Staunton, Virginia- Thursday, October 15, 2026

      It's the second weekend in this month of craziness, and Scott is off again.  This time, he's headed back to Staunton, Virginia, for the first time in probably 12 years.   He and his parents are off to see a Statler Brothers show.  Sort of.

     It’s hard to overstate how important the Statler Brothers have been in Scott’s life. As the Statlers wrote in their song about the Blackwood Brothers, “We bought up every album, every picture, every single. Their autographs were the only things free.” We’ve got piles of souvenirs with their name likenesses on them. In fact, if Scott wrote everything it was possible to write about them here, Julie would probably revive her old accusation of him and his family being “Statler Stalkers.” Suffice it to say that he has probably seen them in concert more than 20 times, and his parents have probably seen them more than twice that number. Probably the most memorable times among these were the several trips we took to Staunton, Virginia, their hometown, to see them in their annual “Happy Birthday U.S.A.” celebrations and in the off-season to tour their offices.

     Staunton ended up being a key part of Scott and Julie’s lives together. She worked in the Staunton City Schools for three of her most enjoyable years as a teacher. Scott worked in two bookstores there and ended up eventually seeing all four of the Statlers come in. Most notably, we spent two years living in a house directly across from their offices, which they had converted from their former elementary school. However, we haven’t been back to Staunton in about a dozen years, going back to 2014.

     During the COVID shutdown, Don Reid, lead-singer and chief song writer for the Statlers, published a book called, The Music of the Statler Brothers: An Anthology.  Scott was excited to get. In it, Don re-listened to every track that they had recorded and reminisced about the origins of each of the songs. Earlier this year, Scott saw that “Shenanarts,” a community group in Staunton, was going to be performing a musical based on that book, featuring the songs of the Statlers. The show is called “Some I Wrote- A Musical Story of the Songs of the Statler Brothers” and it is going to be performed for eight nights only. His parents were very interested in it too, and when tickets went on sale (on July 4th, appropriately enough), Scott’s dad was able to get tickets for opening night. It was soon completely sold out for all of the performances and people are supposed to be coming from at least 25 states to be there.

     Scott took two personal days off of school this time and left the librarian in charge to teach the students about databases. After school on Wednesday, Julie, Abby and Buttercup took him out to his parents’ house. He got to have one of his favorites, meatloaf, for dinner with them. They spent a little while watching some videos that Scott found on the Internet that were promoting the show, but mostly he spent his evening grading school work he had collected so that he wouldn’t have to worry about it this weekend.

     We got up early, got ready, and were on the road before 7:00 am.  Dad drove the whole way.  Scott spent the time tucked in the backseat.   Scott was a little puzzled why no music was played on the trip down, but he was content to not have to drive this time.  He read comics and a book he brought and dozed off a few times instead.  The GPS took us a familiar way for the first half of the trip, but around halfway through Pennsylvania it took us a new way.   We came through Cumberland, Maryland, which looked like it might be a cute little town along its canal, and then through parts of West Virginia that haven't seen before.  We arrived in Staunton about the time we had originally thought. 

     It's funny how little Scott recognizes but at the same time, how much he recognizes.  We came into town and passed Don's house.   Scott pointed out the post office where Julie scraped the curb and got a flat tire.   We're staying at the hotel across from the Hardee's that we often went to, and in fact we went there for dinner.  We then drove through Gypsy Hill Park, and past the old Statler offices and "our" house.

      Shenanarts is located in the building where Lee High used to be, only a short walk from our old house.   The performance is in what must have been the high school's auditorium.  Shortly after 6:00, we parked in the lot below and climbed the many steps in front because we saw that people were already starting to arrive for the 7:00 show.    When Dad purchased the tickets, he got us seats near the back on the right, because he knew Don, Harold and their families had sat in that area when they went to see their sons perform.  Shortly before the show was to start, Scott noted that the entire row to our left, in the center, was empty even though the show was supposed to be sold out.  Sure enough, Don and his wife Debbie showed up shortly before the show was to begin, along with a bunch of other people to fill in that row.  (It was about that time that the usher moved us out of our seats to make room for four more people.  We're pretty sure we were in the right seats, but he was obviously trying to hurry people in and the show was about to start, so it wasn't worth trying to argue.  We could still see Don from where we were.  Maybe Julie's right.  Maybe we are Statler Stalkers.  Maybe.)  Scott did get a low quality picture of him when Don was standing at the back of the theater during intermission.

    We had a chance to see the scenery as we waited for the show to start.  It was obviously designed to emphasize both the Statlers and their Staunton roots.  To our left was the original bench and street light that were featured on the Statlers' television show.  They were standing in front of a panel that was meant to look like Dad's favorite duck pond in Gyspy Hill Park.  To our right was a painting of Wright's Dairy Rite (aka "Hamburger Dan's"), and a table and set of chairs that were probably on loan from them.  In the center was a street of important buildings in Staunton, including Pufferbellies toy store, the Marquis building with its round tower, and Trinity Episcopal Church.  In front of that backdrop was the stage for the seven piece band, which included red, white and blue stands in front of them, just as if they were the Cowboy Symphony Orchestra behind the Statlers.  

     Finally there were nine stools staggered in front of the band for the main performers.  There were four men and five women, which was an interesting mix.  They each had a chance to be the featured singer on a song, and there were many combinations of quartets that were made and more harmonizing behind that.  The singer that sounded most like a Statler was the tall bass singer, but it's important to note that tonight wasn't really about doing impressions of the Statlers.  It was a chance to re-interpret the songs, in much the same way that Daily and Vincent or Wilson Fairchild had done.  The addition of female voices meant that they could often carry the high tenors of Lew or Jimmy, even though there was a male that could take that role as well.  Some songs lend themselves well to women's voices.  "New York City" became a duet between two characters, for example, and "Who Am I To Say" was sung with the pronouns that Harold's daughter Kim had originally written it with.  "My Only Love" and "More Than a Name on a Wall" also worked great with female voices.

     The format of the show was well chosen.   They opened with "The Statler Brothers Song" as written by Will and Langdon Reid.  What followed was basically a list of the Statler Brothers' greatest hits, in roughly chronological order.  The first act was from the era with Lew, and after the intermission, the second act focused on the era with Jimmy.   Before nearly every song, the performers used Don's own words to explain its story.  The words were taken directly from Don's book, though they were sometimes edited for brevity or directness.   Each of the performers took turns reciting his words, and they often changed who was speaking, but it never really got confusing.  The result was a beautiful framing device to place each of the important songs in context, and that made each one all the more meaningful.  Because of the new emphasis that this reading style placed on Don's words, it wasn't hard to rediscover new aspects of the song.  Scott has certainly read and heard the story of the line "And Bobby, I'd love to see him again," from "Carry Me Back," but the way it was told tonight made it stand out as something new.

     There was a very large television screen that hung over the stage.  It was usually used to list the title and writer of each song, but occasionally it also showed pictures and video of the Statlers themselves from various eras.  It best use, though, was when it illustrated songs like, "Pictures," "Do You Remember These," "The Class of '57" and "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott," where the images were chosen to illustrate the lyrics.  During "More Than a Name on the Wall," the screen showed names and pictures of Staunton and Augusta County's men who were lost.  

    The show was ultimately very satisfying and worth the trip.  It lasted from 7:00 to well after 9:30, and included something like 34 songs.  When we checked earlier today, the previously sold out show on Friday had a few tickets available because of cancellations, though they were single seats, scattered throughout.   When we got back to the hotel, we checked to see if there were still any available.  There was only one.  Scott grabbed it, so he will be returning tomorrow night.