Wallpaper and Millions of Hits

Have you already given up on your resolutions for 2008? If you have, you are not alone according to the January 14, 2008 issue of Time Magazine.

I had resolved in 2008 to scrape off the wallpaper in the kitchen, hallway and the two bathrooms at the house my little three year old Callie calls the Tallpooosa house. My kid as love coming out and play in the yard with next door neighbor Megan Glaze whose parents are like me and are going broke buying any and everything with "High School Musical" written on it. Playing in the yard is something that I don't have the luxury in Marietta because many in my Cobb County neighborhood think that the speed limit is 70 and that stop signs are for suckers.

I began the wallpaper removal project with the bathroom of the master bedroom. Ray and Virginia Hitchcock who built the house and dwelled in it the latter years of their lives picked out pretty and tasteful wallpaper but I soon discovered when I began the paper removal from the walls that they had it applied the wallpaper with glue that was purchased from NASA. I worked and worked and worked and after about six hours and was tempted to see if a blow torch could get it off. I gave up and called a professional to finish the job and to paint the house. I realized that I would rather clean the sewers of Paris with a tooth brush than to try to remove wallpaper.

I was walking around the Wal Mart in Bremen arthe first Saturday of the new year when my phone rang and it was Randy Owen of Country Music Hall of Fame group "Alabama". We we were talking about what is ahead for 2008. Randy is working on a solo project with John Rich of "Big and Rich" as producer and should be out sometime time this year. He is quite excited about it. He told me about one of the songs on the upcoming release is a heart tugger and could be a runaway hit. I hope it is. I first met Randy in August 1971 when we had a Civil War history class at Jacksonville State University where I went for about fifteen minutes. I did make it that one term, just long enough to make the drum line of the Marching Southerners and to get my first radio job as a part timer at WPID in Piedmont. I transferred to West Georgia and worked at my first full time radio gig at WWCC in Bremen. I did the morning show and went to classes at West Georgia. I thought it was pretty terrific that I was sitting in the same chair as Lee Williams had during my youth and my mother would turn on the station to check the weather report and hear the latest song from Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline.

Harold Shedd had owned the station and had sold it before I went to work there in December of 1971. Harold had moved to Nashville with the dream of producing records. He produced Glen Campbell, Mel Tillis and had signed Shania Twain and Billy Ray Cyrus to recording contracts when he was with Mercury Records in the 1990's. Harold's greatest achievements in the music business was producing four young fellows who made Fort Payne, Alabama more than the sock capitol of the world. "Alabama" is the most successful group in the history of Country music. They have had more number one hits than the Beatles and the Beach Boys combined. Many of the 44 number one songs were produced by a Haralson County native Harold Shedd. I am curious why there is not a school, a street, a sign somewhere recognizing this creative product of our home county. Randy Owen never forgot that it was Harold Shedd who help develop the sound that brought millions of new fans world wide to Country music over almost four decades.

Rhubarb Jones is anÂ Atlanta radio personality and a native of Tallapoosa. He can be reached at Rhubarbjones@aol.com