Pull up a chair, its time for “The Otis Head Show.”
For 56 years, thousands of North Georgians have sought a weekly dose of down-home charm and bluegrass music from this beloved radio personality.
As a child, when I visited my grandparents, his show was always a welcome favorite.
Saturdays from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., at 1530 on the AM dial, WTTI, and on the internet at http://www.wttiradio.com/ by clicking Listen Live, Otis packs in loyal listeners who look forward to his folksy delivery and personal stories about growing up in Gobbler’s Knob and living in Plainview, both north of Dalton in Whitfield County.
“I was born up the creek from Prater’s Mill,” he said. “We were always farmers at that time.”
When Head began broadcasting his weekly bluegrass program on WBLJ in Dalton it was 1959. He gave listeners the latest sounds of bluegrass at a time when performers such as Elvis Presley were changing the face of Southern music, pushing bluegrass further down on the list of radio formats.
“When I was real young all I knew was a few people who picked banjo and maybe a few that played fiddle,” he said. “I liked it. It’s in my bones I reckon.”
He playrd the stars: Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and Jim and Jesse.
“I had live bands at one time,” he said. “The Swaggerty Family and the Fort Mountain Boys were among them.”
Head originally began the program to promote his grocery store, the Plainview Superette.
“I started from nothing – just the little stock,” he said. “I had $444 worth. The store was originally just 17 feet by 22 feet. Business got so good I built on three times.”
He eventually grew it into
a supermarket, he said. After just a year on the air, Head moved to WRCD where he remained for 28 years until programmers desired to move his weekly show from 12:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. He did not see eye to eye with them so he ended his nearly 30-year run.
“I no more than walked out the door when WTTI took me to its studio,” he said. “I have been there ever since playing the finest in gospel bluegrass.”
Head retired from the grocery business nearly 20 years ago, but he had already built up a long list of program sponsors. He and his wife, Mary, walk listeners through their radio map each week inviting folks to stop by and do business with dedicated sponsors from Western Sizzlin to First Bank of Dalton.
“When I retired I just kept going,” he said. “The people kept me going.”
In his long career, he brought many bluegrass greats to North Georgia to perform or do an interview, from Bill Monroe, Boys from Indiana, Country Mus-
ic Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin, the Bailes Brothers and others.
One unique trip he made to Maggie Valley forever changed the face of bluegrass.
“I was driving down the road, and on the side of the road about 50 people were gathered beside a little old store,” he said. “I stopped to see what was going on. I heard a banjo. I parted people back and there was this banjo player performing for tips.”
The 20-year-old Native American Raymond Fairchild was soon on his way to Plainview where he was playing for Otis.
“He started picking the banjo at the supermarket,” Head said. He got to drawing such a crowd. I had to stop cause it was hurting my business. I could not do business with all the people there. They did not come to trade they came to watch him pick.”
At the same time Otis was making contact with old friends in Nashville, telling them about his find. Before long Otis had Raymond in Nashville recording his first album at age 22.
Fairchild went on to set the world of traditional music on fire, winning five consecutive Master of the Banjo championships and taking the stage of the Grand Ole Opry by storm.
He now hosts his own show nightly from May through October at the Maggie Valley Opry House where folks can see his countless awards and gold records, accolades and accomplishments that may not have been possible without Otis.
Otis mixed into his career on radio a period as a prize fighter and a run as a fast-draw western show performer and promoter entertaining audiences with some outstanding western performances.
Otis will celebrate his anniversary at a Share America concert at the Ringgold Depot
in Ringgold, Ga., on June 10 at 7:30 p.m. alongside artists Lake-Side and Garrett Arb. If you should miss that opportunity visit http://www.youtube.
com/randallfranks and check out my feature video with har-
monica stylist Otis Head and Raymond Fairchild. Otis ends each show with a borrowed line from the Duke of Paducah. He said he stopped using it for a while, and the audience kept on him until he started doing it again so for their sake: “I’m heading to the wagon these shoes are killin’ me.”
Randall Franks is an award-winning musician, singer and actor. He is best known for his role as “Officer Randy Goode” on TV’s “In the Heat of the Night” now on WGN America. His latest CD release, “An Appalachian Musical Revival,” is by www.shareamericafoundation.org. He is a member of the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame. He is a syndicated columnist for http://randallfranks.com and can be reached at rfrankscatoosa@gmail.com.