Memory of the old Sho Bud store on Broadway

[Brett Day]

I Uste to Hang Out At The store A Lot. There was girl Worked There Named Kathy I Belive anderson She Called me Vern. Wonder Where She Is Now I Realy Liked Her. & Harry. Shot And All. SONNY.

I think it was Kathy Sacra.

Brett

[David Ball]

Beyond all the pickers that hung out there, the three things that I remember most about Linebaugh's are:

1. When ordering dessert, our waiter would ask, "Do you want some alamode on that?"

2. The turnip greens had big chunks of turnips in them along with the greens.

3. They had a grade D health department rating as I recall. This was primarily due to the fact that the public restroom was in the middle of the kitchen area.

But this would usually be after going to Sho Bud, GTR, and Randy Wood's place and fond memories they are....

[David Griffin]

I thought of one other thing about the old Sho-Bud store: In the mid to late 70s there were racks full of '50s Strats & Teles for $125-$175!! Everybody was playing Gibsons.Man,to go back in time....

[Tracy Sheehan]

I remember it from the first time i worked out of Nashville. Trying to remember if thats where Jeff Newman was working at the time? He worked at some store in that area and used to carry his steel upside down to the opry.
I learned something from that as i carried my steel like that after seeing him do it. Think i recall him telling me to do it that way and wrote about it later. He sure was a nice guy with no ego problem which was very rare in Nashville at the time.My memorey is a little foggy after so many years. Sure helped on those overseas jobs
where we had to play up stairs at times. Tracy

[Jack Stoner]

Andrew, City View used to come in to Little Roy Wiggins store during the day and wash up in the rest room.

I remember the time that City View walked off the top of Tootsies. The report was that after he fell (which wasn't that far) he got up, dusted himself off, and went on.

Bob Browning, who sang on a lot of Jeff Newman's instructional material, worked at the Sho Bud store before he worked at Little Roy's store. I was the amp and steel guitar tech at Little Roy's when I worked there.

[David Griffin]

Other than a couple of months in 1977 I never got to spend much time in Nashville,just stopped by on our way to somewhere else while on the road. The last time I got to see the old Sho-Bud store was approx. 1983. Does anyone know for sure when the store closed?

[Andrew Roblin]

Shot had a stroke in 1983. I went to see him at Baptist Hospital and held his hand. Sho-Bud closed pretty soon after that.

Business had been getting slower and slower at Sho-Bud. I think it ran at a loss in the year or so before Shot's stroke. The mail order department seemed to be doing okay, but I have the impression that sales in the showroom had really dropped off. The second-floor repair department, where Shot spent most of his time, wasn't doing well either. Shot could have cut costs by laying off people, but he didn't. He liked us all too much. And then he had his stroke.

I wasn't there very much by then. Maybe a day or so a week. I had started college in 1980 and was doing some writing for Cash Box and Billboard. That seemed to be my future.

I remember sweeping up the second floor as it was in various stages of being emptied out in--I think--the summer or fall of 1983.

[Charlie St Denis]

Hey Larry
Yes I remember the store in Galliton also. I think
it was in 86'. Last time I seen Katz was in Mytle
Beach around 92' and he was playing an Emmons.
He loved to cook for people.

[David Ball]

Last time I was in there was probably 82 or 83. Business in general in that part of Nashville seems to have been pretty bad by then. Randy Wood had moved out, Gruhn was doing OK, Tut Taylor's shop was across town and building "Tennessee" banjos and dobros and the Ode mandolins (at least I think he was still building them then). But downtown hadn't begun its renaissance yet, and lower Broad was pretty torn up.

Speaking of Tut Taylor though, I remember going to his shop one day right after Jimmy Carter was elected, and he was showing me his newest creation--it was like his "Plickett" dulcimer things that he sold at Opryland and elsewhere, except it was shaped like a peanut. He called it the "Original Peanut." He explained that everybody would be laughing at him all the way to the bank about that one! Visiting Tut's shop was always interesting too...

Dave

[Jimmie Brown]

I also remember visiting upstairs in the sho-bud store about 1974 and dropped my bud off to have some repairs done and met Sonny James coming out as i was going in.Jim Webb worked on the steels while he was off the road in those days.Had some fun the two days i was there down at Tootsie's.I have a 45 record she recorded about all the pic's on the wall and she signed it for me.She was a real nice lady and did a lot for musicians that were down on their luck and broke.

[Jack Stoner]

As I worked for Little Roy Wiggins music store, I also indirectly worked for the Grammer Guitar Co. as the Grammer Guitar Co owner, at the time, Ralph Fielding, was the one that originally hired me as the amp tech and to replace "Carl" (don't remember his last name) who opened his own shop across the street from the original Gruhen Guitar Co store.

Little Roy was President of Grammer, after the Ralph Fielding fiasco, and also at the time the factory had a fire. Tut Taylor bought the "remains" of the Grammer factory equipment and stock.

My Franklin has some Sho-Bud heritage since Paul Franklin, Sr, worked for Sho-Bud and along with Duane Marrs did the "custom" building of Sho-Bud guitars for the "name" Steeler's such as Hal Rugg.

[Kenny Davis]

Just in case anyone doubt's Jack's story:

[Jack Stoner]

Kenny, where did you dig that up?

[Barry Blackwood]

I ordered pork chops at Linebaugh's once - they were more fat than meat ...

[Kenny Davis]

Jack - That card has been in a little basket on my dresser for the last couple of years. Before that, in a picture box for probably 37 or 38 years.

When I was a teenager, my family went to Nashville for a vacation. I'd just started to learn to play steel, and had a new Baldwin crossover. We visited Sho~Bud, and Shot got us tickets to the Opry. I took some pictures of upstairs (including the rare "Big E" keyless)and got one of Shot standing beside me as I sat at a red Professional.

