Memory of the old Sho Bud store on Broadway

[Dave A. Burley]

Greg, At the time Shot moved to Broadway, everything about Nashville was unreal. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Sho-Bud opened their doors about the time that Jim Reeves died in a plane in Nashville. I remember it being hotter than the dickens when Jim and his piano player, Dean Manuel, went down. We had just lost Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Randy their pilot the year before. Nashville, Tootsie's, Acuffs museaum and lower Broadway never seem to recover from that tragedy. I was there when Patsy and them died and also when Jim Reeves died. Unbelievable the terrible pall that seemed to hang, especially E. Broadway.
It was great to see the steel pickersfrom the Opry start to hang around at Sho-Bud and my favorite watering hole being Tootsie's, dang, Shot's was just a couple door's from Tootsies.. Yes, Greg....It was magical. Loving the steel as much as I did and having the shop right there in my hang-out area. There are lot's of stories that I hope some of the others will post. I mistakenly in an earlier past said that Shot and Delores Smiley were together. It wasn't Delores, it was Donna Darlene who was a pretty good entertainer in her own right.
Dave Burley

[Ray Montee]

I visited Nashville sometime around 1972-1973. After visting the Ernest Tubb Record Shoppe where down thro' the years, I'd purchased many of my steel guitar albums, I walked directly across the street to this nice looking music store.
When you walked in, there was a long glass counter on the left with banjers hanging on the wall behind with overhead lighting, much like a jewelry store. On the opposite wall were still more guitars a hanging.
Toward the rear of the store and up some warehouse type wooden stairs, was a vast aray of virtually every kind of pedal steel guitar one might imagine. The area was somewhat dimly lit and someone was giving guitar lessons further back toward the rear.
I was there for over an hour with cash in hand, wanting a pedal steel guitar to upgrade from my BIGSBY so that I might be able to produce a Lloyd Green kinda sound.
Altho' I had 'that burning desire', no one in the store ever acknowledged my presence nor did they inquire if I wanted to spend all my money.
I've often wondered was THAT Shot Jackson's Store or Wiggins or whose? Can anyone fill in the blank?

[Skip Edwards]

If you crossed the street, it was the Sho-Bud store.

[Jack Stoner]

Ray, that was Sho-Bud. Little Roy's store was on the same side of the street and just up a couple of stores from the ET Record Shop. If memory serves me it was the ET Record Shop, a Pawn Shop, X Rated Movie Theater, Bicycle Shop, Little Roy's Store and on the corner the Music City Lounge.

Edit/Added. I forgot the "Wagon Wheel" bar. I think it was on one side of the X Rated Theater but don't remember which side.

[Dave A. Burley]

I've really enjoyed this thread but I'm a thinkin' that I am about ten to fifteen years older than what I'm reading. I stayed on the corner of 5th and Broad for a short time, above Ma and Pa Freeman's little restaurant. It cost me ten dollars a week. I could lay in my bed and look out the front window and look up 5th on Sat. night and watch the Grand Ole Opry crowds of fan's lined up from the Ryman all the way down to Broadway, past the front of Tootsie's and Sho-Bud and down E. Broad for a couple blocks. A couple doors east of Ma and Pa's was the Music City Lounge and almost next to that and I think between the lounge and Ma and Pa's was Little Roy Wiggins store. There were no peep shows and etc. in those early days, just a bunch of furniture stores and then ET Record Shop. Across the alley east, another large furniture store, a store that is still there today that sells old records and then Linebaughs Restaurant. Right next to Linebaughs was the Merchants Hotel which in the early sixties had a pool hall on the corner that eventually became Julian Tharpes Dee-Mens Den. The only music connected businesses on the other side of the road, the side that Shot's place was at, were Tootsie's, one door west of Tootsie's was the Wagon Wheel, two doors east of Tootsie's was Sho-Bud, next to Sho-Bud or a door or two east was Acuff's museum. I believe that George Jones 'Possom Holler' was just east of Acuff's and upstairs. I know this is long but when it comes to the sixties and seventies magic of Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry, I just cannot shut up. I was as poor as the street people but was enjoying life as if I had a million dollars in my pocket. I know that sometime during the sixties, Neal Flanz came to town and worked a short time with Charlie Louvin. I believe that it was in Shot's place that I met Neal and found out Charlie needed a front man. A new guy had just came to town, a great singing bass player, and I arranged through Neal to have this guy audition for Charlie. Charlie hired him on the spot and this guy, wish I could remember his name, went from a City View type person to riding in Charlie's bus. This audition took place in the display area of Sho-Bud. Long enough.....
Dave Burley

[Roy Thomson]

I visited Nashville in 1979 and met
Shot upstairs in his work shop.
2pics attached. He was apleasure to talk to.
Anyone know the guy in the background?

