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Hello, Kitty! >> It's the big eight-oh for C&W legend Kitty Wells
by JOHNSON CUMMINS
Heck, no! At least, not according to "the queen of country," Kitty Wells, and her husband of 62 years, Johnny Wright. These country music legends are out on the road celebrating Wells' 80th birthday this year. Talking to these two firecrackers, you would never guess this couple to be a day past 30. Our talk, nearly an hour long, proved them to be sharp as tacks and as excited as the first time they hit the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. "We just love it on the road because we love meeting our fans from everywhere and seeing new places," explains Wells. "It's actually easier for us to hit the road now," adds Wright, who is 85 years young. "When we were first on the road it was in cars, so it was hard to get some rest. Now that we travel in a large bus, when I have to take a nap I just get up in one of the bunks and away I go." Not only are Kitty and Johnny (gee, imagine that monogram on his/her bathtowels. Cool, huh!) celebrating Kitty's birthday, they're also out celebrating a noble Nashville tradition, one that has largely gone the way of the buffalo--the travelling family show. Although all three of Wells' and Wright's children have appeared onstage with the couple, this year they will only be joined by their son Bobby Wright. The younger Wright is probably best remembered for acting alongside "hunk thespian" Ernest Borgnine on the popular TV program McHale's Navy. I quickly smell a Frank Sinatra Jr. no-talent, but Johnny assures me that Bobby is no freeloader and pulls his own weight on stage. "Bobby comes out and sings 'Long Tall Texan' and acts stuff out from the song, like pretending he's riding a horse and stuff like that. The audience just loves it!" Johnny Wright's segment of the show features country music classics from his famous days with singing partner Jack Anglin, like "Poison Love," "Good Night Sweetheart," and the POW-camp-flashback-inducing "Hello Vietnam." The showstopper, though, is Kitty performing her signature song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." This record reached #1 when it was released in 1952--the first by a female country artist. The echoes of Wells' success can still be heard today among the throngs of female C&W artists, but she doesn't think it's that big of a deal. "I went to a BMI dinner with Shania Twain and she said she couldn't have done it without people like me, and how much I'd influenced her, and I just thought, 'All I ever did was open up my mouth and sing.'"
Celebrate Kitty Wells' birthday along with Johnny and Bobby Wright at The Concordia Concert Hall on Saturday, August 21 at 7pm, $29.50+taxes |
What the hey-ho is it about show business types that makes it so hard for them to know when to say when and just retire? When they're over 80, shouldn't they start acting their age and enjoying their "autumn years," loitering around every free refill joint in town, nursing thin coffee, arguing over who has the biggest sunglasses and then falling asleep in mid-conversation like they're supposed to?