We also went to Little Roy's, and I picked around there as well. Wasn't there an elevated area around the front of the store with steels to play? I guess I got the card there...Didn't realize that the guy who sang on Jeff Newman's stuff was the guy on that business card! I've also got a couple of pictures of your store, including one with Roy. Thought you might get a kick out of the card!

[Jack Stoner]

Kenny, yes as you walked into the store, on the right was a raised area. We kept steels for sale on that area and also did our "shows" from that raised stage area.

We would put on shows on the weekends, with all the visitors to the Opry in town. Little Roy on Steel, Bob Browning doing vocals and me on Rhythm Guitar. We usually had someone on bass and at times a drummer. On Saturday afternoons, Roy would get one of his friends from the Opry to put on about an hour show. I got to work with several of the Opry "stars" including playing rhythm one afternoon for Bill Monroe. We used to have a lot of other jam sessions during the week with frequent pickers such as Odell Martin on lead (he was Faron Youngs lead player at the time) and Doug Jernigan on steel.

We would see a lot of out of town Steeler's, as they would hit both Sho-Bud, across the street, and Little Roy's store. The Ernest Tubb record shop was on the same block and also across the street from Sho-Bud.

[Andrew Roblin]

Jack, thanks for the lore about City View. When did Little Roy's store close? I remember seeing the Grammer Guitar logo on the second floor across from the Sho-Bud repair department. But I think Little Roy's store was gone by the time I came on the scene in April 1979.

About food: I remember the beans and vegetables being okay at Linebaugh's. On the other hand. the burgers and fries at the Merchant's Lunch were very good. Shot and Harry often sent me over there to get cheeseburgers for them.

But for me the most memorable food in the area was at Sho-Bud. That was where I got introduced to cornbread and beans, and I've never had better. Viv's Mexican cornbread--with red peppers, cheese and jalopenos--was uniquely great.

A couple times, we had squirrel with gravy. I recommend it. Every bit as good as rabbit.

Anyway, the lounge often got smelling pretty good around lunchtime. Once as Shot was walking through, I asked him, "What smells so good?"

Shot said, "I farted."

[Larry Miller]

Chris Battis wrote:

I don't guess that anyone remembers a dive in East Nashville called the "Dusty Road"? Some good music happened there, once upon a time...

Hey Chris, I used play there back in the mid-seventies. A guy named "Okie" owned it. Jay Lee Webb, Ronnie Sessions, used to come in there and sing too. The bandstand had a life size sillhouette of a band with a doghouse bass. It is gone now, replaced by the Titans stadium. Do you remember "Camel Country?" How about the El Capitan and the Golden Guitar?

[Jack Stoner]

I don't know when Little Roy's store closed, as I was gone before that. I don't know if it was after Roy's bypass surgery or at the same time the Grammer Guitar co factory had the fire and went out of business.

The Grammer guitar logo stayed on the building for a long time. After the music store, there was a bar in that location. The logo was there until the tornado that hit downtown Nashville and caused damage to the upper floors in that building and the adjacent buildings.

A little prior history of the building that Little Roy's music store was in. Prior to Roy, it was the Nashville "Showroom" for Ampeg, Grammer, Emmons, Altec, Hammond Organs and a couple of other music industry companies. It was also the Ampex "factory repair center". The picture on the rear of the Buddy Emmons "Black" Album of Buddy and Ron Elliot was taken in front of the building.

[Kenny Davis]

Here's a couple of shots at Little Roy Wiggins Music City - The second guitar in the rack appears to be a "Merle Haggard" model with a slotted headstock.



Here's Roy -

[Doyle Weigold]

Somebody mentioned "Demons Den". During D J Convention about the time Boots Randolph had "Yakety Sax" out evidently, there was a sax player at Demons Den. We hadn't been there too long and we heard soebody say, "Get those sheep out of here, this is cattle country". Here came a couple guys and right behind them was "The Big E" with his steel. He got a standing ovation. Never forgot it.

[Bent Romnes]

My only memory of the Sho-Bud store is from Feb,1978.
I was at the Jeffran College for a week-long course. One day we all drove down to the Sho-Bud store(Jeff knew just what to do to make our stay a memorable thing)

As we were walking around in there looking at instruments etc, Jeff took what looked like a $35 acoustic guitar down off the wall, sat down on some stairs and proceeded to play the most beautiful rendition of Classical Gas that I had ever heard. I damn near cried.

[Dave A. Burley]

I lived in Nashville during the sixties. Sure do remember Linebaughs and their fifty cent bowl of stew. I was managing Del Wood from the Opry about then and got her together with Liberace for promotional pictures. DJ Convention and no place to eat. Of all places, I took Liberace to Linebaughs for dinner. He had a $5.00 steak. I'll never forget the ribbing I got back at Tootsie's as they all were standing in front of Tootsie's watching me and Liberace walk right past Little Roy's store and down to Linebaughs. Tootsie never let me forget that. Someday, when time permits, I will relate a few of the hundreds of stories about Marty Robbins, Archie Campbell, Bill Monroe and a few dozen more that used to go to Linebaughs after the Opry.
Wish I could do it all over again.
Dave Burley

[Bobbe Seymour]

Kathy Lynn Sacra asked me for a job as Shot was closing Sho-Budin the summer of '83, I hired her and she was very instrumental in making "Steel Guitar World" successful. She left in '86 to pursue a singing life, (which never happend.)
I credit her for the first of my store years being so good, along with Shot and the sons, David and Harry.
Bobbe b Wonderful people all!

[Sonny Priddy]

Last Time I Saw Kathy Was At Bobbe's Store. Would Love To See Her Again. SONNY.