My friend Steve Soest said he was in “purge mode,” clearing out some stuff at his house, and told me to come by and pick up some things he wanted to gift me. Steve has turned up some incredible guitars, amps, and ephemera in his fifty years of being in the music instrument repair and vintage guitar dealing world, so I knew he wouldn’t disappoint!
“You’re the guy for this stuff,” he said. I said, “You know this is like crack cocaine for me, don’t you?”
Big thanks to Steve for this pile o’ goodies! A couple of original programs for Cliffie Stone’s Hometown Jamboree and an (autographed!!) Tennessee Ernie Ford program; a stack of original 1950s song folios; a stack of 1950s and 1960s country music magazines (including some rare titles like TRAIL and Country and Western Jamboree.
One thing I found particularly interesting was a pile of stuff (a show poster, an 8×10 glossy photo and a stack of unused stationary) for a very obscure San Fernando Valley Western Swing artist named Tex Amberson. I had never heard of him before yesterday, and he was from my neighborhood, back in the day! There is scant information about him online, just some advertising for shows in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I wonder if he ever recorded?
Also of particular interest were a pair of old clothing catalogs, an Army/Navy catalog from 1933, and a Western clothing catalog from 1958. Both of them I found to be breathtaking, just looking at the quality American-made clothing that used to be available to order with mere money. As somebody who has literally spent the last thirty-five years combing vintage clothing stores looking (vainly) for this type of clothing in my giant XL size, gazing at these catalogs really made me want to invent a time machine for the sole purpose of ordering some of this finery that used to be at our fingertips.
Oh, and a stack of killer country albums, too!
Thanks Steve, good luck with the “purge,” your hillbilly items have found a good home!!
