WAMU Official Transcript of Kojo Nnamdi and Stephen Wade discussing Bobby Hebb

Here's the official transcript of the WAMU broadcast of Stephen Wade on the
Kojo Nnamdi Show, February 18, 2013

Read the entire broadcast here:
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2013-02-18/beautiful-music-all-around-us/transcript
Please always visit our main pages
http://bobbyhebb.com 
http://sunnythesong.com 

KOJO NNAMDI

13:14:48

800-433-8850 is the number to call if you have questions or comments for Stephen Wade. He's a musician, author and recording artist. His most recent book is titled "The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience." His most recent album is called "Banjo Diary: Lessons From Tradition." It was nominated for a Grammy. A lot of people remember the Nashville musician Bobby Hebb as the guy behind the tune "Sunny." Beautiful tune. You found that his eventual career was one that had a lot to do with street musicians in his hometown, like the Washboard Band. Why is he, why is Bobby Hebb an important part of this story too?

WADE

13:15:27

Oh, he was great. I talked to him. He had been -- his parents were blind, and they had – they were, in that time, you know, that's just the way that -- there was no state support. They had to make a living. They made a living on the streets. They had what he told me was Hebb's Kitchen Cabinet Orchestra, and it was he and his brothers and sisters and his parents. And they went out and they played on the streets of Nashville, and he told me that it showed him that he, you know, he learned how to play at that time.

WADE

13:15:55

He would sing and dance and played the spoons with them. And then that led to his going on the Grand Ole Opry. He was the second African American that -- he was on that show. He played with Roy Acuff, and he was in Roy Acuff's Jug Band, which was a offshoot band that Acuff had that stemmed from his own medicine show days. And Bobby had told me how important it was to him to have that experience. And then after that, he left -- this is the mid '50s -- he left and went to Chicago, played with Bo Diddley, and went on with his career.

WADE

13:16:32

But he said, again, this interconnectedness thing, he said we would listen to Walter Winchell, you know, at night, but we'd listen to bluegrass in the morning, or one or the other. He was hearing all kinds of things that were being processed and brought into his musical vocabulary, and that's what, always his story -- this is a person who, you know, he's an opening act for the Beatles on their last tour or America, he helps write "Natural Man" for Lou Rawls. He writes "Sunny" for his late brother.

WADE

13:17:01

And yet, to him, the whole washboard and street music experience in Nashville was really important. So for me, he was a witness, and able to explain what, more about the lives of the Nashville Washboard Band. And so I sought him out. I'm sorry he's passed away.

NNAMDI

13:17:20

He passed away in 2010.

WADE

13:17:21

Yeah. I...

NNAMDI

13:17:23

And I'm so glad, though, I'm sorry he passed away, but I am so glad that you had the opportunity to speak with him before that time, so that he can become a living, breathing part.

WADE

13:17:32

I talked to over 200 people in the course of my book. About 100 are in the book, and so many have passed on. The best part of my work nowadays, Kojo, is going back to the communities where I did my research and presenting this book, doing presentations with this book in those places. And the people whose lives have been the most devastated, whose stories are the roughest in this book are the ones who are most happy to have those stories out. It's not with embarrassment, it's with understanding and expressing their kin with a heightened sense of who they really were. And so that's been so meaningful to me, through this time.

Please always visit our main pages
http://bobbyhebb.com 
http://sunnythesong.com