnel of the Chickasaw Ramblers changed over the years. Ernest’s reputation attracted some of the area’s best musicians to the various incarnations of his bands. McNairy County Hall of Fame guitarist, Frank Congiardo Sr. and champion fiddler, Wayne Jerrolds were numbered among his band members at one time or another. Eunice Littlejohn-Smith, Tom McCormack, and Robert Taylor, among other local standouts, counted him as both friend and bandmate. To the younger generation, who came to know him as “Pappy,” or just plain “Pap,” he became a mentor. David Killingsworth and Wayne Jerrolds are both quick to say how influential Pap was in the development of their own music and how fortunate they were that Pap provided them opportunities to play as young musicians.
 
But, naturally, the influence of Ernest Whitten’s music was most profoundly felt in his own family. Pap’s oldest son, Ray Whitten began playing in his father’s bands at an early age on lead guitar. In later years, the two younger sons Wayne and Ronnie would join in and play everything from guitar, to bass, to piano, and banjo. Each of them inherited the family’s keen ear for music and became talented musicians in their own right. It didn’t hurt anything that Ernest Whitten was their first music teacher.
 
Of all the things Ernest Whitten will be remember for, though, the weekly dance at Finger, Tennessee probably tops the list. Pap was the heart and soul of the Finger dance. He started playing there in the mid 1960s and continued at Finger, and a little later at Leapwood, Tennessee for more than twenty years. These dances were regarded, far and wide, as some of the best in the region, if not the state, primarily due to Pap’s spot-on fiddle delivery. He wasn’t just a great fiddler, he was a great dance fiddler. If you don’t know the difference, just ask a dancer. It’s all about the rhythm and timing and Ernest Whitten was the undisputed king of McNairy County dance fiddlers, playing as many as three dances a week for almost fifty years. He adapted popular radio tunes, by ear, and could just as easily tear into an old-time reel when someone called for it. His musical recall was encyclopedic and everyone loved to dance to Pap’s tunes, both old and new.
 
While he anchored the dances at Finger and Leapwood, Pap continued to play other events around the region frequenting bluegrass shows, charity fundraisers, or just about anywhere else he was asked to play. He was generous with his talents and always enjoyed playing for area senior citizens centers and the residents at the local nursing homes. He figured, if they were past dancing, they could still benefit from some hearty toe tapping and he was right about that. Ernest Whitten conducted a regular clinic in the healing art of music and McNairy County and all of Southwest Tennessee is undoubtedly the richer and more joyful for it.
 
By commercial music standards, Ernest Whitten was probably regarded as an amateur musician but that label doesn’t quite suit him. It is true that he worked as a farmer, mechanic, sawmill hand, production laborer, tuned pianos and repaired musical instruments to make a little money on the side. But Pap’s work ethic was that of a professional musician. His family remembers him practicing for hours on end, by himself, in preparation for the next band rehearsal or dance. He treated music like a job and music eventually rewarded his efforts. For many years, his primary source of income came from a demanding dance schedule that earned him a decent wage playing the music he loved. It might not have been glamorous by Music Row standards, but it certainly meant more to the generations of West Tennesseans who revered his music. No record could match the raw energy of Pap Whitten’s live dance music which just seemed to make you want to dance, whether you knew the steps or not.
 
Everybody can tell a story or two about Ernest Whitten, but since I’m the presenter, I get to tell one of mine. Several years ago I bumped into the late Ellis Truett, in Jackson, Tennessee. Ellis was a fine old-time musician, founding member of the Jackson Area Plectral Society, and one of the most astute and knowledgable musical observers in West Tennessee. He lived his whole life within a stones throw of Five Points where Pap played so many dances, back in the day. Ellis was aware that I had been working on recovering the Stanton Littlejohn recordings that were made at Eastview in the late 40s and early 50s, so we discussed the project briefly, before he gave me a wistful look and said, “let me ask you something. Have you found any old recordings of Ernest Whitten?” I told him that we had, in fact, recovered a few and asked why he was so interested in Pap’s recordings in particular. Again, he looked at me like I’d lost my mind and said, “Because Pap Whitten was the best thing going in your neck of the woods.” When I asked why he thought so, he confirmed what we all know. “Ernest Whitten,” he said, “was the best dance fiddler I ever heard in my life. His timing was impeccable.” And there you have it. Ellis Truett knew what he was taking about.
 
Ernest Whitten passed away August 20, 1990 in Jackson Tennessee. Do you know what he was doing nine days before he departed this life? You guessed it, He was playing a dance. You want to talk about a life in music? If ever anybody had one, it was Pap, and are we ever grateful. Pap Whitten was a one of kind original, and his influence continues to be felt in McNairy County today, both through his family and all those he touched with his music.
 
It is my distinct honor to induct Ernest Whitten into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2015.

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Kay Bain

Country Singer & Broadcast Personality

As read by Ronnie Brooks, McNairy County Mayor
June 12, 2015

Kay Crotts, was singing practically before she could talk. The gift of song came naturally to her as the daughter of one of McNairy County’s most revered old-time fiddle legends, Mr. Con Crotts. The Crotts family hailed from the Michie Community and Kay counts among her earliest memories, standing on a chair at the age of four, or less, to sing while her father played the fiddle at square dances and old-time home musicals around the area. Wherever her father went to play music, Kay was anxious to tag along. Rather than regarding this as a nuisance, Mr. Crotts recognized her gift for song and encouraged her growing interest in music. Kay showed considerable talent as a piano player, but everyone, including Kay, knew she would always be a singer at heart.
 
