Jimmy Fortune: Musician To Perform At Fair

Jimmy Fortune cried.
Not with his eyes, but with his voice.
The date was 1981, and the place was a ski resort in Virginia when Fortune found good fortune while he sang Roy Orbison’s “Crying.” Lew DeWitt of the Statler Brothers was there and heard him.
“He said, ‘Man, I love your singing,’ ” Fortune said.
Twenty-eight years and two decades with the Statler Brothers later, the Nelson County, Va.-reared Fortune will close out the Appalachian Fair in Gray, Tenn. on Aug. 29.
That the soft-spoken, high tenor country singer owns a national career owes to the day that DeWitt heard him. When DeWitt’s health began to fail and he decided he could no longer sing in the Statler Brothers, he suggested that Fortune audition for the group.
“I was the first to audition,” Fortune said by phone while en route to Missouri from Nashville, Tenn. “We sang around the piano in [Statler Brother Harold Reid’s] house.”
Done deal. When the Statlers hired Fortune, life as he knew it changed forever.
“I was working at a car dealership when I was hired,” Fortune said. “It floored me. Oh my God, I was 26 years old. Wow, my life really changed.”
In some ways, Fortune was like a student away at college when he joined the Statler Brothers. He knew nothing about the music business, but he sure was eager to learn.
“It was like going to Nelson County High School, and somebody offered you a Harvard education,” Fortune said. “It was serious business. I had to open my eyes, open my ears and open my heart to everything.”
That included writing songs.
Most dramatically for Fortune, when he wrote the song “Elizabeth,” which he also sang lead on and became his first hit with the Statler Brothers, his days of working two jobs to support his young family were over.
“God had his hand in that,” Fortune said. “After the Statlers hired me, that was the first complete song I wrote. We were on our way to Tulsa, Okla., and Harold pulled out a movie, ‘Giant,’ starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Then in Tulsa, a young lady grabbed my hand and said, ‘I’m Elizabeth.’ ”
Eureka! The song, for which he had no title, now had one.
“So I went into the bathroom and sang it into a tape recorder,” Fortune said. “When I played it for the guys, it was like, ‘My God, we’re going to record that.’ ”
So began Fortune’s 21 hit-laden years with the Statler Brothers. Then in 2002, long before he was ready, the Statlers decided to retire.
“When they said they wanted to retire, it scared me pretty bad,” Fortune said. “I have seven kids. I wasn’t ready to retire. So I just decided to play and sing, take what I learned from the Statler Brothers and apply it.”
Fortune moved to Nashville. Then he sought and signed a record deal with Audium Records, which led to one album, “When One Door Closes,” in 2002. Two more albums since then have followed, including Christmas and gospel albums.
A fourth album, “Windows,” is due in September.
“I was working on it in the studio yesterday,” Fortune said. “I wrote or co-wrote every track on it except for the title track.”
And oh, yes, one other meaningful to Fortune track is included that he didn’t write but sure had an impact upon his career.
“I also put Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ on the album,” Fortune said, “which was the song that perked up Lew DeWitt’s ears to my singing.”

IF YOU GO
What: Appalachian Fair
Who: Jimmy Fortune
When: Aug. 29, 8 p.m.
Where: Appalachian Fairgrounds, Gray, Tenn.
Fair admission: $8 for adults, $3 for children ages 6 to 11, free for kids ages 5 and under when with a paying adult. To see Fortune, there’s an additional $5 concert charge.
Info: (423) 477-1420
Web: http://www.jimmyfortune.com
Audio: http://www.jimmyfortune.com/music/

ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULE
Aug. 24: Randy Houser, $5
Aug. 25: Eli Young Band and Walker Hayes, $5
Aug. 26: Jimmy Wayne, $7
Aug. 27: The Lost Trailers, $5
Aug. 28: Lady Antebellum, $7
Aug. 29: Jimmy Fortune and Nick Nicholson, $5

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .