Video, photos and text by Douglas John Imbrogno | westvirginiaville.com | oct17.2024
The thing that outsiders steeped in the usual West Virginia stereotypes will never know, unless they come and visit with a well-traveled guide, is just how frequently and repeatedly some kind of wonderful thing happens in the state. I mean this both as a pun — given who is featured in the video above — and an actual truth. The video bears witness to one such happening. It’s a cellphone showcase of an impromptu harmonic convergence with a soul and blues legend, in a tattoo shop on a back street in one of West Virginia’s bigger cities (although none of them are all that large).
John Ellison hosts the ‘Wallace Horn Friendly Neighbor Show,’ while keeping a busy recording and performance schedule worldwide. | Photo by Douglas John Imbrogno | october2024
West Virginia native John Ellison, is best known for his classic R&B tune ‘Some Kind of Wonderful,’ a classic which more than 50 artists have recorded, making it one of the most recorded songs in music history. (Ellison’s original version peaked at number 91 in the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1967, while a cover by American rockers Grand Fund Railroad reached number 3 on the same chart in 1974.)
At age 83, the singer-songwriter keeps an active, international performance regimen, singing out and recording in the Netherlands, as well as Italy, France and beyond. Hear his recent large-band version of his most famous tune off his 2024 album named after ‘Some Kind of Wonderful,’ a recording nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana album.
As heard in the excerpts of the two songs in the video above, his songwriting skills and voice remain top-tier. Given how long and well he has been channeling the music of the spheres, I should not have been surprised at his age when I learned of it while writing this post. But it did give me a doubletake, given his unalloyed joy, exuberance, and killer singing chops from a guy now in his ninth decade. This is how to age well and sweetly, in tune with the spirit.
As if Ellison’s transatlantic performing and recording schedule were not enough to keep an 80-something on his toes, the performer regularly pops back into his home state to host ‘The Wallace Horn Friendly Neighbor Show,’ a radio program that has been continuously broadcast on West Virginia airwaves since 1967. As the show’s Facebook page notes, its mission is to present: ‘West Virginia music by folks coming together lifting up West Virginia, featuring West Virginia artists.’ The radio show has a cool backstory, as noted in the excerpt below from a Goldenseal magazine profile of Wallace Horn while he was still alive.
Wallace Horn of Chapmanville, W.Va., was the original host and producer of the Friendly Neighbor Show for more than 40 years. | Photograph by Michael Keller.
Horn sold musical instruments, repaired radios, and eventually took in television sets at his ‘Horn’s Television Repair Shop’ in the small Logan County town of Chapmanville. What began as a 15-minute radio program to advertise his TV-fixing mojo expanded into an hour-long show by 1970, as the Goldenseal profile notes, including the creation of a house band featuring Melvin Goins, Porter Wagoner, and Paul “Dunk” Farris from 1967 to 2012.
“The business came first. I started a 15 minute program to advertise my own merchandise and to let people know I was in the business,” Wallace [told Goldenseal]. “The lady who was my secretary, her brother was a good guitar player, and she sang. Billie Midkiff, one of the boys who helped me start the show, played the mandolin. So, we all got together with a bunch of the boys, some of the people that worked for me, and did a 15-minute show …”
The show lasted and lasted, adding lots more minutes and many more performers, including visits from national and international acts such as Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Horn, who served as both host and recording engineer, hosted from 1967 to 2012. He was succeeded by beloved West Virginia singer-songwriter Elaine Purkey, host and creative director from 2012 to 2020, before her untimely passing that final year during the initial height of the COVID epidemic.
‘Friendly Neighbor Show’ host John Ellison chats with lead singer Salem Carlton and bass player and vocalist Kyle Vass of the West Virginia-based band Pet Bandana. | thestoryisthethething.com photo | october2024
In recent years, John Ellison stepped up to host, an artist once memorably described as “one of the few remaining soul and blues legends that have made an essential contribution to the development of blues, gospel, soul and funk music in a time of great social change.” Ellison is a regular performer at the Nice Jazz Festival in France, and also performs regularly throughout Europe, Asia and North America, as a Wikipedia profile notes, . In October 2015, he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Jeff Bosley and his wife Victoria keep the home fires of The Wallace Horn Friendly Neighbor Show burning. Here, he mans the recording and mixing board at an Oct. 14, 2024, live show recording at Prestige Tattoo and Piercing and Fine Jewelry in Huntington, W.Va.
In recent years, the radio show — now recorded and managed by Jeff and Victoria Bosley — has been recording in locales other than its birthplace in Chapmanville, W.Va., hopscotching around the state. Says Victoria in a text exchange: “The Friendly Neighbor Show is promoting local businesses, while showcasing and promoting West Virginia artists, through the tradition of community gatherings, broadcasting, and now an online presence.”
On Oct. 14, 2024, the show landed at Prestige Tattoo and Piercing and Fine Jewelry in downtown Huntington. The recording featuring the West Virginia-based ‘cowpunk’ trio Pet Bandana; Marshall University classical guitar students Matthew Brumfield, and Nathan Fields; plus musicians Gaby Thomas, Dale Blankenship, and Mark Smith. Given the nature of West Virginia — which seems less like a state and more like a series of small, interconnected villages sprinkled across hills and hollers — the owner of Prestige, Anthony Watts, described his own family connection to Wallace Horn’s long-running creation on Prestige’s Facebook page after the Oct. 14 recording:
“It was a pleasure having ‘The Wallace Horn Friendly Neighbor Show’ record at the shop. They’re doing amazing work showcasing the incredible talents of local West Virginia musicians. It was especially significant for me to be able to host them in my studio because my wife’s grandfather, Harry Hunter, who is no longer with us, my wife’s uncle Bill Hunter, and my father-in-law Chris Hunter, have all been on the show in the past.
During the proceedings, Ellison picked up a borrowed Martin and — after a brief group rehearsal of his tuneage — led an impromptu jam built around his songs “I Get More Bang for My Buck” and “If I Had Just One Wish.” Take a listen in the video above. Follow the links below for more of his music, as well as the links to this ongoing showcase of West Virginia-based musicians, featured in one of the country’s longest running live music audio programs.
Some of the performers and guests who attended, harmonized, played and/or made things happen at Monday’s night’s “Friendly Neighbor Show” recording. | IMAGE courtesy of Prestige Tattoo and Piercing and Fine Jewelry.
P.S.
Given the aggressive tenor of the times in which we live, it is worth sharing “The Friendly Neighbor Show” motto, which has been broadcast out into the ether for more than a half-a-century: “The best way to eliminate your enemies is to make friends out of them.”
Plus, below is one flavor of the musical-historic function the “Friendly Neighbor Show” has served in documenting the sounds and stories of West Virginia. The song recorded below, titled “Black Water Rollin’,” was written and performed live on the show seven years ago by Chris Hopson and commemorates his two sisters who died in the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster in 1972, which killed 100 people and injured 1,000 more.
HEAR MORE of JOHN ELLISON’S MUSIC:
www.johnellisonmusic.com
THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR SHOW with host JOHN ELLISON
The show can be found online at WVOWRADIO.com; on FACEBOOK; and at FM101.9 and 1290 AM. New shows air 8:30 am SATURDAYS. Check out their ongoing Soundcloud listing of shows, as well.
JAMMING with JOHN ELLISON