The Lucy Opry - 1967 to 2000
Home of Bluegrass Music
Memphis, Tennessee
By Paul W. "Bear" Copeland
 
The Lucy Opry was founded in 1967 by Doug Cole, Joe Taylor, DeWitt 
(Dee) Franklin, Bill Beck and others, who were looking for a place to play Bluegrass 
Music in Memphis, Tennessee. They had been meeting on a weekly basis at 
each other's homes for several years, until the gatherings had become too large to 
handle the numbers of people who showed up. They needed a "place" to play that 
could accommodate all the pickers and family members, as well as any interested spectators
that might show up.
 
One day in 1967, Doug Cole was out looking for a practice field for the 
Little League Baseball team that he coached. He happened to drive by a frame 
building called the "Brunswick-Lucy-Woodstock Community Center" in the Lucy 
Community, on Pleasant Ridge Road near Millington in rural North Shelby County, and thought it 
might be a good place to use for a picking venue. He contacted the owner of the 
building and found out that the rent for the building was $4 per night. 
Since the "price" was right, Doug got together with his musician friends and 
they began to rent the building on a weekly basis. The weekly meetings were 
always on Friday nights, so that the musicians could be free to play "paying" 
jobs on Saturday nights. They paid for the building rent by "passing the hat". 
At first, the only people to show up were the pickers and their families and the 
"rent" was paid by the musicians themselves. Eventually the word got around 
about the music and the family atmosphere and people began to come just to watch 
the informal shows.
 
For a long time, the shows alternated between Bluegrass one week, and 
Country Music the following week. This was done to preserve the acoustical 
aspect of the Bluegrass Music and to allow the Country pickers a chance to hear and 
learn Bluegrass music. Most of the musicians just came to "Jam" on the 
Bluegrass nights, and soon the informal "Jam" sessions came to attract as many 
people outside in the parking lot, as did the "shows" inside. Many people 
found out that if they wanted to learn to play a Bluegrass instrument and learn 
Bluegrass tunes, that there were plenty of people in the parking lot who were 
willing to show them what THEY knew.
 
Some of the musicians that played at Lucy in those early days were Doug 
Cole (Guitar), Bill Beck (Mandolin), Joe Taylor (Mandolin, Guitar, Electric 
Bass), Hollis Floyd (Banjo), Troy Castleberry (Mandolin), Bob Bowen (Banjo), 
Steve Barnes (Guitar), DeWitt "Dee" Franklin (Guitar) and his wife June, 
Johnny Moon (Guitar), David Boots (Banjo), Carl Collins (Banjo), Robert Dickey 
(Fiddle and Guitar) and his wife Myra (Bass), Tommy George (Banjo), Donny Catron 
(Guitar), Mack Boyd (Dobro), Don Halford (Bass), Bill Blackard (Guitar), Roy 
Blackard (Mandolin and Guitar) and The Morton Twins, Greg (Guitar) and Randall 
(Banjo). 

The early days were pretty crude and every one just pitched in and did 
what was necessary to run things. There were no "sound men" because the only 
sound system was a thrown-together sound system that wasn't much more than a 
"guitar" amplifier with a couple of stand microphones. You just adjusted the 
thing so that it was "loud enough" and hoped the feedback "howls" weren't too 
bad. They did sell some snacks, like popcorn and soft drinks, but the cost was 
nominal, and the "concessions" were operated by the musicians' wives and 
girlfriends. The shows were simple, consisting of 30 minutes to an hour by each band 
that showed up that night, AND a regular "free-for-all" jam session. Completely 
unrehearsed, this "free-for-all" consisted of most of the "yard pickers" and most of 
the people who played with the organized groups, and was as much fun for 
the audience as it was for the musicians themselves. Response from the 
audience was spontaneous and enthusiastic and members of the audience sometimes 
showed their appreciation of the music by getting up and doing a furious "Buck" 
dance. I fondly remember Donna Morton (sister of the Morton Twins) and Freeman 
Gray "cutting a rug". No one received any pay for their performance.

