The Country Gentlemen

By Greg Tutwiler

Guitarist/Vocalist/ Songwriter Charlie Waller is a legend, and so is the band he formed in July1957, The Country Gentlemen. Since then, more than 100 musicians have passed through theranks of the Country Gentlemen, a band that has been at the forefront of innovation and popularityin bluegrass music for 50 years. They were the first band to break away from the traditional moldof the 40s and 50s bluegrass sound. Finding gigs in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area,audiences on college campuses, and making fans at urban coffee houses during the 1960's, theywere among the first of such groups to market their brand of music away from rural areas.

Much talent found the Country Gentlemen a launching pad into long careers in the spotlight of Bluegrass and Americana music. Musicians such as Cliff Waldron, Bill Emerson, and groups likeThe New Shades of Grass as well as The Seldom Scene had their beginnings in the CG. The lateJohn Duffey was a founder and leader of The Seldom Scene along with Tom Gray. Bill Emersonwent on to lead the U.S. Navy Band, Country Current, until his retirement. Doyle Lawson is one ofthe top performers today, fronting his band Quicksilver. Jerry Douglas, Jimmy Gaudreau, EddieAdcock, and Bill Yates, also began as Country Gentlemen. Of course probably the mostsuccessful Gent was Ricky Scaggs, who has risen to super star status in both country andbluegrass music.

And so many great songs originated from Charlie Waller and his bandmates including, “Legend of the Rebel Soldier,” “Bringing Mary Home,” “Fox On The Run,” “Calling My Children Home,” “Waltz of the Angels,” “The Fields Have Turned Brown,” “Matterhorn,” and many others. In 1996 CharlieWaller, Eddie Adcock, John Duffey, and Tom Gray, (now called the Classic Country Gentlemen),were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame.

A Diamond In The Rough
Charlie Waller, the lone original Gent who remained the leader until his death (at 69) in 2004, hadhopes and dreams that someday his son, Randy Waller, and he would share the stage. WhenCharlie died of a mass heart attach on August 18th, 2004, some believed he took the CountryGentlemen flame along with him. His son Randy knew, and set out to prove, that Charlie Wallerhad set the stage for passing the CG torch all the way back in 1975.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been gearing up for this,” Randy Waller, now 47, told me. “Dad toldme in 1975, when the Country Gentlemen had, ‘run its course,’ that he and I would do a duet thinglike Doc and Merle Watson. And that would be the way it would go. My whole life I depended onthat. And, of course, as I could see that the Country Gentlemen weren’t going away, in the back ofmy head, I planned to step up to the plate when the time came.”

So Randy went about his life, playing his own kind of music, having his own turn at a legitimatemusic career, playing with all kinds of artists from Lionel Richie to Richie Havens. “I was on theroad with Johnny Paycheck, Bobby Bare, Mel McDaniel and the like. I got to do a lot of stuff, writea lot of songs; but Nashville is just a very politically oriented place. And by Nashville’s standards, Iwas over the hill. So I had settled into a nice career.”

Play Ball
“I had actually gotten out of music,” Randy told me. “I was moving furniture. But when dadsuffered a stroke in 2000 I found myself between a rock and a hard place. The base player at thetime, Ronnie Davis, called and said ‘your dad’s been in the hospital for several weeks now and theband’s not playing. These guys are professional musicians, and if they’re not playing, they’regoing to look for work elsewhere. I really wanted to jump at the chance. But all my life I’ve heardthings like ‘you’ll never be as good as your daddy,’ and quite honestly, I’d even have to agree withthat. You know, there really was only one Charlie Waller. But in this situation, if I didn’t help himout he was going to lose his band. So I agreed to do it. It was one of the scariest things I’ve everfaced, and it was, at the same time, a sense of I was so happy I could do this for him, and that Ishould be there.”

