| "A LITTLE RICHIE STORY"
Hey, Dick and Buster, I appreciate the info on Little Ritchie Johnson; my own health problems for a good while left '97 and several other years in something of a blur and I had missed knowing he died. You guys know I have a story and I'll betcha a set o' Martin strings you ain't heard it. So ... In 1971 Tom T. Hall and I did the research trip up into Kentucky that produced his IN SEARCH OF A SONG album -- yeah, the one that had Clayton, the Little Lady Preacher, the guy worried about who was gonna feed his hogs, and other wonderful forays of musical literature. The concept worked so well the decision was made for us to do another trip, THIS TIME to some of the cities up north where so many Kentuckians went for work. And a year later, almost to the day, we got on a plane and went to Chicago -- the rest of the trip was via Greyhound and rental car till we caught another plane in Cincinnatti almost a week later and flew home. Okay, to get in character for the situation, we took the city bus from O'Hara to downtown Chicago and found a really funky cheap hotel, stashed our bags, and got out on that REALLY cold, windy street (yes, the ropes on the sidewalk are real), ducking in a diner for some food and then following a sign promising "Live Country Music" down some steps into a club that really did have a band honkin' away. I promise you, before we could sit down, there was Little Ritchie Johnson yellin' over the sound of the band, "Tom T. Hall and Bill Littleton! What are you guys doin' in here??!" Tom told him, "Actually, we're closer to home than you are; what are YOU doing here?" But the really funny part was that the guy with Ritchie seemed to know Ritchie quite well but was a bit surprised that he knew Tom T. Hall. "Ritchie knows everybody," Tom noted. I've had that said about me, but it was profoundly true of Little Ritchie Johnson. He helped give our endeavor a sense of character that I miss. Thanks, Bill Written By: Bill Littleton |