European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 3, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 16 the stars and stripes monday february. 1986 country boy Skaggs lets Loose Skiggn suit a guitar i Bubuc Syfox staff writer lets see. Ii this is thursday this must  Skaggs seemed confused by it  he was in Ottenbach near Fra Murt just another town on an 11-country country music trek. I m really glad to be Here in pause your country Skaggs the country music association s entertainer of the year had just finished singing crying my heart out Over you to a near capacity crowd of germans Andels. He might be forgotten what country he was in but he did t forget his audience. He opened an envelope on stage. This one s from a a it. What s that and two 2?" his american fans Many wearing cowboys hats netted the military ranks. Skaggs got the message he was playing to people who knew his stuff. Before Leav ing Nashville for his european tour he had said a lot of the records Are not even released Over  he evidently was t talking about this audience. You How Mue Grumt Skaggs asked. Yes Yee Hal the answers came loud and Clear. Skaggs and his seven boys in the band let Loose with wheel Hoss a Snappy instrumental off his country boy album. Skaggs opened the tune playing a mandolin then switched to a guitar. He eventually handled five differ ent string instruments. They weren t just ornaments this boy played Lead. Skaggs who Halls from Cordell. By. Knows some thing about playing. Before he shot ahead As one of the top traditional country singers he shot basketballs for his High school team. The 31-year-old looks like an athlete. At 6-foot-1, 194 pounds he s the biggest dude in the band. He conserves his Energy by stepping out sparingly. He maintains his shape by exercising i jog and do various exercises on the Road Skaggs said after the show. We Don t smoke or do drugs t try to keep my weight Down especially after eating too much Over the  Skagg played � no during his Jan. 23 con Cert. That included three encores before the Selling lights finally switched off the clapping. As usual Skaggs never came close to crossing Over to Rock. He stayed in his kind of country. I think everyone loves cajun music and cajun food he said before jumping into Caun Moon. I m just a guitar picker he Sang amid his foot stomping country boy hit. If you re Gonna cheat on me Don t cheat in our Hometown he Twan ged during his hit Oon f cheat in our Hometown. He made the crowd sing part of Honey open that door one of his biggest hits. On his third encore Skaggs led a hand clapping spiritual called / want to be ready. That was it i wanted to leave y All with a gospel song he said. The next night he would be in Paris. Then in Dublin where he would watch the super bowl and pull for the Chicago bears. On tuesday feb. 4, Ricky Skaggs hits London s Royal Albert Hal he should have his bearings Down by then. The voice of the South by Bill Lohmann United press International from the simple hillbilly Days of Dixie to the current Boom times of the american Sun Belt the South and radio station is grew up together. The history of the relationship Between the sell proclaimed voice of the South indeed its can letters stand for Welcome South. Brother and the Region it helped raise is being preserved in an immense archival collection that includes thousands of phonograph records and other Memorabilia. There was no More room for the records tapes logbooks letters script photographs microphones and turntables that had been accumulating since web first went on the air in 1922 with a meager 100 Watts of Power. It was the first radio station in the Southeast hitting the airwaves lust two years after tits Burgh s Kaka received the nation s first Call totters. Web management decided to Dean out is closets and donate the hems to Georgia state a a Crafty Leav ing the school with a code Cotton unparalleled in the South. "w8b has been the major radio station in this part of the country from the 1920s until  says Christo Pher Ann Paton a Georgia state archivist who directed the Transfer of materials from the radio station to the University Library s special collections department to terms of reflecting and explaining Chure re cords Are a pretty Good Way to do to. You can get insights into the different periods. Someone could come in Here and by going through this collection see the character of web and How it grew Over the years. This collection is amazingly Complete. It would take us years to do something like this from  said Mike Faherty general manager of web we were sitting on a piece of history Here. I thought it was important that we Gat them into an environment where they could be preserved for future generations for their enjoyment and  the collect ton of nearly 55,000 catalogued phonographs runs the Gamut of musical tastes from to Stafford and the pled pipers to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana brass from Johnny Mercer to boy George from the ragtime rascals to Christmas la Tom stars the Star wats ukr tote album featuring the single what can you get a Woodlee for Christmas when he already owns a comb. Said Paton it appears that one had t been played too  there it evidence of a heavy influence of religious and hillbilly music particularly from the Early Days As web mirrored the tastes of the South. Before phonograph turntables became prevalent old logbooks re veal records of local entertainers performing Rva on the air from the web orchestra to Church choirs and amateurs at the piano. The web Bam dance was a showcase for the Best in hillbilly music during the Early 1940s, when Atlanta briefly Laid claim to being the country music capital of the nation. Web gradually increased its Power and its regional Impact. Its growth accelerated in 1939 when Ohio gov. James m. Cox purchased the Atlanta journal and web. As the South grew and became More City sophisticated so too did web. The am station powered up to 50,000 Watts in 1956. Reaching beyond its regional boundaries and across much of the nation after dark and moved its play let toward mainstream popular music. There is plenty of history too. Speeches by Roose velt and Church hot plus the ceremony of the japanese surrender ending world War ii Are preserved on Large Metal discs the forerunners of magnetic recording tape. Web stated Amaul. So Small in tact r was merely an offshoot of the Atlanta journal tort had is thy Broad casting studio in an empty room at the newspaper. Wide the station was physically Small it was an enormous breakthrough for the South to introduced listeners to the strange new world of in Mestafe news and. For a time provided educational programs Spehn bees lectures and storytelling to the Atlanta school system. Web also was viewed As something of a new toy for the masses. Henry Ford the car magnate was so impressed after visiting web in its Early Days that he went Home to Michigan and applied for a broadcasting License. Ford later installed a transmitter in his Highland Park Plant to Supply entertainment for his employees. Paton expects students at Georgia state and other nearby universities As Well As researchers from around the nation to profit from the collection. These things Are Here to be preserved for history he said