[Andrew Roblin]

Roy, from one Canadian to another, thank you very much for posting your pictures.

That's Shot as I remember him best, looking just as I knew him 1979-83.

That fellow behind him is working in the spot I later occupied, stripping and sanding instruments and the back plates of the ever-controversial Frypans.

Shot had a particular fondness for Canadians. Donna's records did well there, for one thing. And he enjoyed his friendships with Bob Lucier, Neil Flanz and other Canadians.

Shot used to call me a "snowback."

Thanks again, Roy. Your photos really mean a lot to me.

Andrew Roblin
International Sho-Bud Brotherhood
Member #79

[Roy Thomson]

Andrew, thanks for the response.

You made me realize that my photos above were
taken in 1979 which was my second trip to Nashville.
So I got it wrong in my original post and edited
changing from 1970 as was originally stated.

My 1970 trip I went to the Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame..those were the highlites.

All the best.

Roy

[robert kramer]

Here are photos taken at the Sho-Bud store for the 1971 LP: Shot Jackson/Buddy Emmons "Two Aces Back Together: Picks the Famous Sho-Bud Guitars." (K-ARK 6028)

[Bob Blair]

It's a wonder if anyone is getting any work done since this thread started! Great stuff. Thanks for all the pictures and stories. I was in that store in the later 70's, but can't remember much about it - I desperately wanted a better steel at the time but had no money to buy one with while I was there. That was when Chalker and Bryant were holding court at the Hall of Fame Motor Inn. There were still glitzy/cheesy-looking supper clubs in Printer's Alley back then. I thought Nashville was about the greatest place in the World.......

[Dave A. Burley]

Shot used to frequent the Hall Of Fame Motor Inn. Especially the restaurant part where anyone and everyone would meet every day except the week-ends. Phil Baugh was playing in the club which was hooked on to the restaurant. I was promoting the Cavalcade Of Guitars in Dallas with the jazz guitarists and the great pedal steel pickersShot had ritten a song, I've forgotten it now, and asked me to consider recording it in Dallas with Les Paul....
Shot also asked me to consider using him on that jazz concert in Dallas.
The Hall Of Fame Motor Inn....yes, having coffee with Dale Evans, Boxcar Willie, the Kiss band, Peter Frampton and dozens of others. They didn't know me but I sure did know them. Sure is nice to be old at times and having all of those great memories. Curly, Julian, Johnn Gore and Jimmy Bryant...........
Dave A. Burley

[Doyle Weigold]

I just noticed this thread was getting down to the bottom. Thought I'd bring it back up in case anybody had some more stories or pictures. Doyle

[Dave A. Burley]

Did you ever stop to think about all the steel pickers that were living in Nashville in the mid-seventies? Gees........Shot Jackson, Julian Tharpe, Buddy Emmons, Curly Chalker, Lloyd Green, Doug Jernigan, Hal Rugg, Weldon Myrick, Mike Jones, Paul Franklin, Jimmy Crawford, Russ Hicks, Don Helms, John Hughey,Little Roy Wiggins, Pee Wee Rogers, a main stay at Julians place and I shouldn't have started naming names. Who's Who in the steel guitar world was there.....Johnny Cox picked up his guitar at Shot's and went across the street to Julians and picked for about two months without quitting. Johnny had to dodge all the ladies of the night and day, Muscles, Big Junior, Sucking Sue, Broadway May, Bill Dudley and even Doug, the old man that always wore a long overcoat that was full of pints of moonshine that could be had for a price. Remember him Johnny? I can't help it....the memories keep coming back.'
Dave Burley

[Ken Byng]

Johnny had to dodge all the ladies of the night and day, Muscles, Big Junior, Sucking Sue, Broadway May,.......the memories keep coming back.'
Dave Burley

^^^^^^Edited for non Sho-Bud related comment.^^^^^^

[Joe Finley]

Bas
It is good to see the ShoBud pics. I worked for ShoBud in Conway in early 80s. The person that is thought to be Katz looks like Yasu. Shot took him in during Nashville times. He came to Conway and then moved to DeQueen. He was a great player and taught me alot about building. Everytime I flip over a Shobud and see the split foam between the rods I think of the times I stood beside him and he would show me how it was done. His father became ill and he returned to the old country. He was not able to come back to the states. Maybe some of the folks that were there could tell you more.

