The Ozark Opry operated continuously from 1953 to 2005. We’ll invite them out when the book tour comes to the area.Ĭould you give us a brief overview of the book? There are several right there around Cape Girardeau and in Southern Illinois. We’ve had music at the book signings so far, most places we’ve been there are Ozark Opry alumni and we try to get them out to play. I moved to the east coast and evolved into a marketing consultant and writer. It was reissued in 2000 on a compilation CD titled “Buzz, Buzz Buzzzzz, Vol. One of our tunes made Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1969. We called the group the Celebrated Renaissance Band and toured widely. After the season with Lee, one of the other New Morning Singers, Jerome Wheeler, and I ventured into folk and folk-rock for about a dozen years. At the same time he drove a hard bargain in business and had a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish with the Ozark Opry.Īs to my musical background, I still play a little banjo (actually it is a regular size J.D. But Lee seemed to be more certain in that responsibility, more sure of how to mentor and nurture, and more willing to do so than most. Most people have some sense of obligation for the feelings and cares of others, something like moral responsibility. But he always took time to look after and talk with the young people who played music in his shows. When I met him he was in his mid-30s and a very successful country music artist and entrepreneur. I never saw him again after 1964 - he died in a plane crash in 1985 - but I knew I should write about him and his wife, Joyce, who continued to run the Ozark Opry for 20 years after his death. Tell us some more about your music and your relationship with Lee Mace.Īnyone who spent any time with Lee Mace was unlikely to forget him, and I’m no exception. That special personal connection that so many people feel with Lee Mace’s Ozark Opry and the important place it holds in country music history are two principal reasons that I wrote “Live! At the Ozark Opry.” The Ozark Opry is a special memory to millions of people and was much more important in the development of the modern country music industry than has been hitherto recognized. We appeared numerous times on the Ozark Opry television show, and Lee booked several performances for us at fairs and events that year. There would be much more tutoring to come. This was our introduction to professional entertainment. We were to practice moving in and out of the microphone as we played and sang. Lee hired the three of us, the New Morning Singers, to perform in “Lee Mace’s Hillbilly Hootenanny.” He sent us home from the audition with instructions to make a microphone and stand from a broom handle, a wooden Christmas tree stand and a Cracker Jack box. This casual foray into music would lead me to meet and spend a fair amount of time with Lee Mace between the fall of 1963 and the fall of 1964 - my 18th year on the planet. I purchased a banjo - an old open-back flailing banjo - for $5, rescued from the attic of someone in town, and set about learning the instrument. Because Ken could play guitar and Jerome the mandolin, I was assigned the task of learning to play banjo. In 1962, when I was a junior in high school in Versailles, Mo., two schoolmates, Ken Peoples and Jerome Wheeler, and I formed a musical group patterned on the popular folk singers the Kingston Trio. How did you first become interested in the Ozark Opry, and why is it still special to you? Interview in the Southeast Missourian Newspaper Janu(“Mountaineer Music: An Interview with Dan William Peek, author of Live! At the Ozark Opry”)
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