September 24, 2019
Former Statler Brothers tenor in concert Friday at the Rodgers Theatre
The morning I spoke with Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Jimmy Fortune, he was in Nashville preparing for the next leg of his U.S. tour. He is scheduled to perform at the Rodgers Theatre in Poplar Bluff on Friday. It was also the day after Hurricane Dorian ripped through the Bahamian Islands heading toward Florida and the Eastern Seaboard. ...
Amber Hornbeck
The morning I spoke with Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Jimmy Fortune, he was in Nashville preparing for the next leg of his U.S. tour. He is scheduled to perform at the Rodgers Theatre in Poplar Bluff on Friday.
It was also the day after Hurricane Dorian ripped through the Bahamian Islands heading toward Florida and the Eastern Seaboard. Fortune said prayers for the victims of the hurricane and the devastation of the lands were forefront on his mind. He says we can’t question God’s plan, but knows we all need to “feel toward one another” the way God wants us to.
Faith always has been a driving force for Fortune. Growing up in the hills of Virginia, he and his eight brothers and sisters frequently sang together at church.
“It was grab a part and hold on,” Fortune said with a chuckle about the quality of the music his siblings and he made together.
His father played the mandolin in the early days and performed at local square dances on Saturday nights. Fortune noted his dad would let him tag along sometimes on those nights and “give me an old guitar to plunk on ... I thought I was really playin’ but really wasn’t doin’ much,” he said with a laugh.
After staying out so late on those nights, Fortune remembers his mother would “have us repent for us bein’ out late ... with Daddy playin’” by getting everyone up extra early on Sunday morning to go to church. “It was quite a childhood growin’ up, it really was,” he reminisced.
When Fortune was a young boy he found an old guitar in a dump near his home. He recalled it was in rough shape with only a couple of strings intact, but to him it was a treasure.
“Mama and Daddy couldn’t afford to really buy me anything ... we were pretty poor,” noted Fortune.
A turn of events at age 12 would set his future musical career in motion.
“... they (Fortune’s parents) saved up $52 and bought me an old Harmony guitar,” he said, “... I got ahold of that guitar and told my dad, I was gonna make a livin’ playin’ music.”
Fortune’s dad was none too happy his son was choosing the music business as a future vocation, telling the young man he was “crazy” to think a living could be made from a hobby like playing music. Fortune knew his dad was only trying to protect him but the musician still “felt at an early age that (music) was my calling.”
His big break would come during his mid 20s when Fortune was playing music six nights a week on what he calls the “Holiday Inn Circuit” in and around the Virginia area. He held a day job at a local car dealership and would “do a little janitor work on the side” just to get his band in the door of the hotel lounges.
The night before Thanksgiving in 1981, Fortune’s band was playing a gig at a popular Virginia ski resort called Wintergreen. Little did he know, Lew DeWitt, of legendary country music group, the Statler Brothers, was in the audience. After the performance, Fortune says he and DeWitt, one of his musical heroes, struck up a friendship, not knowing if they would keep in touch.
Right after Christmas that same year, Fortune got a call from the Statler Brothers asking if he would fly to Nashville to audition for them as a temporary replacement for DeWitt, who was suffering the effects of Crohn’s Disease. DeWitt had spoken Fortune’s praises to the group after seeing his earlier performance at Wintergreen and subsequently, Fortune was hired.
With his “foot in the door” of the music business, Fortune would spend the next six months singing tenor with the Statler Brothers. DeWitt came back to the group during this time but his stay would be shortened due to his illness. DeWitt told Fortune he didn’t think his health (DeWitt’s) would allow him “do the road” as was expected and encouraged Fortune to fill his spot to become a permanent member of the Statler Brothers.
He had offers pouring in from other record labels during this time but Fortune felt a strong sense of obligation to the group who had given him his professional start. “... they needed me so I’m just gonna hang in there with them ...,” said Fortune.
Fortune spent the next 21 years as a member of the Statler Brothers, penning the group’s second No. 1 hit, “Elizabeth,” on their 1983 album, Today, followed by two more No. 1 hits “My Only Love” (from 1984’s Atlanta Blue) and “Too Much On My Heart” (from 1985’s Pardners in Rhyme). Fortune also wrote the Top-10 hit “Forever” from 1986’s Four for the Show and co-wrote the Top-10 hit “More Than a Name on the Wall” from 1988’s The Greatest Hits. In 2002, the Statler Brothers retired as a group.
Fortune and the Statler Brothers were inducted into the GMA (Gospel Music Association) Hall of Fame on Oct. 29, 2007, and inducted into the CMA (Country Music Association) Hall of Fame on June 29, 2008. Fortune, as a solo artist, was inducted into the Virginia Musical Hall of Fame in 2018.
Since his time with the Statler Brothers, Fortune has forged a lucrative solo career. He spends most of the year performing all over the country and producing new material. His Hits and Hymns album from 2015 was named one of the best selling music offerings in the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain.
Fortune’s latest album, God and Country, was born from his collaboration with gospel music legend, Bill Gaither and producer Ben Isaacs. He said, “This truly is one of the most powerful projects I’ve done.”
According to Fortune, the new album is a celebration of our country, our freedoms, our independence and “the men and women who have put their lives on the line who gave everything for us.” The song list is a blend of well known patriotic songs, hymns, classics and brand new music. Listeners will not be disappointed, said Fortune.
“We’ll take you through an emotional journey” with this album, he added.
As for any plans of slowing down, Fortune said he’s “plannin’ nothing. I’m open ended to what God wants me to do ... as long as He gives me my voice then I feel like He has a reason for me” to keep singing.
Fortune will appear in concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Rodgers Theatre in Poplar Bluff. Tickets are still available and may be purchased online at www.rodgerstheatre.org or www.tickets.claycampbellproductions.com or by calling 1-888-459-8704.
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