(AAPNW-TN) – There is a time when riches cannot buy something; it has already been gifted continuously to others throughout one’s so-far life travels in forms, like a woman’s support for the man she said I Do, loves deeply and faithfully stands behind him, however little does he know that love is the reason what drove him to give, in many ways, unconditionally to other talents, and look for nothing in return, other than accept his vision, the destiny he sees and when you feel like you are falling, caught on that ‘bridge over troubled water’ – keep walking, for your time will come, such as in the case of Stan Hitchcock, who was honored as “Media Person of the Year for 2010” for one of country music industry’s heavy-hitters by members of R.O.P.E. (Reunion of Professional Entertainers International) association.

     Hitchcock began his career as a recording artist for Columbia’s Epic Records, releasing 12 albums with many charted single records released worldwide.  He parlayed his musical passion into two nationally syndicated television shows: “The Stan Hitchcock Show” from 1967-1971 and “Stan Hitchcock from the Ozarks” from 1979-1983.  In 1983, he was appointed senior vice president at Country Music Television (CMT) responsible for the network’s Nashville operations.  He also founded the original Americana Television Network which was sold to Liberty Media in 1995, and he developed Network Creative Group in 2003, which led to the start of BlueHighways TV, and in 2006 Hitchcock, who is a native of the Missouri Ozarks was inducted into the Missouri Country Music Hall of Fame.

     Aside from all his other non-financial riches, he is also the author of “At the Corner of Music Row and Memory Lane,” a book detailing the history of the Nashville Music Industry from 1960 through 1980.  The book was recently nominated for awards by the Association of Recorded Sound Collections and Belmont University.

Nashville! Nashville!

      ´Little Giant´ tells it his way

     Stan Hitchcock´s “At The Corner of Music Row and Memory Lane” is a book that recants the many paths he has journeyed on, covering a span of over four decades from the 1960s and through the 1990s, in this book of some 50 plus chapters of stories, his travels records the ins, the outs, ups and downs on what it has taken this ´Little Giant´ to not only make it in the country music business, but also this book serves as a testimony, a profoundness of character about of Hitchcock, who in the words by Poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) once said, “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” I strongly believe those who have had the opportunity to feel the touch of his ´country wand´ – will emphatically agree with me, Stan´s humble reminisces of those days gone by, are undoubtedly factual artworks of truth.

     Written in a true storyteller style, this book, also packaged graphically with an eye of robust flavor, beckoned me to read it and although it is not one of those literary masterpieces I had to digest in my higher learning years, those with chapters half the size of “At The Corner of Music Row and Memory Lane,” however Stan´s book gave me a feeling of intimacy. I could see the youngster in myself swaying back and forth in the porch swing; looking out over hills and valleys of a colorful sea of greens, blues and yellows; flows of warm air caressing my skin not covered by my usual white undershirt attire; the intermingling of chatter among my best friend with a few of the Stan´s greats as they are now, and him telling about “The Road” (Chapter 34) when touring with Loretta Lynn and Doyle and Teddy, aka the Wilburn Brothers.

     There is one male area in life I don´t usually convey openly, but “At The Corner of Music Row and Memory Lane” has served as a reminder for what the man in me felt. It has renewed my knowledge with the self-assurance that I have a heart and I had a friend in Him, when the boy in me in 1994 on Father´s Day was confronted with a passing of my Dad, my mentor, confidant, do no wrong advisor, and dearest best male friend, which shattered my whole self into a million pieces. And there is another that deals with what men do, one which I know Stan and I can share with the public that has been said by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) polish-born British writer, sailor and explorer: “I don´t like work, no man does, but I like what is in work; the chance to find yourself, not for others, but what no other man can ever know.”

     In concluding my review, I certainly recommend this book to be certainly on file at the Tennessee State Library for historical content; in fact on every public library´s must purchase list. I am also confident this author´s “child” can easily appeal to Dolly Parton´s “I Will Always Love You” country song crossover “pop” readers of biography and history, and I somewhat have this invisible feeling, the book´s publisher will strive to immortalize Stan on the big screen and should have a selection of good friends in “lo-o-o-w places” to cast.

Review by Ben Rayman