It was on Halloween Day, Oct. 31, 1970, this weekly column originally titled as Rambling Rhodes was published for the first time in the Saturday afternoon edition of the Savannah (Ga.) Evening Press.

Never in a million years much less with the passing 49 could I have expected this simple column about country music and its related forms would still be around with the myriad of changes in the daily newspaper publishing industry and my own personal life.

It never would have begun in the first place if not for Tom Coffey and Wally Davis (managing editor and city editor respectively of the Evening Press and Savannah Morning News) who wanted me to write it.

And it could have ended a little over a year later in November 1971 when I transferred within Southeastern Newspapers Inc. to the Augusta Herald. But managing editor David Playford and city editor John Barnes wanted me to continue it.

Chronicle Publisher William S. Billy Morris III in December 1972 had my column moved from the Saturday afternoon Herald into the combined Sunday edition of the Herald and The Chronicle, and that began boosting its circulation and readership.

And Im eternally grateful to him for all the good things that developed from that including giving scores of area civic club talks, authoring three regional and four national books, writing album notes for several artists, having my articles published in almost every major national bluegrass and country music magazine, being nominated in the non-performer category to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and being inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 1996, The Chronicle went online and so did my column, literally expanding its readership worldwide. My first online column (Dec. 6, 1996) was about the death of Tip Toe Through The Tulips ukulele playing Tiny Tim and his visit to my home in Belvedere during one of his Augusta trips.

And thanks to some wonderful editors over the years, including current Applause editor Mary Frances Hendrix, my column has survived.

For many of you, the first time that you read about George Strait, Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, The Judds, Luke Bryan, Reba McEntire or Barbara Mandrell most likely was in this column when I was interviewing those unknown newcomers about their first or other early released singles.

Thats when they were making their first area appearances with Brooks at the Ninth Street Riverwalk amphitheater before it was named for Jessye Norman; Strait with his Ace in the Hole band at McKinneys Pond near Millen, Ga.; Parton going solo (after her years performing with Porter Wagoner) with her new family band in North Augusta High School; The Judds singing in a field at Uncle Toms bluegrass festival near Edgefield, S.C.; Bryan at A Day in the Country festival at Augusta Riverfront Marina; McEntire in a small auditorium in Greenwood, S.C., and Mandrell performing three shows a night for an entire week at the Country Carousel nightclub on Broad Street.

For many years, big city publicists for major stars heading for Augusta would ask me what The Chronicles circulation was, and that often would determine whether they would set up a phone interview with their famous client. Some publicists still asked that question for a few years after the worldwide web came into being. But I would just reply, My circulation is exactly the same as The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times.

I soon came to realize the influential power of the internet and that we at The Chronicle no longer were writing for just Augusta area readers.

Thats when I started getting emails about my Ramblin columns from James Brown fans in Russia, country music fans in South America and bluegrass music fans in European nations.

It seems very fitting that a few days ago in Nashville, Tenn., the Country Music Association held a ceremony to induct into its Hall of Fame four individuals: Ray Stevens, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn (Brooks & Dunn) and Jerry Bradley.

Unless we crossed paths at some Nashville party, I dont recall meeting Bradley, who was chief of RCA Records Nashville division. However I did once meet his father, Owen Bradley, also an inductee into the CMA Hall of Fame, briefly in the main back hallway of the Grand Ole Opry House.

Owen produced scores of Decca Records hits of Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Red Foley, Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, Ernest Tubb and a bunch of other legends.

Its a different story with Georgia native Stevens and Oklahoma native Dunn whom I have known since the very beginning of their musical careers.

Stevens, born in Clarkdale and raised in Albany, performed for a sock hop in my gymnatorium in Chamblee (Ga.) High School in the early 1960s with a then unknown local singer named Mac Davis opening for him.

Dunn will tell you that I did the first professional interview with him in May 1983, seven years before he was paired with Brooks. He was singing for the independent Churchill Records label in Tulsa owned by music industry giant Jim Halsey, who had created the Augusta Sound label to release recordings of our own local legend James Brown.

Nineteen years ago in observing the three decades anniversary of this column I concluded it writing:

My mother, father (Ella and Ollen Rhodes) and stepmother (Jean Swann Rhodes) taught me to follow the golden rule and treat others as you want to be treated. So for me the greatest and proudest moments come when this column helps something good happen to someone else.

It doesnt seem like I have been doing this column for 30 years, and I have no idea how much longer I will continue to write it. Its been a great journalistic journey, and I thank God and all of you for sharing it with me.

That also seems like a good ending for this one.

Reach out to Ramblin Rhodes at don.rhodes@morris.com.

The rest is here:

Ramblin Rhodes: For 49 years, country music column has helped good things happen - The Augusta Chronicle