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Dalton
Roberts |
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Redbird Clingan is a walking miracle and two songs tell his story as well as it can be told When I was 15 and learning guitar, Redbird was 19 and already had his own band and radio show. He was one of my early musical heroes. I would tune him in on WDXB every day and try to learn some new songs and some new licks. One night I even sneaked into a honky-tonk to hear him live and in the flesh. About 12 years later I had my own band and ran into him one night in a bar. He did not have a band at that time so I hired him. I was really excited to have my hero in my band. My excitement didn’t last long. He had one of the most severe drinking problems I have ever seen. Booze made him into a caricature of his real self. He was so bad I wrote a song about him: I used to be a big man in this town Anyone can tell you I was known for miles around I had money, a family and a home so fine But now I’m smaller than the bottle And weaker than the wine I’m just a shell of the man I used to be I’ve drowned my hopes but not my memories I’ve lost everything I own And I’m sure to lose my mind I’m smaller than the bottle And weaker than the wine © Harbot Music In 1970 he left here and for 20 years nobody knew where he was. He had brothers and sisters here and when I would run into one of them I would ask about him and they never knew where he was. One brother said, “I don’t know where he is and if you find him don’t tell him where I am.” One day his Baptist preacher brother saw me and gave me his phone number and address. He was staying at an AA center in Ft. Myers and had been off the booze for a year. He told me he had lived in the woods there for years, begging money for booze by day and sleeping under dry cleaning bags at night. I was so thrilled to find him I immediately called him and talked him into coming home for a visit. We jammed and made a lot of tapes and when he got ready to go back he said, “I would move back home if I thought my family would ever forgive me for the drunken life I have lived and if you would help me get back into songwriting. I told him to move back and meet me every Saturday morning for breakfast and we would go over the songs he was writing. We did this for a year and he wrote enough songs for a CD titled “Redbird Clingan Back Home.” He has written some great songs since he came home. One of them is on my gospel CD and the comparison between the song I wrote about him and this song is really the story of a magnificent miracle. Here is his “Wings to Fly:” I was dreaming back when we were young Down those country roads we’d run Flying June bugs on a string And chasing butterflies You said their wings were fast and free And I just made a wish for me That my love for you would never die When I had wings to fly I awoke, sent up a prayer Just to see if you were there High above and far beyond The moon and starry skies Only angels go that far And I believe that’s where you are I’ll be with you bye and bye When I have wings o fly If I had wings to fly I’d fly away Just to see that holy place and touch your face Where we’ll never say goodbye When I have wings to fly © Happy Doghouse Music He has been sober now for 17 years.
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