Log In


Reset Password
Columnists View from the Center Bear Smart The Travel Troubleshooter Dear Abby Student Aide Of Sound Mind Others Say Powerful solutions You are What You Eat Out Standing in the Fields What's up in Durango Skies Watch Yore Topknot Local First RE-4 Education Update MECC Cares for kids

Pat Corn brings trove of stories and songs to town

Musician Pat Corn can tell a story.

The North Carolina native, musician and teacher has had quite the career, starting as a kid clog dancing at the Grand Ole Opry and going pro as a musician in 1964.

Conversations with the man will draw out scores of stories blazing with rich details of his journey through the music industry. You could define “southern hospitality” through his accented drawl, demeanor, love of music and gift for storytelling. He’s also a key player in the Chet Atkins appreciation society and head of Maizeone Music and New Classic Country Records.

Corn will perform Tuesday in Durango in a house concert benefitting KDUR Radio. Opening the show will be local musician Thom Chacon.

“They say old men tell stories and talk about the weather,” Corn said last month from his home in Tennessee. “Well I haven’t started doing the weather part yet, but I do have a lot of stories.”

Corn wanted to be a guitar player since he was a small child. Hearing people like Arthur Smith and Don Reno on the radio pushed the pursuit of the instrument into an obsession; he was a toddler when he got his hands on what was his first guitar, thanks to the craft work of his father.

“I was 3 years old and my dad made me one,” Corn said. “He made my first guitar out of Prince Albert guitar box and a broom handle, with fishing line tacked onto it for string. I beat that box until it was dust.”

It was years later when Chet Atkins became a major influence, as he was to thousands of students of the six-string. Many teenagers have bouts with skipping school to drive around and do nothing; Corn would skip school to learn Chet Atkins songs.

Decades later, he remains a devotee to American country music – not the easily mocked pop music being passed for country, but the genuine country music of his youth. He is so devoted that he has created a label solely for country music reflective of the genre from its heyday.

It was Atkins who predicted that country music would eventually merge with pop music. Atkins was right, and the result is the mess we have now known as “new” country, a genre that would make Atkins and Hank Williams sick. Corn’s mission is to bring back classic country through his label.

“All this stuff we have now is faux country. It’s people who are not the least bit country trying to sing country music,” Corn said. “The idea is to put the country and western music back in the hearts and the hands of the people. By doing that we have to reconnect with DJs, the musicians, the producers and the people.”

Corn’s Durango debut will be a reconnecting with the people; surprisingly, he’s says he’s nervous. This is part of his charm.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous for a show before as I am this one,” Corn said. “I’m a Southern guy, and folks out there are so much different than me. I’m just an old hillbilly that just happens to love to play guitar.”

Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.

Bryant’s best

Friday: The Crags and the Moetones play rock music, 6 p.m., free, The Balcony Bar & Grill, 600 Main Ave., 422-8008.

Tuesday: House concert with Pat Corn and Thom Chacon, 7 p.m., $45 includes appetizers/beverage. 970 East Fourth Ave., 247-7261.



Reader Comments