In the Spring of 1973, a large article on "The Lucy Opry" was published 
in the Memphis' Commercial Appeal and the attendance at Lucy jumped. Doug 
planned a special event for the Friday night after the Commercial Appeal article 
appeared - he contacted well-known fiddler Vassar Clements to come and play for 
the crowd. I discovered Lucy as a result of this article and saw Vassar on 
stage at Lucy that Friday night. I was hooked, big-time! Soon, there were so 
many people coming on Friday night that the parking lot could not accommodate all 
the cars, and people were parking down at the feed store, about half a mile from 
the community center building. Also, the ground next to the "BLW Community 
Center" building, got pretty soft when it rained and many cars got stuck. If 
you were a Lucy "regular" (like I was), you carried a tow chain with you so that 
you could help pull people's cars out of the muck and mire. 

Since I was employed as the Chief Engineer of a little Public Radio 
Station in Mississippi, WNJC FM 90.1 in Senatobia, Mississippi, operated by 
Northwest Mississippi Junior College, I began to tape record the programs for 
broadcast on Saturday evenings. I was only interested in the Bluegrass part of the 
show and usually taped enough for two, half-hour shows. I did very little 
editing of the tapes; I just presented the programs as they were done on stage. Soon, 
I became interested in playing an instrument, and decided that what I needed to 
learn was the Dobro, since I had always listened to the Dobro and Steel Guitar 
players that were on the Bluegrass and Country records of that time. I was 
especially fond of the Dobro playing of Burkett "Uncle Josh" Graves, who played 
with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs as a member of their band, the Foggy Mountain 
Boys; Brashear "Pete" Kirby ("Bashful Brother Oswald") a long-time stalwart 
of Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys; and Harold "Shot" Jackson, who played 
Dobro with Johnny and Jack's Tennessee Mountain Boys, as well as Steel players 
like Leon MacAuliffe, "Little" Roy Wiggins, Jerry Bird, Bud Isaacs, Buddy Emmons. 
Jimmy Day and John Hughey.

Soon, there were several regular bands playing at Lucy. These were "The 
Dixie Bluegrass Boys", "The Wildwood Rhythms", "The Tennessee Gentlemen", 
"Dee and June Franklin", "Jim and Sheila", "The Downhome Grass", and "The Morton 
Twins". The "Dixie Bluegrass Boys" consisted of Doug Cole, guitar and lead 
vocals; Bill Beck, mandolin and vocals; Don Halford, bass fiddle and vocals; and 
Carl Collins, banjo. "The Wildwood Rhythms" consisted of Robert Dickey, 
fiddle, guitar and vocals; his wife Myra Dickey, bass fiddle and vocals; Donny 
Catron, guitar and vocals; Archie Fondren, rhythm guitar, Tommy George, banjo; 
David Bryant, banjo and guitar; Maurice Crouse, clawhammer banjo, and Mack 
Boyd, Dobro. "The Tennessee Gentlemen" consisted of Troy Castleberry, 
mandolin and vocals; Bob Bowen, banjo and vocals; Joe Taylor, electric bass; and 
Steve Barnes, guitar and vocals. "Dee and June Franklin" had DeWitt "Dee" 
Franklin on guitar and vocals; June Franklin, vocals, and usually had other 
pickers, such as Doug Cole, Joe Taylor, Don Halford and others to back them up. "Jim and 
Sheila" consisted of Jim Phillips, guitar and vocals, and his wife Sheila, 
vocals. "The Downhome Grass" consisted of Randall Butler, guitar and vocals; Keith 
Butler, bass and vocals; Roy Blackard, mandolin and vocals; Reggie Williams, 
fiddle; and Carl Collins, banjo. The "Morton Twins" consisted of Greg Morton 
(guitar) and Randall Morton (banjo).

