1.

He was a “hard-driving hillbilly,”
a rock-a-billy cat
in a country-western band.
He could play any instrument,
fiddle, guitar, mandolin,
mainly, the electric steel guitar.
A demon on the strings;
they called him Elzebub,
after the philistine god.
With dimples, black hair
and a silver tooth,
teen heartthrob good looks,
he wore a white t-shirt,
the sleeves and cuffs
of his blue jeans, rolled up,
over black cowboy boots.

He came from a family band,
older sisters, Mary, on fiddle,
Lollie, on bass fiddle, taught him
to accompany them on guitar.
The Pillow Family Band, was popular
at the nightclubs in Fresno,
the Tic Toc Club, the Hoedown Hall,
Flamingo Club on Broadway,
Johnny’s Place, by the fairgrounds,
and the Cozy Inn, on Railroad Avenue.

2.

He played a custom triple-neck
console steel guitar,
with an inlaid Bigsby logo,
solid birds-eye maple
with four legs, that once
belonged to Noel Boggs.
His big song, one he wrote
recorded with the Hayride Gang,
on the Morgan record label
showcasing his playing talents,
was “Feather Pillow Rag.”

Moving a steel bar across
strings of a plucked guitar
in a finger-picking style;
first-rate hornlike punches,
single-note solos,
rapid-fire,
switching necks mid-solo,
clean legato chord voicings
in a swing-jazz guitar styling.
He was the star.

“Women were always
throwing themselves at the band,”
agreed his wife.
“The lifestyle just lent itself
to that kind of behavior.”  
She got really mad
when she found out
he got drunk and had a fling
with Jean Shepherd,
of Noble’s Melody Ranch Girls,
the band’s new singer.
His wife drove to Tulare
where the band was playing,
caught them together.     

3.

In the County hospital
for acute pancreatitis,
He was getting better.
One week later
took a turn for the worse.
His temperature spiked
at 107 degrees,
everything was downhill.
He didn’t live long enough
to learn to play
the pedal steel guitar.