Thomas Morrow, a truck driver since 1978 who is moving to Cheyenne in May, said while the CB radio is still in use, truckers do not us it to contact each other as frequently as they did in the past. ‘Good buddy’ is what truckers called each other, he said. San Francisco was called ‘Shaky Town,’ as McCall mentioned in his song. He said the song just “brought everyone together” and the lyrics that McCall wrote were evocative of the language that was actually used. “We looked out for each other,” he said inhaling smoke from a Marlboro light. Reccardi said members of the truck driving community were more tight-knit at that time because people actually spoke to each other. “You can’t get that with an app or with the Google.” “If there was an accident ahead, a smoky (law enforcement) on patrol, or a good batch of lot lizards (prostitutes) at a truck stop, we let each other know,” he said. He said McCall explained to America the CB culture and how important the short-range radios were to the trucking industry. Ain’t no one done it better or done it since.” “We talk about ‘Convoy’ because it was our national anthem,” Reccardi said. Trucker Al Reccardi, a truck driver from Dayton, Ohio, who drives through Wyoming on a weekly basis, told Cowboy State Daily during a stop in Cheyenne on Thursday that McCall still has an impact on truckers.Ī lot of younger truckers, he said, will ask what the profession was like 50 years ago. And even people who weren’t truckers were loving it and enjoying (McCall’s) music.” National Anthem “It inspired a lot of truckers, it really did. “It was kind of a rallying call,” Frame said. Don Frame of Cody said the song “Convoy” inspired more than just the drivers. “And everyone had to have a handle.”Īnother trucker who retired to Wyoming worked under the handle “Low Chunk” while he drove rigs in the 1970s and ‘80s. “That’s what that song was about – the jargon,” Froehlich said. The song “Convoy,” for example, featured a character whose CB handle was “Pig Pen” – and Pig Pen hauled hogs. “They were just soft, and they didn’t hold.”įroehlich said he appreciated the citizens band radio lingo in McCall’s songs as well. “A lot of the times, if you stepped on (the brakes), it WAS like stepping on a plum,” Froehlich said, laughing. Lyrics for “Wolf Creek Pass,” for example, detailing a harrowing trip down mountain roads into Pagosa Springs, Colorado, ring true for Froehlich: “Well, Earl reared back / And cocked his leg / Stepped down as hard as he could on the brake / And the pedal went clear to the floor / And stayed right there on the floor / And he says it was sorta like steppin’ on a plum.” “He really must have been involved in the industry and knew a lot about it, because a lot of his songs, what he said was true,” he said. He said songs like “Wolf Creek Pass” – while humorous – resonated with people who lived that life. And they are.”įroehlich not only drove semis himself, he also owned and operated the Interstate Standard station in Buffalo in the 1980s, which catered to truck drivers coming off I-90. “They made truckers feel like they were important. “Those songs made you feel like you were part of a culture,” said Bill Froehlich, who drove truck as a young man in the 1970s. McCall,” Fries paired his unforgettable voice with music by composer and songwriter Chip Davis (founder of Mannheim Steamroller) to create songs that brought the lifestyle of long-haul truckers to radio audiences across the country. 1 hit in 1976 and made him the unofficial balladeer for the nation’s long-haul truckers in the 1970s and 1980s.įries passed away on April 1 at the age of 93 at his home in Ouray, Colorado, after a long career as the troubadour of truck drivers. McCall’s story about a “Convoy” of semi-trucks earned him a No. McCall - were remembered fondly among truckers in the wake of his death last week. Those lines penned by William Dale Fries Jr. “Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck – you got a copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?”
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