~from the March 2012 edition of About Covington to Madison magazine~
The story of Buster Chadwick, a Newton
Co. resident, is a fascinating tale of a man and his music; a very
interesting life that coincided with the development of Country &
Western music as the major, established genre that it would later
become.
Mr. Buster's story starts in Sulphur
Springs, AL in 1929 where he and his Mother lived until his
Grandfather passed away in 1939. Apparently, somebody had mentioned
that you were to shoot a gun three times to honor the recently
deceased. So naturally, to a ten year old boy, this seemed like the
thing to do. He got a gun but actually loaded it twice and then used
a stick to pull the trigger. The gun popped back and knocked Buster
down. As he later said, “It's a wonder I'm alive today.”
He and his Mother would later move to
Rising Fawn, GA and it was there that Buster got his first guitar and
started to develop his love for music and singing. At this time,
there was a show called “The Grand Pappy Show”on an AM radio
station coming out of Tennessee that featured music ranging from Chet
Atkins to The Louvin Brothers. It was this show that would light the
fire of Buster's musical passions. He was also a huge fan of The
Carter Family as well. Soon thereafter, he got his first guitar and
hit the ground running.
He decided to quit school in the 8th
grade in order to pursue music full-time. His first regular gig was
at a venue called the Wagon Wheel where he played every Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday evening making a dollar per night.
During this era, in which Country
Western music really started to get big, you did two things as a
practicing musician. You played as many shows as you could, and you
also would try to get a regular gig at one of the local AM radio
stations. Mr. Buster would join up with an outfit known called The
Koffie Cup Hawaiians that had a regular show on WDOD out of
Tennessee. In addition to the radio show, the group would also play
all over the Southeast opening for the likes of Country legends such as
Roy Acuff, Bob Wells, and Eddy Arnold.
This is a good time for a quick aside.
There's a line in the movie, “The Blues Brothers,” when the
waitress says something like, “oh, we play both kinds of
music—Country and Western.” That's a funny line from a very funny
movie but that distinction is quite real. Country Western, also known
as Country & Western, or Western Swing, is very much a different
genre from Country music. Country is bluegrass- based; Country &
Western is Western Swing-based. Mr Buster will let you know right
quick about that distinction and that he is a Country & Western
man.
But back to our story, after the Koffie
Cup Hawaiians, Mr. Buster did his own thing during the mid to late
1940's playing around the South with a mix of different musicians. At
one show, a young gal by the name of Dottie West opened for him.
In 1949 Mr. Buster got married, started
a family, and decided to get a regular job. He was thinking that he
was done with the music business, but the music business was not
quite done with him. The 2nd act of his musical life
started with a phone call from a group out of Chicago that did sort
of a “Lawrence Welk type of thing.” It paid $100 a week...really
good money at the time. But after a couple of months, Buster just
couldn't stand it anymore—he missed his Country roots. Later, he
would actually join a traveling carnival as a featured musician. He
wasn't able to stomach that for very long either and quit in between
stops in Alabama and decided to walk and hitchhike his way back home.
One night he actually had to sleep with his guitar in a ditch! Now
that's Country!
After a while, Buster got back into
radio doing music with a new group on WATL in Atlanta, GA. This would
start his Georgia connection. It was a pretty good gig and the band
would also tour pretty extensively during this time of the mid to
late 1950's. By the way, the announcer for that station in Atlanta?
Mr. 16 Tons himself, Tennessee Ernie Ford.
By 1960, Mr. Buster figured he was done
with music for good. The time had come, he felt, to concentrate more
on becoming a businessman and raising his family. He loved music but
just felt like he needed to do something more stable to be the father
and husband that he wanted to be.
But...the musical ballad of Buster
Chadwick had another chapter coming down the pike. In the mid 1970's,
after he had done well for himself in the business world and raised a
wonderful family, Mr. Buster decided he had to get the music going
again. He started a band called The Peachtree Playboys that mainly
played political events in and around Atlanta. In 1986 the band was
tapped to do The Wild Hog Supper, the Georgia Legislature's annual
throw-down. This gig would last for 20 years up until just a few
years ago. During one of these shows, Mr. Lester Maddox, the former
Georgia Governor, jumped up onstage and played harmonica with the
band for a few tunes and brought the house down! In 1993 Mr. Buster
was inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame. It was a
great accomplishment for a man who was involved with the genre from
its earliest days.
I truly hope you enjoyed reading this
as much as I did writing it. I just felt like it was a good story
about a good man, and it was one that I wanted to share with you. I'd
also like to thank Buster's lovely wife Linda who helped facilitate
the interview and helped get me the pictures. Until next time...