THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605250039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 112 lines
TAKE A CLUTCH of heavy-hitting country music songwriters sitting around a cottage in Nags Head, N.C., watchin' the wind-swept dunes, tossing waves and flaming sunsets on the fabled Outer Banks.
Let 'em shuck off their shoes. Toss 'em an old guitar. Then put a bottle on the table.
Once they start winkin', plinkin', drinkin' and thinkin', anything can happen.
What happened was an album celebrating the Outer Banks of North Carolina written by Billy Edd Wheeler (``Jackson'' and ``Coward of the County'') and Paul Craft (``Dropkick Me Jesus'' and ``Brother Juke Box'').
Of course they didn't write the en-tar album. They got a little help from their friends. One was Chet Atkins. You know Chet, the most-recorded solo guitarist of all time.
And from Ken Mann, a radio-station owner - and songwriter - from Wanchese, N.C. Mann wrote a few lines himself, urged the others on and did the groundwork for Wheeler and Craft's company - Kitty Hawk Records - which is producing the album.
The album - to be released sometime this week on tape and CD - is ``Songs and Legends of the Outer Banks.''
Represented on the album are: The Wright Brothers, the life-saving Midgetts of Chicamacomico, Whalebone Junction, lighthouses, Buffalo City, Outer Banks ponies and commercial fishermen.
The standout song is so lilting and memorable that you may be able to hear it on the radio some day, whether you're in Nags Head or Seattle.
It's called ``My Heart Will Always Be in Carolina.'' It has a nice beat, an easy, barefooted style, and is as sweet as Carolina jas mine. I've been humming that song since I first heard it. Goes like this:
My heart will always be in Carolina,
Although across this country I may roam,
My heart will always be in Carolina,
In my sunny, seaside Carolina home.
I went away one day to find my fortune,
Greener grasses lured me way out west,
But all the while a sweet voice softly called me -
Back to those Outer Banks that I love best.
How did this album come about anyhow? I phoned good ol' Billy Edd Wheeler at his mountain digs in Swannanoa, N.C., to find out.
``I've been going down to Nags Head to fish for many years. . . . Got hooked on the place early on,'' Wheeler said. ``I first went down there because Chet Atkins - my strummin' and golfin' buddy - has a daughter - Merle Russell - that lived down there for a long time.''
Wheeler said on one of his visits to Nags Head, Ken Mann asked him to do a radio interview, and they became friends. In time, Paul Craft, a well-known country-western songwriter from Nashville, was invited down for some fishing, too.
``Ken was always around, and during a hurricane. . . , he suggested we should do some songs on the Outer Banks,'' Wheeler remembered. ``I said `That's a great idea.' Ken is related to the Manns over at Mann's Harbor, N.C. I told him to do some research on the Wright Brothers, the ponies, lighthouses and stuff like that. And to come up with some song titles. And that I'd check with Paul.''
Mann, Craft and Wheeler got together in November of '95 at a Nags Head cottage to begin work.
``Ken brought over an armload of books on the Outer Banks,'' Wheeler recalled. ``One of the obvious themes seemed to be the Midgetts. So we tried that first, with Paul doing the guitar. . .
``I was thinking up lyrics. And Ken was standing up doing riffs on a portable piano keyboard. First thing you know we practically had a song on the Midgetts.''
Craft and Wheeler sometimes met in Nashville to continue their work on the project, Wheeler said.
And how did Chet Atkins get involved?
``He got into the project because he came over to my place in Nashville to take a walk and tell me his latest joke.
``When he walked in I had my guitar in hand and said, `I've got a riff here and I don't know what to do with it.' And he took the guitar and strummed it and said `Maybe here's what you want to do.' It sounded real good.
``Then he asked me what I was working on. I told him a song about a Yankee who meets a girl at Whalebone Junction. The girl is a waitress at the Tail of the Whale and fills her dress like the wind in a sail, I told him.
``And Chet said `Well maybe I'll help you work on it.' And he did.''
The album was recorded by by some of Wheeler and Craft's friends in Nashville who are professional musicians.
``I See A Light (A lighthouse light)'' is the sort of thumping number to set hands clapping and feet stomping at a revival meeting. But ``Step Lightly on the Earth'' is a gentle prayer for protection of the environment set to soft music.
Those who know that the severed head of Blackbeard was once placed atop a creek post in Hampton should enjoy the unbeatable cleverness of the opening lines from ``The Legend of Blackbeard,'' recited in a deep baritone:
What's that up ahead. . . a head?!
What in the hell have we here?
Most of the album's numbers were a collaboration, Mann said.
``It's like catching a mess of fish, putting them in a pail and trying to figure who caught what,'' he said.
There are two versions of ``My Heart Will Always Be in Carolina'' on the album, reflecting the trio's belief that the state is, well, special. Discussions are already under way with a number of big name country singers about recording that and several other songs, Mann said.
Tapes and CDs can be ordered from Kitty Hawk Records, P.O. Box 431, Wanchese, N.C. 27981. Cassettes are $9.95 and CDs are $14.95. (Add $2 for postage and handling.)
``Those boys - Wheeler and Craft - could have done this all without me,'' Mann said. ``I sure know that. But I'm just beaming with pride. . . .''
Next thing you know, Mann might be buying a house in Nashville. But my guess is that his heart will always be . . . you know where. ILLUSTRATION: Color Staff illustration by Janet Shaughnessy
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