Randy did the shows for his dad for about three weeks until Charlie could take back the helm.“They went over really well,” Randy said. Ronnie had taped one of his last shows off the soundboard and gave it to Randy. “So Ronnie gave me this tape to listen to. There was one song onthere that was kind of scary actually. It sounded like my dad singing. So I took the tape and put itin my car stereo for Dad to listen to, because it was the only decent one I had at the time. I said ‘Iwant you to listen to this and tell me who is not a Country Gentlemen.’ So he sat there listeningand the first thing he said was, ‘well that’s not Greg.’ I figured he’d say that, because Greg, thebanjo player, missed a lot of the shows due to his job. But it was him.”

Charlie went on through the rest of the musicians, confirming that each was the right guy in hisband. ‘So who’s not the right guy,’ Charlie said. “I said that’s not you singing, that’s me,” Randytold him. “He couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘you can do this, I didn’t know that you could do this.’ Sothat’s when he asked me to come on into the band.” So, in 2002 Randy came on board as anofficial member of the Country Gentlemen, sharing the stage with his dad for two years before hedied.

The Passing Torch Is Lit
Charlie’s dream was realized, and he made good on a 25 year old promise. “It worked out evenbetter than I had imagined,” Randy said. “It worked out where he asked me into the band, and wegot to spend a lot of time riding down the road talking about how I should run the band.” Randyhad grown up listening to the music of Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen. “I had a heroright from the start,” Randy said. And now he was sharing the stage with his hero, preparing forthe day when it would be his turn on center mic. “He told me he had worked very hard to getthings the way he wanted them, and that he wanted me to keep them that way, which I have done,with a few exceptions.”

“My dad was so unique that nobody would ever believe that anybody else could ever do what hedid. So I tended to shy away for that scene. You know, it’s like once Charlie Waller’s done a song,it’s already been done. I did perform some of the Country Gentlemen songs, but I did them myway. But now of course I do my best to do them as close to the way he would have done them.The Country Gentlemen is still his band. Even though he’s not there physically, he’s still therespiritually. And I’m carrying this whole thing on for him. It’s something we talked about for severalyears before he died.”

The New Gentlemen
When Charlie Waller died, the very next weekend the band played three shows. “It was strange,and I didn’t know how people would take it,” Randy said. “But I couldn’t worry so much about whatwould people think. I was more concerned about how my dad would have done it. I was there withhim at my grandmother’s funeral, and he played immediately afterwards. He left to play. And I wasat my grandfather’s funeral, and he left to play. So I knew what my dad would do. You know,everybody was shook up terribly, of course. We knew his health wasn’t the greatest, but we neverthought his heart would get him. We always kind of figured he would be hospitalized for a longtime and we’d have time to sort of prepare, but we didn’t”

So many people said without Charlie Waller there can’t be the Country Gentlemen. “We’ve goneon, and we’ve carried out my father’s wishes, and we’ve proven that wasn’t the case,” Randy said.“I just basically re-formed the CG with people that I felt fit better. And I caught flack for that. Butnow, the band’s better than it’s been for years. It’s not that the other guys weren’t incrediblemusicians, they were. I think they were just bored, or resigned to be Charlie Waller’s back upband. But we don’t have Charlie Waller anymore. I do my best to do his songs honor, but at thesame time, I need pickers who can step out of the shadows and work out the songs with energy.”

“I used to do things differently. Now I have to be more responsible. I want to perform my dad’ssongs in a way that he would be proud. But we do have new material. This is not a tribute band.It’s kind of like what Lynnard Skynard has done. They still play the old Skynard songs, and theystill play them the original way, but they have new songs that Johnny’s doing now. It’s still in thesame vein, but it’s also new. Charlie Waller had a God given talent. His voice was natural, henever worked for it. When he opened his mouth this golden voice came out. For me, I have had towork really really hard to practice and try to emulate a lot of his vocal inflections, but I want to dothat.”

The Country Gentlemen were the first innovators of Bluegrass music. They were one of the firstgroups to change the direction of Bluegrass music. “I’m honored to be carrying on that tradition,”Randy said. “I’m the guy who has to carry this tradition on into the next 25 years. We’re holdingtrue to what my dad did. So I try to be innovative enough to keep the band fresh. I like to say partof Charlie is still up there though, because I’m only 50% mama. His blood is still up there. Thetalent I have came from him. And actually, we do still have an original member in the band, mydad’s old guitar.”