And sing she did. It didn’t take long for her teachers in school, among others in the community, to notice Kay’s powerful and beautiful singing voice. Many encouraged her to sing what they regarded as more sophisticated material, or perhaps pursue classical vocal training, but Kay, steeped in the old-time music of McNairy County, had a different vision. Her gut told her to keep right on singing the traditional country, gospel, and old-time music of her youth. When you are right, you are right, and Kay’s early instincts about where her talents were most effectively employed could not have been more correct.
 
The young songstress’s first real break came when she got noticed as a standout talent on regional radio. She had, as usual, followed her father to Corinth to accompany him on a radio program where Mr. Crotts regularly played with other musical and variety acts . She was only thirteen when the local radio personality Buddy Bain invited her to play on his popular program The Farm and Home Hour on WCMA, broadcast out of Corinth, MS. She jumped at the chance, and the rest, as they say, is history.
 
Kay became a regular entertainer on that program where she was lauded for her singing talents, easygoing way with people, and that firecracker personality. Those same qualities made her a natural for live entertainment and after graduation from Michie High School, Kay was invited to join Buddy Bain and the Buddies. Everyone’s favorite story from this period involves a young Elvis Presley. The brash young entertainer was shaking things up and getting pretty well known around the Mid South when he first came to play at Corinth. Buddy Bain had interviewed Elvis and played his record—he only had one release at the time—on WCMA and actually put the budding star up at his mother’s house while he was in town. Buddy and Kay were scheduled to play on the same bill that evening. As the duo warmed up an old Blackwood Brothers number backstage Elvis, always drawn to gospel music, couldn’t help listening in. He begged Buddy to let him perform the song with Kay instead. Buddy reluctantly agreed, and a 15 year old Kay Crotts and the future King of rock n roll electrified the crowd singing chorus after chorus of “I’m Feeling Mighty Fine.” Many would later recall the duet with Elvis and Kay as the most memorable moment of the show. This wouldn’t be the last time Kay was counted in the company of entertainment industry elites. Kay and Buddy opened shows for Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and a host of Grand Old Opry stars through the years.
 
As it turned out Buddy Bain had his eye on more than Kay’s singing talents. The two were married in June 1957 and enjoyed a successful partnership, both on stage and off. That same year, Buddy made the natural transition into the hot new media known as television. Little did the young couple know that the move to TV would change their lives forever. Kay soon joined Buddy on the air and the two became inseparable fixtures of country music television from Tupelo to Nashville and beyond. Together, they popularized several talk shows, but the Mornin’ show on WTVA Tupelo, would become a long running and beloved program throughout the entire North and Central Mississippi viewing area. They debuted up and coming stars, interviewed established artists, and performed on both radio and television for the better part of forty years. Along the way they introduced Tim McGraw to the world, showcased a young Tammy Wynette, interviewed the likes of Bill Anderson, J.D. Sumner, Patsy Montana, and Art Linkletter on air. That list goes on and on. They also made their own mark as artists, performing several times on the Grand Ole Opry, and alongside Roy Clark and Buck Owens on the quintessential country music program, Hee Haw.
 
Such a prestigious list of career accomplishments would have been enough for most people, but Buddy and Kay used their notoriety to call attention to causes they cared about, a practice Kay continues until this very day. While she has kept up a busy work, performing, and public appearance schedule, Kay has found the time to do charitable work with the American Cancer Society, The Diabetes Foundation, the American Heart Association, and performed at more small benefits and fundraisers than can be named.
 
In 1996 the Mississippi Legislature declared November 3 “Buddy and Kay Day” in recognition of their outstanding careers in music and their many charitable endeavors. Tupelo already had a Buddy and Kay Day. The other high honors Kay and Buddy accumulated individually, and as the first couple of Mississippi music reporting, are too numerous to mention.
 
When Buddy passed away in 1997, it seemed like the end of an era. In many ways, it was. Kay had lost her best friend and the love of her life. But Kay’s indomitable spirit and her faith, allowed her to press on. She continued the charitable work, which was her way of honoring Buddy’s memory. Just as importantly, to her legions of fans, Kay continued her broadcasting career with her own Saturday morning show on WTVA. Any given day will find Kay Bain in her WTVA office preparing for upcoming interviews, or performing at another fundraiser for a good cause. At 77 years old, she is till going strong and I just dare you to try to stop her.
 
In a legendary career that has spanned more than six decades, Kay Bain is regarded as a true pioneer in both music and broadcasting. Even though she has been in the spotlight of some of the nations most prestigious stages, and can claim friendship with some of the most noteworthy figures in entertainment history, Kay has always retained the easy going charm of a country girl. She has become music icon, a role model for women in broadcasting, and and ambassador for her native McNairy County. And we are proud to claim her has one of our own.
 
It is my privilege to induct Kay Crotts Bain into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the class of 2015.

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