A Guitar Player Story
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
by Woody Bridges
guitar lessons
I am writing this to let people know what it is like to be a professional player. I started playing very young. When I was in my 20's, I was playing with musicians that were professionals. People like Cliff Bruner, Murphy McDowell, Deacon Anderson, Troy Passmore, Billy Carter and Johnny Holland. There were more professional sidemen, but these are the ones I learned from. I was a very good singer and that's what got me in with these guys. Then they taught me more about the playing part. For several years Murphy, Johnny, Bugs Riley, Deacon and myself worked together as a band. (a very good band). Everyone but Bugs was at least 10 years older than me. Most of these guys have passed on now. Although I can still hear Cliff telling me "learn to play the melody before you try to improvise", and Murphy saying " ok, go pee and come back we've got a 30 minute break, I'll show you some more chords," and Deacon saying learn your scales, all of them", and Johnny telling me, "Get on time, I'm going to throw a drum stick at you every time you get off." So you see they took care of me
That was the first time I met Willie Nelson. Got to know him through the years. I already knew Bennie, he was on RCA records and was from Beaumont. I was living in Port Arthur.
I had married a Port Arthur girl when I was 20. She and I have been married for 51 years now. Her name was Mary Grace Brown until I changed the last name to Bridges. Grace became a great bass player and a very good song writer. A friend of ours told us about Jack Rhodes, a writer and promoter. So we went to Wood county to see Jack. He wanted to hear me sing so I sang. He said I had great potential and he would work with me. Then he found out Grace was a writer and he really liked us then. Jack wrote: Satisfied mind, silver threads and golden needles, waltz of the angels, woman love, beautiful lies, and a bunch more. Well we worked on new material for months and then a guy came down from Nashville and wanted me to sign a Capitol Record deal, a road deal to travel with Ray Price 273 days a year, and a manage deal with him. I was really on fire, then Jack said "we'll let you know something tomorrow Al". I didn't know what was going on. So after Al left Jack sat me down and talked to me until 4 a.m. telling me why I didn't want to do that. He said I would lose my family and kids. Then I would destroy myself. He said after working with me, he learned to really like me and he didn't won't that to happen. So he offered Grace and I a job doing studio work and writing. He said that way I didn't have to travel. I didn't know what to think at the time, but now I'm glad he talked me out of it.
When Jack passed away I went to work with Bennie Barnes playing guitar and fronting the band. And I had a band for years playing local and backing up stars that came through.
On these stories I'm writing about, the dates are not in order as they happened. Mostly they will be in the order that comes to mind as I write.
One such story , Grace and I were playing and George Jones use to come where we played. He was sitting in and someone wanted him to sing "walk through this world with me." He sang one line and turned to Grace and said, "do you know the words to this ***** song. Grace looked at him and said, "I've never heard that song in all of my life." Of course it was number 1 at the time. But George didn't know what to say after that. Grace is smart and quick, and honest, don't ask if you have tender feelings.
Another one with George. I was playing with Eddy Stevens and Pearl. George came and sat in with us. He had just released, "blue is the color of the blue". On the back side of the record was Eskimo pie. Two girls came up and wanted George to sing the Eskimo Pie song. He turned to me and said, "I've never liked that **** song, I'm not going to sing it. The two girls looked at each other and walked off. Really the truth was that George didn't know the words to it.
ok, Here's a funny one. I was playing with Murphy McDowell. I was singing a song, people were dancing. All of a sudden Murphy just doubled over laughing. I could hear Johnny and Bugs laughing too. I thought I had done something wrong. I looked over at Murphy, he point out to the dance floor, I looked and there were a couple people dancing, the lady's pants had fallen down around her feet. Neither one of them knew it. Everybody around them were laughing and looking, then the man realized what was going on. Then the lady grabbed her pants and pulled them up and ran out the back door with the man right behind her. Of course a few wise cracks were made.
