Born in Bristol, Tennessee, to Clarence Thomas Ford and Maud Long, Ford began his radio career as an announcer at station WOPI in Bristol, leaving in 1939 to study classical music and voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. 1st Lieut. Ford served in World War II as the bombardier on a B-29 Superfortress flying missions over Japan. After the war, Ford worked at radio stations in San Bernardino and Pasadena, Calif. In San Bernardino, hired as a radio announcer, Ernest J. Ford did the news and general announcing. He was assigned the job of hosting an early morning country music disc jockey programme titled "Bar Nothin' Ranch." To differentiate himself, he created the personality of "Tennessee Ernie," a wild, madcap exaggerated hillbilly. He became popular in the area and was soon hired away by Pasadena's KXLA radio.
At KXLA he continued doing the same show and also joined the cast of Cliffie Stone's popular live KXLA country show "Dinner Bell Roundup" as a vocalist while still doing the early morning broadcast. Stone, a part-time talent scout for Capitol Records, brought him to the attention of the label. In 1949, while still doing his morning show, he signed a contract with Capitol. He also became a local television star as the star of Stone's popular Southern California "Hometown Jamboree" television show. He released almost fifty country singles through the early 1950s, several of which made the charts. Many of his early records, including "The Shot Gun Boogie", "Blackberry Boogie", and so on were exciting, driving boogie-woogie records featuring exciting accompaniment by the Hometown Jamboree band which included Jimmy Bryant on lead guitar and pioneer pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. "I'll Never Be Free", a duet pairing Ford with Capitol Records pop singer Kay Starr, became a huge country and pop crossover hit in 1950.
Ford eventually ended his KXLA morning show and in the early 1950s, moved on from Hometown Jamboree. He took over from bandleader Kay Kyser as host of the television version of the NBC quiz show "College of Musical Knowledge" when it returned briefly in 1954 after a four-year break. He also portrayed the country bumpkin Cousin Ernie on I Love Lucy.
Ford scored an unexpected hit on the pop charts in 1955 with his rendition of Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons", a sparsely arranged coal-miner's lament that Travis wrote in 1946, based on his own family's experience in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. With a unique clarinet-driven pop arrangement by Ford's Musical Director, Jack Fascinato, "Sixteen Tons" spent ten weeks at number one on the country charts and eight weeks at number one on the pop charts, and made Ford a crossover star. It became Ford's signature song.
Ford subsequently helmed his own primetime variety programme, The Ford Show, which ran on NBC from 1956 to 1961. Ford's programme was notable for the inclusion of a religious song at the end of every show; Ford insisted on this despite objections from network officials who feared it might provoke controversy. It quickly became the most popular segment of the show. He earned the nickname "The Ol' Pea-Picker" becafter his catch-phrase, "Bless your pea-pickin' heart!"
In 1956 he released Hymns, his first gospel album, which remained on Billboard's "Top Album" charts for a remarkable 277 consecutive weeks; his album Great Gospel Songs won a Grammy Award in 1964. After the NBC show ended, Ford moved his family to Northern California and from 1962 to 1965, hosted a daytime talk show The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show from San Francisco, broadcast over the ABC TV network.
Over the years, Ford has been awarded three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for radio, records, and television. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990.
Ford, who offstage contended with a serious alcohol problem that never affected his professional work, began suffering increasing liver problems in the 1980s that worsened in 1990, the year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He fell ill in 1991 after leaving a state dinner at the White House hosted by President George Bush, and died in a Virginia hospital on 17th October, exactly thirty-six years after "Sixteen Tons" was released and one day shy of the first anniversary of his induction into the Hall of Fame.
Ford was posthumously recognized for his gospel music contributions by being added to the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1994.
Country Junction
Tennessee Ernie Ford Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Everybody has a big time and nobody's ever bashful
If you feel the old urge and your feet wanna fuction
Go to this place they call Country Junction
If your hands, feet, legs wanna function
Go to the place they call Country Junction
There's a jukebox, records, and each cost a nickel
There's a square dance caller and a little cakewalk
And there's a couple in the corner just a-huggin' and a-talkin'
If your hands, feet, legs wanna function
Go to the place they call Country Junction
At this place called Country Junction I've heard it said
That you can red ham and a pone or cornbread
A little dab of soft gravy and that ain't all
They bring you biscuits in a bucket, you can have a ball
If your hands, feet, legs wanna function
Go to the place they call Country Junction
So, that just about does it, that's the end of my song
At this place called Country Junction nothing ever goes wrong
Take a Tennessee apéritif if your feelin' blue
Go to Country Junction, it's the place for you
If your hands, feet, legs wanna function
Go to the place they call Country Junction
Go to the place they call Country Junction
(Ain't that groundhog fat!)
Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Country Junction" is a fun and upbeat song that paints a picture of a lively spot between Jackson and Nashville. The song describes a joint where people can come and let loose, with a jukebox that plays both fast and slow songs for all tastes, a square dance caller, and a little cakewalk. The chorus invites people to come to this place, called Country Junction, if their "hands, feet, legs wanna function," which is to say, if they want to dance and let loose.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a knocked out joint between Jackson and Nashville
There is a place between Jackson and Nashville where people go to have a good time.
Everybody has a big time and nobody's ever bashful
No one is shy at this place and everyone enjoys themselves.
If you feel the old urge and your feet wanna function
If you feel like dancing and moving your feet,
Go to this place they call Country Junction
You should go to a place called Country Junction.
There's a jukebox, records, and each cost a nickel
You can listen to music on a jukebox and play records for only five cents each.
There's some fast ones and the slow ones if your tastes are fickle
You can find both fast and slow music to your liking.
There's a square dance caller and a little cakewalk
You can dance a square dance or a little cakewalk at this place.
And there's a couple in the corner just a-huggin' and a-talkin'
You might see a couple hugging and talking in a corner of the place.
At this place called Country Junction I've heard it said
People say about this place called Country Junction,
That you can red ham and a pone or cornbread
You can have ham and cornbread or pone to eat at this place.
A little dab of soft gravy and that ain't all
You can also enjoy some soft gravy, and that's not even the end of it.
They bring you biscuits in a bucket, you can have a ball
They serve biscuits in a bucket, and you might have a great time.
So, that just about does it, that's the end of my song
That's the end of the song about the Country Junction.
At this place called Country Junction nothing ever goes wrong
Nothing ever goes wrong at Country Junction.
Take a Tennessee apéritif if your feelin' blue
If you're feeling sad, you can have a Tennessee apéritif.
Go to Country Junction, it's the place for you
Country Junction is the perfect place to go.
If your hands, feet, legs wanna function
If you want to move your hands, feet, or legs,
Go to the place they call Country Junction
You should go to a place called Country Junction.
Go to the place they call Country Junction
You should go to a place called Country Junction.
(Ain't that groundhog fat!)
Contributed by Hannah O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.