Bill McCallie loves cowboy music. He loves the poetry of the songs about life out West.
He has played cowboy music for almost two decades as a member of In Cahoots. Each Sunday night he is the host of “Cowboy Jubilee” on WSMC-FM 90.5.
He does not, he insists, want to be a real cowboy.
“I grew up on a farm, but I don’t profess to be a cowboy,” he said. “I don’t think I could handle the lifestyle. I don’t think my back could have handled it. I just love the music and the beauty of the West.”
Q: What is your vocation?
A: Well, I guess you’d say I’m in real estate. I took all my music money over the years and bought rental houses. We had a motel over in Brainerd. I used to run the Trade Winds (motel) for my parents, and then I played music at night and I took all my music money and invested it. They are all paid for now, so I’m kind of coasting along.
Q: You still play a lot and you do a radio show, right?
A: The radio show is every Sunday from 6 to 7 [p.m.]. It’s recorded on Tuesdays and airs on Sundays — with the exception of once a year when we do a live “Cowboy Jubilee” show. We always fill the auditorium up at the Southern Adventist Ackerman Auditorium. Fletcher Bright always brings his band [Dismembered Tennesseans] and we play.
Q: How long have you been doing the show?
A: This is my 19th year.
Q: What are some of highlights from the show for you?
A: We had Don Edwards on the show. The New York Times called him the quintessential cowboy singer. He is a musicologist and remembers all the great stories. We had the Lovell Sisters and they did a fundraiser for us on public radio and did a great job.
I go out and interview a lot of people. I go out West and talk to people, and I appeared at the National Cowboy Symposium for 13 years and always took my recorder.
I’ll tell you a funny one. Fletcher came in one time, and he had a pair of shoes that just looked different. They were just odd. I said, ‘Fletcher, how long did the doctor tell you had to wear them shoes?’ Frank [McDonald] just busted up. I said, ‘Now Frank, that’s my line. Don’t tell that within 50 miles of here. I use that a lot.’ He said OK and then went right onstage and the first thing he said was, ‘Fletcher, how long did the doctor say you had to wear those shoes?’
All I could do was laugh.
Bill McCallie
* Hometown: Chattanooga.
* Education: Tyner High School, University of Chattanooga ( “I was in the last University of Chattanooga graduating class in 1963.”)
* Age: 65.
* Vocation: Real estate.
Favorites
* Movie: “Lonesome Dove.”
* Book: “Fire & Rain: A Portrait of the Contemporary West.”
* Poet: Bruce Kiscaddon.
* Song: “My Old Yellow Car.”