Another one: Troy Passmore and I were like brothers. Grace and I had been knowing Troy for several years. To say a little about Troy's talent. Troy had the fastest picking hand of anyone in the USA and probably the world. Anyone that knew him will tell you that. He was a musical Genius, He was playing on the road with a band when he was 12. When he was 16 he was playing Guitar for the best dance band in the USA. He had played in 50 states and 5 countries.
Troy showed up one day and we had a long visit, he had been out playing in and around Austin. He had tried to get a day job out there. He was telling Grace and I about applying for this job to change the money out of the washer and dryer place around Austin. Troy said they gave him a lie detector test and he answered everything truthfully. He said they didn't hire him and he didn't know why. Grace asked him what they had asked him. Troy said " they asked my name, then several other things, have you ever smoked pot," Troy said about this room full. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Of course Troy didn't think it was that funny. Troy passed away in 1979. I'm proud to say he had turned his life over to Jesus a year before he died
On another note , We were backing up Jimmy Newman. He had several number one songs at the time. He was going to sing "a fallen star". He turn to me and said play it in B natural. I had never played in B natural in my life. He did another one in B natural, "alligator man". That was a first for me and I still remember it. I worked several times with Jimmy after that. He's a real nice guy.
The first time I met Johnny Gimble was when I was recording in Nashville. Pete Drake was the producer and Johnny was playing on the session. Actually it was a two weeks before my session. Pete had invited me down to hear another session. Any way they took a break and Johnny came out and introduced himself and said, "I hear you are from Beaumont." I told him I was. Then he asked if I had seen Cliff Brunner lately. I told him it had probably been a year since I'd seen Cliff. He told me Cliff was his idol, he loved his fiddle playing. Anyway I left Nashville that nite and went back down to the Beaumont, Port Arthur area. The very next day Cliff dropped by to see me. I told him what Johnny had said and tried to get him to go back with me. I could see he really wanted to but he didn't.
Troy Passmore had been playing in Columbus Georgia and the band had made a tape from the band stand. He and Johnny were friends and Troy sent him a copy. Johnny recorded in his home on the other side of the tape and sent it back. Troy came to the house and asked me if I had a tape player, I did. We played both sides and when Troy was leaving I said " you forgot your tape. No you can have it, I don't have a player. After Troy had passed away and many years later, I saw Jerry Gimble at a jam session. I told him about the tape, he told Johnny and Johnny called me. And said he sure wanted a copy of it. So I mailed him one.
Then there was a time when I was helping a friend change the starter on his car. The car was in the garage and there wasn't any light in the garage. So we decided to push the car out. We forgot the hood was up and when it hit the top of the garage door it came crashing down on both my hands. I lost 6 fingernail from that little mistake. So all I did was sing until my fingers healed. We were playing and I was singing, took a step back from the mic and someone had nailed a 2 by 4 on the floor to keep their drum from sliding. My drummer was setting further back. I hung my heal on the 2 by 4 and fell backward right into my drummers lap. No I was not drinking. Of course everyone laughed!
Playing music is a fun and fulfilling way to make a living, but if you are just a sideman, you don't make much. Like one fellow said, "I'm making 52.50 a week"' Yep, 52 hamburgers and 50 cents. Well, he was only joking of course. But you never got rich playing music. Although you have good memories that will live with you till you die. Also the music opens a lot of doors for you and always establishes new friendships.
I was telling a friend of mine, I don't remember the songs we played, but I remember the people and the things that went on while we were playing.
Now at the age of 71, I just play the jam sessions with other players that have retired from the playing out at night. I was very fortunate to find some ex-pros in this area.
I was raised on the ranch I'm living on now. But I had left home at the age of 18, and moved back at the age of 45. This is a wonderful place to live and enjoy life. I have a ten acre lake in behind our house, with lots of bass and catfish in it. We raise Beef Cattle.
The guitar programs and the recordings are something I wanted to do to help people learn to play
(check out my site, guitarlessonsonvideo.com
I'll add more to this article later.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hey Woody !! Great Story
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