ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART
Texas…..”We just finished our first two concerts dedicated to Woody Guthrie, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year,” Sheila Everhart, the acoustic bass player of the Bob & Sheila Duo said. “We had some excellent performance time at the Chicken House Opry which is located just north of Mission, Texas. It’s kind of far out in the country, but in many respects the only ‘real’ country music left, is far out in the country.”
“Sheila’s right,” Bob was quick to add, “but I was absolutely and totally stunned to watch the newest edition of “NCIS” on CBS-Television. They began and ended their latest show with Hank Williams Sr. actually singing ‘I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive.” For me that was quite a stunner, to actually hear Hank on the number one television show in America, without a doubt the most popular show on TV today. The producer and director ‘matched’ the genius of Hank Williams with the genius-star of the show, Mark Harmon. It’s kind of like if you are a real fan of classic country music, you spend much of your time out in a desert all by yourself, wondering what happened to this incredible ‘American’ musical genre. And then it pops up in the strangest places. Hang on, if they can do it on NCIS, I suspect the copy-cats will try their hand at it too.”
The Everharts are celebrating the 100th birthday of Woody Guthrie at their annual festival in LeMars, Iowa, this year. “But, there’s a few more 100th-birthdays we are also going to celebrate,” Sheila added. “Minnie Pearl would be 100 this year. Bill Monroe just turned 100. Roy Rogers will also be 100 this year. So far, we are going to do some nice things for Guthrie at our festival in LeMars. The International Busking Championship must contain some Guthrie songs, hopefully we’ll get to hear “This Land Is Your Land.” We’ll have a free Woody Guthrie Oklahoma Watermelon Feast, and you can visit the Tipi-Village any day for some free Woody Guthrie Hobo Stew. We’ll also have a Woody songwriting contest, but the original songs must have ‘going down this road’ somewhere in the text. Minnie Pearl is going to be the ‘fun’ one. We’re going to gather together as many people as we can, at one time during the festival, and yell “Howwwdddeeeeee” as loud and as long as we can. We’re inviting the folks from the Guiness Book of World Records, so this is ‘everybody’s’ chance to be in that book, you just have to be there to participate. We’ll be doing some Roy Rogers things too, but first we’ll ask Patrick Gottsch owner of RFD-TV to be with us, and hopefully bring Trigger with him.”
“We’re pretty well settled at the RV-park,” reminded Bobbie Lhea, the 15-year old daughter of the Everharts. “Dad finally took us to a pretty neat cafe for a budget lunch. The Don Bebo’s Restaurant in LaFeria, is within walking distance from our camper. They serve mostly Mexican food, but Dad and I had some catfish that was really good. Included was some coleslaw, french-fries, a roll and a drink. Mom had what they call the ‘Veracruz Plate’ which was more than she could handle. Pork carnitas, beef tacos, beef enchiladas, beans, rice, and a drink, and yes, the whole lunch (for 3) for less than $20.”
The Everharts continue their performance tour in the Rio Grande Valley until March, at which time they return to Anita, Iowa, to prepare for their Oak Tree Opry “SpringFest” which according to Sheila, “has an incredible line up of fantastic classic country, bluegrass, and folk artists coming this year. We also just got an e-mail from Bob Duff, the multi-millionaire from California, who is bringing along a lot of neat things to add to the CD auction he will conduct.”