Spent the afternoon at the Country Music Hall of Fame with Jody Maphis and Kyle Eldridge, getting photos for the Fretboard Journal article that I will be writing about Kyle’s new doubleneck guitar. The primary purpose of the visit was to have Kyle and Jody and myself check out Joe Maphis’s original Mosrite doubleneck guitar. We did that, photographer extraordinaire Jim Herrington got some great shots for the article.
Then Jody Maphis took us on his own personal tour of the Hall of Fame, telling hilarious stories about his personal encounters with all the various stars, from his parents’ generation back in the 1950s and 1960s through his own playing career in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond (Jody played drums for years with the Earl Scruggs Revue, and later guitar with Gary Allan). Jody had ripping tales of yore interacting with many of the 1970s and 1980s artists featured in the new Western Edge special exhibit.
At one point, Jody said: “I hear Daddy!” Sure enough, playing on a Jumbotron monitor above our heads was a clip from a 1957 Town Hall Party episode featuring Joe Maphis and Wanda Jackson.
I love this kind of thing. What an experience! Big thanks to Julea Thomerson for getting us in for the visit!
