From the recording The Ballad Of Old Fort Mountain

While I was cresting Old Fort Mountain one foggy, rainy evening in 1978, the car radio newscaster said, “Old Fort Mountain has claimed another life”. I thought “Old Fort Mountain’s made a widow of a wife”. I went home and penned this song, which I decided to record in 1981. When I worked as a radio announcer at WPTL in Canton in the ‘60’s, I became acquainted with a young Raymond Fairchild who formerly played for donations in Maggie Valley at the late Ted Sutton’s Hillbilly Fun House. I used to invite Raymond to play on my radio show; thus, a lifelong friendship was born. Raymond agreed to help me with my record, as did Madison County’s legendary Arvil Freeman and Raymond’s backup group at that time, the Crowe Brothers. We never practiced together before we went into the studio owned by Eddie Swann at that time.  They didn’t need to! They played what they felt after they heard my lyrics and tune. Steven Heller, who later won a Grammy producing Doc Watson and David Holt’s Legacy CD, was the studio engineer.