[Dave A. Burley]

I believe that Shot's partner, Donna Darlene, was married for a while to Rusty Kershaw. They had a couple kids. Does anyone know if those boys are in the entertainment business or their whereabouts?
Dave Burley

[Greg Wisecup]

Bump!!!!!

[Andrew Roblin]

Donna was married to Doug Kershaw. One of their sons worked for a while at the store at the same time as me, around 1982.

I'm sorry to say I don't know his name or where he is now.

Andrew Roblin
International Sho-Bud Brotherhood
Member #79

[Tommy Minniear]

Andrew,
His name is "Doug". They called him "Dougie" and I just recently heard he was driving a flatbed semi-truck for McElroy Trucking out of Cuba, Alabama. I remember him working over at the old factory when they were building custom buses after the Sho~Bud days.
What a golden era the "Sho~Bud Days" were! All of us who lived within reasonable driving distance of Nashville, made the trip and stood in awe of our heroes or purchased steels and accessories to try and immulate and immitate them.

[Andrew Roblin]

Thanks, Tommy.

I'd forgotten that Dougie worked for David's bus-customization business.

It really was a golden era--even for those of us who weren't then into steel guitar, like me.

One of my jobs was refilling the soft-drink machine in the showroom. Soon after I started, Harry told me I could help myself to a cold drink when I wanted to. It sure was nice to have a grape soda to cool my throat after an hour sanding instruments in the heat of summer.

It's nice to remember Harry's generosity. But once in a while there was a price...

One December, Shot brought me out to a fish fry at his place in Mount Juliet. His family and he were living in a trailer while their house was being built. Shot said he had trouble with a bad neighbor who shot at people who trespassed onto his property.

Shot put me to work outside the trailer scaling the fish, pulling them out of a tub of cold water. It was a cold, grey afternoon, and my hands got cold, numb and cut up as the afternoon faded into night.

After a while, Shot handed me an axe and asked me to cut him down a Christmas tree in the woods between his place and his neighbor's. I was happy to have a break from scaling those damn fish,, and I tramped off with the axe. Man, those pine trees were scrawny and brown. They didn't look at all festive.

But I found the best one I could and began hacking away at the base.

Then I heard a couple of gun shots.

I finished chopping down that miserable little tree and dragged it back to Shot's trailer.

When I got there, Shot was holding a gun and laughing.

[Rex Thomas]

HAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jon Logan]

Many years ago I found this menu from Roy Acuff's Kitchen upstairs at the Sho-Bud shop. Anyone have information on its origin ?
[/img]

[Jack Stoner]

There was once a Roy Acuff fast food restaurant. Probably from that.

There were also Minnie Pearl and Hank Williams Jr fast food restaurants, too. One of the Hank Williams Jr's was on 5th, across the street from the Ryman.

[Greg Wisecup]

Here's a couple. Out the back of the Ryman and into the back of Tootsie's! What tales could be told from that little walk.............

[Dave A. Burley]

If those stairs could talk. Those were the stairs that I walked up in 1963 with Tootsie the first time I was allowed backstage at the Opry. We walked in and the first thing I saw was the long slanting hallway that led to the stage. As my weak shaking knees carried me down the hallway I looked up to see Hawkshaw Hawkins on stage. What a fantastic memory for me. Basically still a kid loving the Grand Ole Opry for years and here I am backstage. As I walked back towards those stairs, I met Mac Wiseman in that hallway. He nodded at me and I think I my legs almost bucklede. One of my favorites nodding to me as if he knew me. I continued walking up the hallway, full of pride, past Flatt & Scruggs warming up and back down those stairs and over to Tootsies just across the alley. The memories of that first year are just absolutely fantastic. That was the year just before Shot moved his operation to Lower Broadway.
Dave Burley