Taken for a Heartlands Hayride 
WDVR Radio's live on-air Saturday night program
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   © 2016 Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved

Rich Evans, emcee of Heartlands Hayride, and Ken Lelen with 1921
Martin 000-28K guitar at the April 17, 2004 show. I played this guitar
and sang Jimmy Cox's 1923 tune, "Nobody Knows You When You're
Down and Out," popularized by singer Bessie Smith, who released a
recording of the song just before the 1929 Stock Market Crash.

A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but old photos can tell a larger story.

We recently found snapshots made in 2003 and 2004 at Heartlands Hayride shows, a twice-monthly radio program that airs Saturday nights in a rural outpost of west-central NJ. The photos were made by people who had attended shows, made multiple copies for friends and performers, then handed them out as mementos.

The photographs capture an intimate view of a live on-air radio program held before an audience of about 90 people seated on wooden pews in the former Brethren Church, a late 19th Century wood building located on a country lane four miles east of the Delaware River. They also show some of the vintage acoustic guitars I displayed, described to audiences and played at the time.

Ken Lelen and 1920 Galiano at the Hayride
on April 17, 2004. I sang "April Showers," a
1921 tune introduced by Al Jolson.

Now in its 16th year, the Heartlands Hayride show is a two-hour program. It mimics the fast-paced format of the Grand Ole Opry, a long-running show that first aired in 1925 on WSM Radio in Nashville.

Unlike the Opry, which offers a national audience to big-name country acts, the Hayride reaches a miniscule audience in Hunterdon County NJ. It features unpaid, local and nonprofessional performers who offer folk, bluegrass, country 'n' western, gospel music and comedic skits.

Only regulars are household names
Rich Evans, a stalwart bluegrass DJ, has emceed the show since its start by WDVR Radio in 2000. A 5,000-watt FM station founded in 1990 by radio engineer Frank Napurano, WDVR is based in the rural (pop. 5,010) village of Sergeantsville (pronounced "serge-ents-ville").

During the time I played the Hayride, regular performers included singer Chris Val, guitarist Danny Newman, country and bluegrass singer Beth Coleman, multi-instrumentalist and luthier Mike Terris, the country-bumpkin comedy duo Chuck Pierman and Joe Adda (1922 - 2013), and Len Rambo of Califon NJ, the last performing member of the Burd Boys Country Music Band. Because of their appearance on the Hayride, some of these performers have become household names within a 20-mile radius of the radio station.

Sadly, Hayride performers included as well some dull and self-conscious family acts, housewives with cowboy hats and guitars, an execrable husband-and-wife gospel duo, and a Hank Williams impersonator.

Producers with numerous contacts
When I played the Hayride, regular and guest performers were assembled by singer Beth Coleman with an assist from Evans. Both of them had numerous contacts among local and regional performers in several musical genres.

A musician's performance was by invitation. A call to perform was driven by who Coleman and Evans knew as well as by a need to balance program content. In addition, the show's pacing and time format, which included 35 to 37 three-minute segments, determined how many songs each musician performed.

Joe Adda, Ringoes NJ dairy farmer, harmonica virtuoso and

comedian, and Ken Lelen. On the May 8, 2004 show, I sang

Hoagy Carmichael's 1930 "Georgia On My Mind" while Joe

accompanied me on his harmonica.

Beth Coleman knew someone who knew someone who knew me. Out of the blue one day she called to ask if I wanted to perform on live radio.

"Of course I do," I said, adding that I played old guitars and sang pop hits from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

"I don't do no rock 'n' roll, not much bluegrass and even less country."

"You'll do," she said.

So, in between traveling for my tours, I played the Hayride show more than a dozen times for some truly appreciative audiences. I sang great American ragtime, jazz and swing and I played some fine vintage acoustic guitars.

China shop bull reprograms show
Then, one night in late 2004 a woman identified only as Ginny showed up about midway in the show. She began changing the order and duration of the on-air performers. She barked orders at Evans and Coleman from off-stage. And, like a bull in a china shop, she questioned the seating arrangements for performers, since there is no Green Room at the Hayride.

Ken Lelen and 1941 Gibson J-35 at the Hayride on June 14, 2003.
I played this guitar and sang a tune, "Old Corrals and Sagebrush,"
written in 2002 by Canadian folk singer Ian Tyson.

Few musicians knew what was happening, who this person was, or the reason for the mid-show program changes. Still, in her unique and personable way, Ginny recast programming for the Hayride that night.

We eventually learned that Ginny was the wife of station owner Frank Napuran and she hosted several talk shows on WDVR. Prior to her radio job, she spent 32 years in the personnel department of a large drug firm in Princeton.

WDVR's announcers and staff liked to call the station a community-based nonprofit during fundraising cycles. Nevertheless, the Napuranos kept a tight grip on their private property.

Indeed, at a follow-up meeting for Hayride performers at the station's business office, Ginny identified herself as WVDR's operations manager. She then threw Beth off the show and took on the role of Hayride producer, albeit with a heavy reliance on Rich Evans.

Like a baby tossed out with the bath water, I lost my foothold on playing for a live radio show. Fortunately, 2005 was a particularly productive year for my business, Vintage Music Concerts. I played 140 dates in a dozen tours on the East Coast.

In addition, in May 2005 I was the subject of a flattering profile in the New York Times. And by mid-summer I started performing and recording vintage music concerts in a jazz and swing trio — with bass, fiddle and vintage guitars.

Straight-ahead country church
Coleman returned to the Hayride as a performer for a short time in 2006. By then, the show's programming had taken a tight turn toward straight-ahead bluegrass and country, which Hayride personnel define as Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and other 1950s rural music players.

Indeed, today the Hayride's six-man back-up band tends to homogenize each performer's sound with an identical mid-century twang. A tiny cast of regular performers still dominates Saturday night productions. And touring musicians, unwittingly chasing free promos from an FM station that can only offer meager coverage, round out the programs.

Frank and Ginny Napurano are now deceased. The Hayride continues to bill itself as a "radio barn dance country music variety show." Rich Evans is now producer, director and emcee — a one-armed paper hanger.

The live on-air radio show is still held in the "little country church by the side of the road," though the station's owners bought the site for $225,000 in 2010. In a piece of twisted irony appreciated by local musicians, they renamed the 1898 property for Ginny.

So, if you have an urge for local music next Saturday, the Hayride's hosts will charge you $12 to hear country or bluegrass on one of their hardwood benches. They'll also sell you homemade sweets and refreshments if you venture upstairs to the old church vestibule.

But don't worry. Parking is still free.

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© 2016 Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved