Thursday, November 04, 2004
(Doug) Helm gets chance he might not get to take
From The Kootenai Valley Press
Doug Helm, 75, Bonners Ferry, penned a song when he was 14 or 15 years old, and all these years later, it’s attracted the attention of the National Traditional Country Music Association.
But whether he’ll be able to take advantage of the offer he received is up in the air.
Helm wrote the a cappela song, “Haunted Falls,” after reading the book, “Dark and Bloody Ground,” about a homestead family in Kentucky that met tragedy. While the husband was in town to get the mail, a long and lengthy trip in those days, Indians killed his wife and children and burned their cabin to the ground.
Helm said it didn’t take him long to come up with the basic lyrics, but it took over a year of adapting them before the song finally clicked into place.
Until last spring, he’d never even thought to do anything else with the song, but on a whim, he sent it to Bob Everhart, publisher of the National Traditional Country Music Association’s magazine, “Tradition.”
Last week, Doug received a heavy packet in the mail, a copy of the latest issue, in which Everhart gives the song a great review, and in which he gives Helm an open invitation to come to the 30th annual National Old Time Country and Bluegrass contest and festival August 29 in Missouri Valley, Iowa.
Read the article
Kootenai Valley Press
Doug Helm, 75, Bonners Ferry, penned a song when he was 14 or 15 years old, and all these years later, it’s attracted the attention of the National Traditional Country Music Association.
But whether he’ll be able to take advantage of the offer he received is up in the air.
Helm wrote the a cappela song, “Haunted Falls,” after reading the book, “Dark and Bloody Ground,” about a homestead family in Kentucky that met tragedy. While the husband was in town to get the mail, a long and lengthy trip in those days, Indians killed his wife and children and burned their cabin to the ground.
Helm said it didn’t take him long to come up with the basic lyrics, but it took over a year of adapting them before the song finally clicked into place.
Until last spring, he’d never even thought to do anything else with the song, but on a whim, he sent it to Bob Everhart, publisher of the National Traditional Country Music Association’s magazine, “Tradition.”
Last week, Doug received a heavy packet in the mail, a copy of the latest issue, in which Everhart gives the song a great review, and in which he gives Helm an open invitation to come to the 30th annual National Old Time Country and Bluegrass contest and festival August 29 in Missouri Valley, Iowa.
Read the article
Kootenai Valley Press
# posted by Dave Sichak @ 8:38 PM 
