Craig was perhaps the purest musician I’ve known. He may not have been the most accomplished, but he played music for his own enjoyment — not for the enjoyment of others.
From his earliest days, Craig loved music. Before he could read, he could pick out the record he wanted to play by recognizing the labels. We had a kiddie record player, easy to use, and it had a multi-face mirror that sat on the spindle that stuck through the records. Our kiddie records had pictures on them — a series of sequential cartoons that became animated when the record spun and the reflections flashed by our eyes.
Our parents also had records. They were pretty hip for their day. I remember Danny and the Juniors “At The Hop” and “Sugar Time” by The McQuire Sisters and “From Rags To Riches” by Tony Bennet. We had many more. And my parents had a stereo turntable with record changer so they could stack the albums on and they would play everything from show tunes to Allan Sherman’s novelty songs.
When my grandparents opened a ladies-wear store, the bought the first singles by The Beatles to play during the grand opening. And of course, they gave those to us grandchildren afterward.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Craig gravitated toward top-40 radio. While still in elementary school, he used his paper route money to buy “Hit Parader” and “Song Hits” magazines — they published the lyrics (often with glaring errors and omissions).
And we all sang. We loved singing. We sang along with records, with TV shows and with the radio. It wasn’t unusual for this child of the 60 to want to play the guitar and start a band.
I’ve also mentioned his problems with learning the guitar because he was left-handed. I picked up the guitar and taught myself to play with the help of a Beatles songbook that graphed all the chords. Craig decided maybe he could handle the bass since it only had 4 strings. For our Christmas gifts in 1970, I got a Western Auto electric guitar and Craig got a well-used Kay electric bass. We also got a small amplifier (I think it was about 5 watts) which we both plugged into. We were in heaven.
Right after that, our family moved from Norton (a small town in Kansas) to Wathena (an even smaller town in Kansas). We were in high school by this time, and really getting serious about music. Craig got a used amplifier with some REAL power — a Vox
Beatle model. Or was it a Super Beatle? Mike Miller would know — we bought it from him.
This was raw power — and volume. We started playing more aggessive rock and roll — Alice Cooper, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath.
And country western.
Yes, Craig loved music ranging from Alice Cooper to Allis Chalmers.
I started writing songs somewhere along that timeline, and Craig and I discussed a lot of things, but didn’t do much songwriting together. I do remember a couple of times he tried to hum me a tune so I could collaborate, but to tell the truth — his humming was rather tuneless.
He was happy playing cover versions though. After graduating high school, the family moved again — to another small town in Kansas. In 1975 he put The Bunkhouse Boys together — and that is all documented on other pages on this web site.
Although we were generally a cover band, Bart wrote some of the songs we played, and I wrote some too. And Craig wrote one — a song that only he could write.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if any recordings survive. Maybe Ron Bailey or Dave Collier have a copy.
I taped some of our gigs on a reel-to-reel recorder, but Craig sold the recorder right before he died and he threw in all the tapes with it — including all the Bunkhouse Boys recordings!
We also did one recording session in Hays with four songs on it (all originals). But the master is long gone (the studio recorded over their tapes on jobs like that) and I don’t know of any copies anywhere. My parents had one, I know, but most copies were on cassettes and probably haven’t survived the passing years.
So there is a missing song, a special song, the only song Craig wrote.
He sat down with me and mapped out the chord changes. He loved “Ghost Riders In The Sky” and
Riding Into Tucson
copyright 1978 Craig D Ward and Wade B Ward
Riding into Tucson on another Friday night
I’ve got the urge to kill, and I think that I just might.
I hate my job, you know the boss is always on my back.
If I don’t raise some hell tonight my mind is gonna crack.
Riding hard across the sage, I’ve got to get to town.
I had to work some over-time, the sun’s already down.
My pockets are a-jingling with twenty dollar bills.
I’ll prob’ly go and spend it all on women, booze and pills
But tonight I’m just a cowboy riding hard and riding fast.
I’ve got to make it good, and I’ve got to make it last.
But I won’t get what I want no matter how I try.
‘Cuz I don’t want to die!
Riding hard to get back home, the possee’s after me.
I hope my pony knows the way, cuz I’m too drunk to see.
I got a little rowdy, shot some fellow from behind.
And a necktie party ain’t the kind of swingin’ I had in mind.
But tonight I’m just a cowby riding hard to save my ass
I’ve got to make it good, and I’ve got to make it last.
But I won’t get what I want no matter how I try.
‘Cuz I don’t want to die!
The chord changes use a typical western pattern —
He wrote the lyrics, of course. But when we were putting it together, I thought it needed a chorus — he had only wrote verses. So I added a few lines and a few chords.
It is also one of the few songs Craig sung at performances. He mainly sang truck driving songs and drinking/honkey tonk songs.
Bart made a great arrangement with twin lead guitars doing a harmony riff for the intro and between verses. He didn’t want the lead solo, so this is one of the few songs on which I played lead.
But the only existing copy of his song is in my brain … so let’s hope nothing happens to me before I get it recorded again.