I saw the Jim Reeves Museum back in the 80′s I was heading from Canada to Arkansas to sing with Pastor Eldon King. The big bus went through Nashville, so I decided to go and see the Jim Reeves Museum. It is so strange when you are in a different country to try and figure out all the systems. Maps help a lot. By looking at a local map, I figured out that if I took a local bus, I would get to the museum. I told the bus driver where I wanted to go, but he forgot about me.
Fortunately I was looking out the window, and I saw us go by the museum, so I rushed to the front, and he let me off down the street.
Jim Reeves was a very big hit in Rhodesia when I was a teenager. Sometimes he would have three songs on the top ten hit parade at the same time. He apparently sold millions of records in Africa. It seems he was more popular in Africa than he was in America! It is very strange how that works. He came to Bulawayo when I was a teenager, but I didn’t get to see him. I wish I had. Some people I know went to the show. I think he had Floyd Cramer, Chet Atkins and the Blue Boys with him. After their show, one guy I knew started playing guitar like Chet Atkins, and his brother started playing piano like Floyd Cramer. So they all had an impact on us teenagers.
So, although I never got to see Jim Reeves in person, I sang lots of his songs, and figured that seeing The Jim Reeves Museum would be the closest I would come to the real thing. I saw a photo of him playing golf. I remember on one of his records he said that he and Porter Wagoner would play golf, and that neither of them were any good, but they had a lot of fun trying.
I saw a display of LP records on the wall, but I had a record that I didn’t see on the wall. It was an LP that he made in South Africa called: “Jy is my liefling” (You are my darling). Jim made a number of Afrikaans recordings, and although he didn’t always pronounce his words exactly right he did a very excellent job. I really loved the record I had.
I saw the room they rigged up when he used to be a disc jockey on the radio. It was fun to see his touring bus called Big Blue. I remember seeing it on a record cover on his live recording. Years later I was able to take my wife and kids to The Jim Reeves Museum, but it was closed at that time, but we got a picture of us by Big Blue. Then there was the gift shop where we bought a copy of his South African movie “Kimberley Jim.”
Jim was so much a part of my life because I lived into his songs. Seeing all his things felt closer than family to me. It was as if he was my father. When I listened to his songs, it was as if he was my father, giving me advice on how to live. Just like in the Bible, when Solomon wrote his sayings to instruct his son.
It is a pity Jim never had his own son to carry on his legacy. One of his songs I liked was “Silver haired daddy of mine.” It was sad to realize that he never even knew his dad, because his dad died when he was a baby.
So anyway, the memories of Jim Reeves are very precious. In Africa, I used to think it must be so fantastic to be in America, but I realize now that any place in the world is basically the same, and everyone faces the same kind of problems and troubles. It is just that when you are the other side of the world, and hear all these great songs coming out of America, you think that everything in America is so wonderful. When I was in Nashville, I remember seeing a bunch of men come out of a building, and it looked as if they were drunkards trying to get rehabilitated. So everywhere people have their problems.
While in Nashville I saw the painting of Jim Reeves in the old Ryman auditorium, where the old Grand old Opry used to be. He was with lots of other artists in the “Hillbilly Heaven” painting. I sure hope they all made it there. I hope I can see him one day inside the pearly gates.