Sometime around the Spring of 1974, it was decided that The Lucy Opry 
should move, because the owner of the building kept raising the rent. He had 
gone up from the original $4 a night to over $8 a night! Therefore, The Lucy 
Opry was moved to another location at 869 Fite Road, where it stayed for many 
years. At this time, the alternating Bluegrass and Country format was abandoned, 
concentrating on Bluegrass only.
 
The early days of Lucy were marked by a spirit of cooperation and 
camaraderie. Every one pitched in and helped. We all set up the sound system, the 
chairs, swept the floors and picked up the trash. At first, we gathered up all 
the folding chairs we could find and set them up before each show, and we 
all pitched in to dismantle everything AFTER each show. Then, we all went 
out to eat! We finally got some old church pews to use for the shows. These 
church pews came from a church building that was being torn down. The pews were 
sawed up to fit in the back of a pickup truck so they could be hauled to the 
building. Our next task was to build a "stage" that would support the numerous 
pickers in the bands and in the on-stage "free-for-all" jam sessions. Sometimes, there 
were as many as thirty people on that little stage, so you can bet that it was 
solid! Peter Smith and some non-picker volunteers, Virgil Leppard and his 
buddy Ronny, built the stage one Saturday morning and it was still there when we 
left. It was just too dang heavy to move!

The open friendliness of the musicians was a major factor in 
encouraging new pickers to develop their skills. Many times a new "picker" would 
approach one of the more established and experienced musicians, to find out how HE 
"did" it. Many of the regular performers, like Carl Collins (banjo), Bob Bowen 
(banjo), Doug Cole (guitar), Joe Taylor (mandolin), Mack Boyd (Dobro), Robert 
Dickey (fiddle) and others spent extra time with beginning musicians to show 
them the various techniques and "licks" associated with that particular 
instrument. An important part of the learning process was the jam sessions in the 
parking lot and on the stage. This is where aspiring pickers were given a chance to 
show what they had learned and were given a little bit of a boost by playing 
on stage, in front of an audience, with the "veterans". A partial list of 
the beginners' names at this time would include Mike Kisner (fiddle), Peter 
Smith (guitar), Paul Copeland (Dobro), Charles Cooke (mandolin), Lucky 
Donahoo (guitar), Tommy Burroughs (mandolin and fiddle), Richard Bailey 
(banjo), Mike Morton (banjo), Randall Butler (guitar), Keith Butler (guitar and 
bass), and David Boots (banjo).

The first band I played with at Lucy was made up of Billy, Terry and 
"Pop" Winsett (Billy played guitar and sang lead vocals, his son Terry played 
mandolin and sang, and his father, "Pop" Winsett played banjo, fiddle and sang). 
I played the Dobro, Reggie Williams played fiddle and Dean Daneworth played 
upright bass. Other musicians who played with us from time to time were David 
Fitzhugh, banjo, and Hal Womble, banjo.
 
Then, we built an outside stage, so that the pickers could play outside 
on nice Spring and Summer evenings. This lasted until the mosquitoes got so bad 
we couldn't stand it, and the show moved back inside, for good. Our next 
"improvement" was to "pave" the parking lot. We actually didn't pave 
the parking lot - what we did was arrange for some waste material from a nearby 
processing plant to be deposited in the yard. This waste material was the 
by-product of a near-by Chromium processing plant. The raw Chromium ore, in VERY large 
chunks (boulders the size of an automobile!), was dipped in an acid bath to 
remove the rock in which the Chromium ore chunks were imbedded. This left a very 
dense waste material that was similar to macadam paving. It was hauled to the 
Fite Road building parking lot via dump truck, deposited, and then spread by 
hand over the grounds, using shovels, hoes, and rakes. This surface did an 
excellent job of keeping the parking lot in good shape when it rained. It was 
intact and in good shape when we finally left several years later.
 
We began to book various professional groups such as Bobby and Sonny, 
the Osborne Brothers; Bill Harrell and the Virginians; and The Nashville 
Grass. These groups were booked for special shows and their shows were opened 
by the various "regular" Lucy groups. The regular Lucy Shows were still free 
admission, with "passing the hat" being the only means of paying the rent, and no 
"Lucy" group was paid for playing a regular Lucy Opry show.

