Willow Springs, Mo. – Ozark Radio News sat down to talk to Wendel Bailey about the upcoming Doo Wop concert at the Star Theater in Willow Springs. The concert is on Friday, February 18, 2022 and has been set up as a benefit for the Theaters work-in-progress renovations. In the interview, Wendel talks to us about the performers, and shares his excitement about the upcoming event.
(Transcript Below)
Dan:
This is Dan here from Ozark Radio News and I’m here talking to Wendell Bailey about the doo-wop concert that’s getting ready to happen in Willow Springs.
Wendel Bailey:
And we’re happy to be here.
Dan:
Yeah, honestly, you’re really excited about this event. I’m loving the energy that you’ve got about this. So what’s this about?
Wendel Bailey:
Well let me tell you where it came about. We were watching national public television, and they do those series of old-time music, and they were there with Mel Carter and Hold Me, and The McGuire Sisters and Sincerely, and Jane and I were listening and we said, “Hey, we ought to do that as a benefit for The Star.” So we call it Doo Wop. Doo wop is where the old doo-wop groups went, “Doo wop, doo wop, doo wop.”
Dan:
Yeah, the classics.
Wendel Bailey:
Uh-huh.
Dan:
Yeah, I understand. You’ve got a lot of artists that you signed up for this as well.
Wendel Bailey:
10 people have come forward and said, “We’ll do doo-wop for you”. And they bring their own brand of doo-wop. But Carl Fetro is rockabilly legend. He is actually big in Europe and he’s a West Plains guy and he’s going to do a Elvis Presley, rockabilly star show, kick it off on the show. And then we have Charlie Nelson, who’s going to do the classic out there, Unchained Melody. You remember that from Top Gun?
Dan:
I think I’ve even seen it in some of the music logs here and everything too, we play it for people.
Wendel Bailey:
Uh-huh. Unchained Melody is a classic and we’re doing Sincerely, “Oh, you know how I love you, I’ll do anything for you.” Jackie Kimbrough’s doing that. That was the McGuire Sisters from the ’40s. We’re bringing back all these top notch, old time music.
Dan:
Big performances.
Wendel Bailey:
Uh-huh. And we have 10 of those lined up, and it’s a benefit for The Star Theater, which is our old-time theater in Willow Springs. And it’s absolutely free, there’s no charge. You can make a donation to The Star if you want to. But if I can, while we got you here, Rod Cash is going to do Summertime Blues, Sharry Lovan’s, going to do “All of me, why not take all of me?” You’ll have to forgive me.
Dan:
Go for it. I think they’re loving it. [crosstalk 00:02:42]
Wendel Bailey:
Alan Sullivan’s going to do Over the Rainbow as a banjo solo.
Dan:
I like that song personally.
Wendel Bailey:
Over the Rainbow. And Brandon Corson is a pianist and he’s going to play Autumn Leaves, which is a Roger Williams piano solo from the ’50s. And then Curtis Good is a trumpet prior, a trumpeter, I guess you could call them. And his favorite is, “cherry pink and apple blossom white, da da da da da da da da,” so David Richardson’s going to do “hold me, hold me, hold me in your arms until you’ve told me.” Then Jake Cummings is a percussionist, he’s a drummer and he’s going to do Wipeout. And then Wendy and Ed Cline are coming in to close the show up with a Patsy Cline review.
Dan:
Yeah. Patsy Cline is very popular.
Wendel Bailey:
And Wendy is an expert, real fantastic. And this is all on the 18th of November. It’s seven o’clock at night. We expect this will be about a two hour show.
Dan:
Eighteenth of when, exactly?
Wendel Bailey:
February.
Dan:
February.
Wendel Bailey:
Did I say March?
Dan:
November, actually!
Wendel Bailey:
Well, that’s a good month, Dan. No, we had it scheduled for the 4th of November and we got that snow and ice storm so we canceled and came back on the 18th of February. And so we’ve got time for people to get their Ps and Qs straight and get to The Star Theater at seven o’clock and we anticipate this is going to be a great show. People tell me they’re coming.
Dan:
I plan on going. I’d like to see how this turns out. I personally feel that we should have some more development, as far as the theaters in our area. We’ve got a lot of locations that have just gone unused for a long time, and performance, and music has got a rich history in the Ozarks, but we don’t take advantage of it.
Wendel Bailey:
Our Star Theater is multifaceted. That means we have ballet, we have bluegrass, we have country music now with doo-wop, we’re getting the full spread here.
Dan:
Really covering your bases.
Wendel Bailey:
A lot of different talent. I’m excited about this show.
Dan:
Yeah. I’m excited about it too. I really do want to go see this. So it’s free of charge so people can just go in. They can make donations to the theater.
Wendel Bailey:
If they want to. One fellow already wrote us a check for $1,000. So that puts us over the top. It’s a great fundraiser. If we don’t make any more money than that. That’s great.
Dan:
That’s huge. That’s great. It really shows the enthusiasm that everybody’s got about this as well. It’s also supposed to be popping up, like you said, February 18th at 7:30, right?
Wendel Bailey:
It’s seven o’clock.
Dan:
Seven o’clock. Seven o’clock on the dot. There we go.
Wendel Bailey:
That’s better than March or November that we mentioned before.
Dan:
A lot better. I would say you might not have to do so much waiting in that case.
Wendel Bailey:
We really appreciate the radio world helping us get the news out because that’s always a hard job. Letting people know what’s going on. So we’re doing this for a benefit for The Star Theater and we anticipate that we’ll be able to get some paint and some fix-up, shape-up, do some things and help us with our Star Theater renovation.
Dan:
Right. And you hear some people around here talking about how there’s not a lot to do, but we’re here telling you about something that you can do right now. And it seems like it’s going to be a really, really good concert and it’s free of charge. So anybody who’s in the area, if you don’t even necessarily live in Willow, drop by, check it out. It can’t hurt.
Wendel Bailey:
Main Street, Willow Springs, Missouri.
Dan:
Thank you very much for talking with us about this Wendell. It seems like it’s going to be a really great concert.
Wendel Bailey:
Thanks so much for your air time. We appreciate that.
Dan:
Yeah. You’re very welcome. And you have a great day, okay?
Wendel Bailey:
Thanks.
