THE STORY BEHIND MAYF NUTTER'S SONG "JAMBOREE IN THE HILLS" ON STARDUST COMPILATION # 32 !!

 
Greetings from the Sequoia National Forest in California!  Thank you so much for your interest in Mayf Nutter Music.  Jamboree In The Hills is an annual event which has been called the Country Music Woodstock. The year 2001 marked its 25th Anniversary.  http://www.jamboreeinthehills.com

WWVA Radio in Wheeling, West Virginia is a 50,000 watt station that broadcasts the entire Eastern US and Canada.  They often get mail from Africa and ships at sea.
 
In the 1930s they began broadcasting live shows with a big "live" audience on Saturday Nights.  Grandpa Jones, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, all Grand Ole Opry stars, had first been on the JAMBOREE. My Daddy, P-nut Nutter, played and sang on the radio daily with Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper.
 
When I left the leadership of The New Christy Minstrels to begin my solo career, WWVA was among the first to play my records and invited me to play The Jamboree.  They have bus loads of fans from as far away as Canada and the Mid-west for two separate shows every Saturday Night.
  
In 1977, Guy and Virginia Alderman and their sons and daughter constructed a huge red barn on their property, Brush Run Park, near their private airport in St. Clairsville, Ohio.  They had approached WWVA with the idea of a big outdoor Country Music Event like Woodstock, except on a permanent site.  The big red barn was built at the foot of a long sloping hill.  When the Brush Run barn doors opened, a huge stage was revealed with state of the art lighting.  The horse stalls were converted to dressing rooms.
 
The Showtime pay-TV network was brand new and had a contract to film that first two-day event. Forty-eight hours before the event, the organizers discovered a very big problem.  While finalizing the schedule, they couldn't get any of the other big stars to
agree to follow Johnny Cash at ten o'clock on the first night, Saturday.
 
Bill Boyd, the then president of the Academy of Country Music, was the talent coordinator for the show.  He called me in a panic.
 
The Jamboree staff had told him about the terrific crowd response to my appearances on their Saturday night shows.

On several occasions, the staff announcer was not able to come out on stage and read the traditional live commercials during my show.  The audience would "boo" him so loudly that the radio listening audience couldn't hear the announcer.
 
One night, when it was time for a commercial break during my show, three large truck driver-looking fellows walked up onto the stage and bodily carried the announcer away. Talk about a show stopper!!
 
Conway Twitty was the headliner on one of those shows and Kenny Rogers was the headliner on another that I specifically remember.

Sometime later, I learned that only when Mayf Nutter was on stage, had this phenomenon ever happened.
 
By 1980 WWVA had developed a new system of doing their radio commercials during my shows.  They would no longer send the announcer on stage to read the spot.  Instead, they simply faded-down the radio broadcast during applause after a song, then played the pre-taped commercial from the radio station control room.  Then they would re-join my show "in progress".  That way the theater audience had no interruptions and were unaware the commercials had even been done.
 
Having heard that story, Mr. Boyd called me and convinced me to get a substitute for the remainder of my booking at The Troubadour in Hollywood, in order to immediately fly to Ohio and follow Johnny Cash on that first JAMBOREE IN THE HILLS event.
 
Later, at the urging of a fan, I wrote the song which has now been used as the theme song to open each show for over 20 years.
 
Jamboree In The Hills (the song) is an accurate autobiographical account of that first day of the event. Also, the song permitted me to express my personal excitement, and gratitude to God, for having delivered that wonderful opportunity to me and for having
blessed me with the gift of music.
 
In the last verse of the song, I hoped to convey my aversion to the use of alcohol and drugs as a substitute for the "JOY of Life".
 
Thank you, sincerely, for allowing me to share that joy with you !!
 
Mayf Nutter
http://www.usteam@unidial.com      
(760) 378-4160
 

All proceeds from the sale of the JAMBOREE IN THE HILLS CD (which includes a "Live" Mayf Nutter show) go to BELIEVERS IN ACHIEVERS, a non-profit charity for kids who "excel".  Tax deductible donations of $20 or more includes shipping and handling.

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Mayf Nutter
as Festus' cousin on Gunsmoke.

25th Anniversary Celebration 2001 Jamboree In The Hills

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