We stayed at the Fite Road location until 1981 or 1982, when the owners 
of the building decided they didn't want us, and so we moved to the Kiwanis 
Club building in the Raleigh area of Memphis. This building, although small, 
had a nice stage and was in fairly good condition, unlike the Fite Road 
location. We stayed at the Raleigh Kiwanis Club until 1983, when we moved to the UAW 
Union Hall, near the International Harvester plant in Frayser (North 
Memphis), where the Opry stayed until January of 2000.
 
This period of time also marked a period of time when Lucy groups 
played many different venues around the Memphis area. There was the Schlitz Memphis 
Music Festival, which took up the entire downtown Main Street area of Memphis 
over a whole weekend. This festival featured area bands and musicians as well 
as nationally-known acts, and was a showcase of Jazz, Blues, Country and 
Gospel Music. Plus, there was plenty of cold Schlitz beer, free for the 
asking. The newly-renovated Orpheum Theatre hosted a series of Country Music and 
Bluegrass performances (sponsored by WMPS AM-680) that included such acts as The 
Kendalls, Ronnie McDowell, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Rex Allen, Jr, Charlie 
McCoy, and Connie Smith. Each performance was "opened" by a regular Lucy Group 
such as The Dixie Bluegrass Boys, The Tennessee Gentlemen, and the Down Home Grass. 
For several years, The Lucy Opry ran a Bluegrass Show at the Mid-South 
Fair. This show featured the local Bluegrass bands and a Fiddle and Band 
Competition, as well as established acts such as Gunilla Hutton, "Nurse Goodbody" 
and Archie Campbell of the popular nationally-syndicated TV show, "Hee Haw". There 
was also the Memphis in May Festival, which included a large, world-class 
Barbecue Cook-off at Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi River. 
Coinciding with this Barbecue Cook-Off, The Lucy Opry ran a Fiddle Championship staged 
at the Orpheum Theatre, just up the hill from the Barbecue Cook-off. Many 
nationally-ranked fiddle players such as J. T. Perkins, Dick Barrett, 
Frazier Moss, Billy Mitchell, Mark O'Connor and Randy Howard competed. Judges 
were professional fiddlers, such as Art Davis, Speedy McNatt and Merle "Red" 
Taylor. This marked a period of time that I call the Lucy "Glory Years".

Some time in the middle or late 1980's, Doug Cole began to do sound 
system work for outdoor bluegrass festivals and the operation of the Lucy Opry was 
taken over by Joe Taylor and Ken Bingham. They ran it for several years, 
until Doug "retired" from the sound system business. During this time, the format 
changed, going from a weekly performance using non-paid performers with expenses 
being paid by passing the hat, to that of professional and "semi-pro" groups 
who were paid by admission ticket sales. The Lucy Opry stayed at the UAW Union 
Hall until January of 2000, when it moved to the Bartlett Performing Arts Center, 
in Bartlett, Tennessee. The last show at the Harvester UAW Union Hall was 
a special one, featuring Randall Hylton and Eddie and Martha Adcock. The "old 
timers" who ran the show for many years, Doug Cole, Joe Taylor, Lewis Gillespie and 
others "retired", turning the operation of the show over to Beth and Will 
Mays. The format was changed even further, finally settling on a more-or-less 
monthly performance, utilizing only paid, professional performers. The 
"amateur" aspect of Lucy has continued under the banner of The Memphis Area Bluegrass 
Association, who sponsor several weekly "picking" events and who also 
help run the show at the BPAC. Regarding these changes, Doug said, "It's in good 
hands".Each performance of the Lucy Opry opens with a filmed presentation of 
the "early days" at Lucy, taken at the old Fite Road site. Doug Cole narrates this 
presentation. It is a fitting tribute to the tradition that was 
established by Doug and the other "pioneers" of The Lucy Opry, and serves as a bridge 
from the present to the past "Glory Days" of Lucy.