As Santa visited with children in the Bluefield auditorium last Tuesday, Don Whitt lead the musicians who participated in the annual Community Christmas Tree instrumental romp through a medley of Christmas classics including “Jingle Bells,” “Away in a Manger,” “Joy to the World,” and others, all played in three-four time.
Will VanHoye, an exceptional pedal steel guitar player who played in Nashville most of his career, learned that he had to keep a close watch on Don, as he switched effortlessly from song to song. Larry Gilpin and the Pennington brothers — Keith and Mark — already knew after three decades of practice.
Because I was just singing, I drifted to the back and talked to Keith for a minute as he played on his six-string bass guitar. Their mother, Linda, was in the Roanoke area where Keith and Mark both live, and the two brothers didn’t have any other reason to be in Bluefield except for the Community Christmas Tree Party concert. Their dad, Buddy Pennington, was one of the great country music performers of the region. Buddy, a member of the Swing Kings, was best known for his work on pedal steel guitar and banjo, but Ruth Surratt believed he could play any instrument.
Mark and Keith obviously inherited their dad’s passion for music. For many years, they played with THE popular band in the area, Fancy Free. Although the band faded several years ago, Keith and Mark still load up their amps, keyboards, speakers and PA system every year to perform at the Community Christmas Tree concert. They pack all the gear in a trailer, tote it to the city auditorium, unload it, set it up, perform for about an hour, pack all their gear back up and drive back home.
During the show, I started to think: “What a gift!” It touched my heart as Keith and I watched the children swarming around Santa, that these guys who could have been doing about anything else at the same moment, still cared enough about the community to put on an exceptional show for the children waiting for the gift distribution.
Will VanHoye called Don Whitt first, and later called me about coming up to perform at the party.
Will’s a pedal steel guitar guy who has been knocking around Nashville for the past few decades, but he told me he wanted to get reconnected with the area music scene. He and his wife made the trip from Blountville, Tenn., just to be part of the show. He called me the day after the program to tell me how much it meant to he and his wife.
During the show, Larry Gilpin and I talked about what was going on at the time. When I introduced “Oh, Holy Night,” he agreed with my introduction with an, “Amen.” When we sang “Country Roads” together, Mark Pennington joined us, and we formed an unrehearsed three-part harmony. Don Whitt smiled, and that was all it took for me to feel good about. It was validation.
As the show wore on, we became more adventurous as a group. Most of the crowd was already heading through the distribution line when Don played the intro for “Silver Bells.” I have always loved the song, but even more so in recent years since I learned that Jay Livingston who co-authored the song along with his music partner, Ray Evans, was a native of McDonald, Pa., a small town near my home in Claysville, Pa. Livingston was a prolific song writer, with other huge hits and even sang the title song to the television series, “Mister ED,” a song he wrote.
I didn’t think about the history behind the song when Larry, Mark and I were singing. All I could think of was how much Don, Will and Keith were enjoying the experience. The song laid so sweetly on the audience, that I noticed how the line paused briefly as they appeared to absorb each soul-filled note.
I savored the moment as well, not wanting it to come to an end. But it did end like all songs do. The children clutched their treasures and it was Christmas time in the city. The emotion on stage was thick enough to lean on for support. Memories were made and all of us on stage smiled. It was like an answer to my Christmas prayer.
Bill Archer is a Daily Telegraph senior editor. Contact him at barcher@bdtonline.com.
Columns
December 24, 2009
Reflecting on the magic of the Community Christmas Tree
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