The Sons of the San Joaquin and...

The Sons of the San Joaquin didn't have to stop someone on a downtown New York City street and ask how to get to Carnegie Hall and hear the old line, "practice, practice, practice."

No pholks, Joe, Jack and Lon Hannah just got out of the limousine and walked right through the door.

They practiced, actually rehearsed is the proper term, before opening a one-night performance which was the first all western music performance at the prestigious venue in about 50 years.

Although the Sons have performed the world over, the first time at Carnegie Hall certainly was something special. The Tulare County natives did it.

Think pholks, how many major musical groups can boast of a resume listing major world capitals, the Lunda Theater in Black River Falls, WI., Caruthers Fair, in Caruthers, Ca., Mooney Grove Park, Visalia, Ca., USA, the Flat Packing Festival in Winfield, Kan, Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, Strathcona Center in Bow Valley, Alberta, Canada, and Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York? I can't think of one.

The Sons May 30 performance in New York was part of a program honoring the American Cowboy, and, according to Joe Hannah, was the first all western music performance at Carnegie since the Sons of the Pioneers performed about 50 years ago.

"Even Roy Rogers never got to perform there" said Joe, recounting what a thrill it was to be part of such a great event. And, he could not say enough about the grandeur of the theater long touted as one of the world's best. "It was almost like you didn't need a sound system," he said, of the great hall. He used "magnificent" in his overall opinion of the New York venue. The Sons, whose western music have awed the world's population around the globe, opened the show with "The Great American Cowboy" a song written by Jack (Cowboy Jack in the McDonalds commercials). The Sons, one of three western and cowboy groups in the performance, sang eight songs before a packed house.

Thankfully, it was the western music the fans came to see and not some song and dance routine since both Jack and Joe were not up to any hoofing. Jack had suffered a split pelvis in a horse crash and Joe was recovering from back pain from a previous stumble on stage.

Not only did the grandeur of Carnegie Hall impress Joe, but the friendliness of New Yorkers, some something he hadn't expected.

Referring to the reputation of New Yorkers as not the most gracious pholks, Joe said, he was amazed how nice and friendly the New Yorkers they encountered were. "Maybe it's the Sept. 11th thing but it seemed they just couldn't do enough for you," he said.

Just goes to show us pholks, practice and great talent can get you to Carnegie Hall even if you also play the King County Fair in Enumclaw, Wash., and other places without big skyscrapers.

Well pholks, he didn't say it, but I will: Maybe the good old Western Spirit, has something to do with it.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG

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