It Started With a Dare

By Marie Norway

A memoir by Marie Norway of her 20 years in country music.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943612550

Book preview

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

When I was growing up in the 1960’s, I loved pop music. Brenda Lee and Connie Francis were my favorites, but once I got interested in country music, I started learning songs by country singers that I liked, such as: Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Pardon and Patsy Cline. My parent’s generation told me that I sounded like Teresa Brewer and Brenda Lee. But I’m guessing my style was just a combination of all my favorite singers and songs.

It is hard to believe now how much was going on in the world at that time. We had been through years of the Vietnam War and were still fighting there. John and Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. The draft was still with us, and some boys I went to school with had been hurt or killed in the war. People were fighting for civil rights, rioting in Detroit and protesting against the war, while free love and communes were springing up all over the country. But in my little world, I was taking a leap of faith to try my hand in the music business so that maybe one day, I would have the money to send my boys to college and give them a good life.

With only a high school education, my career opportunities were limited. In 1973 I was working in a factory in Cavendish, Vermont, packaging those hot, shaving cream machines, but I was also singing Friday and Saturday nights. I took home $64 a week from the factory job and paid $40 for child care. I made $60 on the weekend singing and paid $10 for child care. It was hard to keep up that pace; I had to make a choice.

So I stepped out there and went for the music business. Before long I was working four nights a week and doubling my income. Truthfully I was just an inexperienced country girl and had no idea what I was getting myself into.

PART ONE

THE EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER 1

Breslau Hotel in Kitchener, Ontario Canada

If something CAN go wrong…..

We were stuck at the border, waiting. We’d never had a problem crossing into Canada before. After being on the road for 400 miles, about eight hours, and not having stopped to eat, we were tired and hungry. What was the problem? We had come from Rochester, NY, to the Canadian border heading to the Breslau Hotel in Kitchener, Ontario, for a job there – but we were stuck at customs in the little town of Derby Line, Vermont.

After a two-hour wait, Canadian Customs decided they required a large deposit before letting us cross, and they confiscated all of the albums and T-shirts we had to sell. They wanted to assure we would not be selling or buying anything in Canada unless we declared it.

I had to wire my agent to see if he would send us the money to continue our trip. Meanwhile we had to spend the night in Derby Line, a very small town with not much going on. We searched around for a place to eat, and found this little hole-in-the-wall café. The menu was limited, but we were hungry and ordered some burgers and fries.

Waking up the dead (uh, town)

A few people were sitting at the bar quietly, watching TV. One of our guys in the band, had just bought a new harmonica, and he played this thing all the time. While we were waiting, he took it out and started playing one of the songs we had been rehearsing.

Then don’t you know, the guitar player went out to the van and brought in his acoustic guitar and started to play too. Before long the drummer was doing riffs on the table. The people there didn’t mind and seemed to enjoy it. By the time we finished our meal we had a bass guitar as well.

About this time I was in on it too! We were singing and playing, and soon everyone there joined us and we were taking requests! This went on for hours!

We all had a great time! When we were leaving one of the men said, "When I leave here tonight I am going back to my barn and split logs, and I will be thinking about this evening. I don’t even know who you are, but I thank you so much for entertaining us tonight. I will never forget you.

It was like something right out of a movie.

You know what; I will never forget it either!

When Western Union opened the next morning, we went on our way. The hotel job went well. When we came back across the border, we had no problem except that we never got our money back, and they kept the albums and T-shirts too. Hope someone enjoyed them!

CHAPTER 2

The Hillbilly Ranch, Boston, MA

thank God for straws

Time to hit the road again heading for Boston and the Hillbilly Ranch.

The Hillbilly Ranch was a run-down country night club, but if you sang country music in New England in the 70’s, it was the place to perform in Boston. The history of this old place went back for decades, but I was pretty disappointed when we arrived there for the first time. The place was grimy and smelled bad -- like stale beer, smoke and cheap perfume. We would never eat there and thank God for straws! Luckily there were some good sandwich shops nearby.

introducing the band

We had a terrific band – with only three musicians and a lead singer, (me), we had wonderful four-part harmony. Jerry Fox, the stage manager, played bass, sang lead and back-up vocals and arranged music. Jamie Lewis played lead guitar, sang lead and background vocals and played a few other instruments too. Herb Cole was our drummer and sang back-up harmony. He was a good drummer, but he drove me a little crazy, hair blowing back and rushing in to play at the last minute all the time.

Many well-known country performers had played the Ranch (what we called it) over the years. I sang there myself many times, and each time was unique. It was the kind of place where any entertainer might drop by when you least expected it, and many would join you on stage for a few songs. Also, many Boston musicians dropped in and visited with the band on breaks.

CHAPTER 3

me and Emmylou

One particular night we were visited by Emmylou Harris and her band, which had performed a concert that evening at the nearby Orpheum Theater. I was a big fan of Emmylou (and still am today) and felt pretty intimidated with her sitting out front while I sang. (I even sang one of her songs!)

Emmylou and I spent a lot of time talking later on that night sharing stories about our travels and families.

There were not many women in the business in New England that I could talk to about these things. It was hard to believe that there I was with someone as famous and successful as Emmylou, and we were talking as if we had known each other for a long time. We seemed to have a bond, being women in what was mostly a man’s world at that time. She was very encouraging to me, and she may never know how much that meant to me. It is a special memory of mine.

the GLAMOUR of it all

The pay was okay at the Ranch, but there were no accommodations, so we all scattered at the end of each evening and went to stay with family or friends.

I would drive out to Brockton to stay with my best friend, Grace. She had a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor in the low rent district, but she would always make room for me. She had three boys about the ages of mine who hit the floor running at about 6:30 AM!

I would arrive at her house about 3 AM and she would have left the door unlocked for me. By that time I was so glad to curl up on her couch.

Her cats would occasionally jump on me in the night startling me, and then later, I would wake up with one snuggled up next to me. This comforted me. How sweet.

Grace thought I had a glamorous life, traveling and singing for a living instead of working in a factory, just as I had once thought. But now I thought: "Glamorous? I was the one sleeping on her couch!"

By the end of each week I was exhausted from getting only a few hours sleep each night. I can hardly believe I kept up that pace, plus breathing all the second-hand smoke, which made my voice husky and my throat sore.

One night my drummer was