Ernest Tubb DVD “Thanks Troubadour Thanks”

I love listening to Country and Western music, but can’t stand 98.54361254% of what’s on the radio now days.  (Yes, that’s the exact number, I’ve done the research.  Want to see it?)  I would rather listen to Hank (Williams and Snow) Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers and Ernest Tubb over the current crop of hat acts any day.  So when I had the chance to purchase a documentary about the life and times of Ernest Tubb, I jumped at the chance.  (OK, I didn’t literally jump, but I was real excited to get it.)   “Thanks Troubadour Thanks,” is a great DVD, filled with stories from his family, band members and fellow artists.  Anyone can appreciate his singing drawl, but this DVD brings home some of the personal aspects of the man.  I didn’t know before viewing this, but he helped so many artists get their start with his Midnight Jamboree, a show held after the Opry on Saturday nights.  Artists like Loretta Lynn.  In fact, Loretta said that he deserves a lot more credit for helping artists like her in the early days of their careers.  One of the highlights for me was a story about the Beatles meeting Ernest backstage at one of his concerts.  Apparently, Ringo was a huge ET fan and cut his show short to go see him.  There were also many stories about him helping out all kinds of people, like the time he played for the troops overseas.  Many gave him their home numbers so he could call them when he got home to let the families know they were OK.  He stayed up late into the night, calling all of the families.  See the difference between then and now is that now, the artist would have 15 cameras to record the event, letting everyone know that he cares, and you should buy more records.  ET did it simply because it was the right thing to do.  Porter Wagoner told another neat story.  They were in a big card game and the stakes were getting high.  Porter finally called and ET showed his full house, aces over 8’s.  Porter responded he only had two pair and Ernest started to grab the pot, until Porter let him know that his two pair were nines and nines.  Porter said that ET laughed about that for months every time he saw him.  If you’re a country music fan and want to know some of the history of the music, I would get this DVD.  If you’re a fan of music in general, I would get some of his music in your collection.

So what have we learned today:

-        I take percentages out to eight decimal points when I’m trying to make a point

-        Ernest Tubb is a national treasure

-        and his music will live long after any of us are still on this Earth. 

I’ll give this DVD 2.76354582 out of 5 full houses.