WILD WEST COUNTRY FAIR AT KNOTT’S : HE’S READY TO PLAY HIS ‘HOMETOWN’

The funny thing is, Cliffie Stone didn’t grow up in the Southwest.

Although his shows have always been flavored with that down-home Texas feeling, the veteran country music performer--host of the “Hometown Jamboree” at Knott’s Berry Farm this weekend--was raised in California. Heck, the man graduated from Burbank High School.

“But I was exposed to all those Texas people when I started out in the music business,” Stone, 69, said in an interview. “I guess it rubbed off on me.”

Stone has worked as a writer, performer, producer and goodwill ambassador for the West Coast country music scene since 1935.

His appearances at Knott’s on Saturday and Sunday at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. in the Cloud 9 Ballroom are part of the park’s ninth-annual Wild West Country Fair, which features such activities as cow-milking and pie-eating contests, log-rolling demonstrations and a gunfight stunt competition. The entertainment will also include the Charlie Daniels Band, performing Saturday and Sunday at 4 and 7 p.m. in the Good Time Theatre.

Stone will be presenting his latest version of the show “Hometown Jamboree,” which he first produced and was host for at KTLA (Channel 5) from 1950-61.

“We were in the Top 10 of the ratings for about seven of those years,” Stone recalled. “It was a family show and the only country music show on California television.”

Over the years, more than 300 entertainers appeared on KTLA’s “Hometown Jamboree,” including Eddy Arnold, Merle Travis, Tex Ritter and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Stone also worked with some of those entertainers at Capitol Records.

“I went to work (as a producer) for Capitol Records in 1948,” Stone said. “I brought in Ford, Tex Williams and Tommy Sands. Those days taught me how the whole thing fits together. You have to know good music, but you don’t want to read too much music or it hurts. You have to rely on the creative thinking of your musicians. There is a danger for a performer who doesn’t know his musicians. The same goes for a host and a producer.”

Although Stone started in the business as a “250-pound teen-age bass player,” he said much of his talent was in the business side of the industry.

Stone said he has produced more than 14,000 radio and television shows in 45 years. He was president of the Academy of Country Music for two years and served on the board of directors of Nashville’s Country Music Assn. for four years.

But in his work as an executive, he never lost his hunger for one-on-one contact with the audience.

“After Ernie Ford asked me to manage him, we stayed together for 20 years with no contract and not one argument,” Stone said. “But deep down behind my kneecaps, I knew it wasn’t my greatest sort of satisfaction.”

Stone said he has a knack for sensing what the audience is thinking.

“It’s a gut feeling about what’s going through their minds,” Stone said. “I look over the shoulders of the other musicians and at the faces in the audience. You look for signs that the crowd is happy. You notice when they don’t look happy, and you weed those parts of the show out.”

Stone remembers the days when the song meant everything.

“But today,” he said, “everybody has an attorney. They all sit around and cut up deals. The last thing somebody says is, ‘What are we going to record?’ ”

However, Stone said that observing the respect that young artists show the veterans is partly what keeps him in the business.

“We get great respect from Waylon (Jennings) and Willie (Nelson),” Stone explained. “As Gene Autry said, ‘We’ve blazed the trail.’ ”

These days, Stone combines his love for the old with his admiration of the new. As part of the “Hometown Jamboree” at Knott’s Berry Farm, Stone is using the talents of Molly Bee, Rose Maddox and Eddie Dean, 79, who contributes an Elvis impersonation.

Stone also has his eye on local talent. Stone is eager to pass on his knowledge to bands on the rise, while continuing his own stage career. He said he is also negotiating a project with a local country radio station for a “Hometown Hit Parade,” which he hopes will open doors for local talent.

Although Stone recently became a member of the Disc Jockey Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, he’s not acting like a Hall-of-Famer yet.

“I’ll never retire,” Stone said. “I’m still going 100 miles per hour.”