(revised/updated from 2017 essay written for OzarksWatch Magazine)
“The rich folks in the valley could hear the pretty music; Daddy promised some day we’d get a radio. Maybe sell some chickens, the ones that ain’t a-layin, then we’d stay awake and listen to the show…” (“Music on the Wind” by Johnny Mullins)
While singing these words, I see the inside of a cabin with hardwood floors, meager yet well-used furnishings, old quilts on feather beds, thin cotton curtains blowing in the breeze, and a mother wiping her soapy hands on a dishtowel before starting a batch of biscuits. I can even smell the biscuits.
This song, and countless others, were written by my father, Johnny Mullins. Johnny was an Ozarkian. He was a simple man with an 8th grade education whose adult working career was spent as an elementary school janitor. He was also a man of insight and visions, of melody and lyrics. Johnny became an humble Ozarks icon in the 1950’s through 90’s, rising to recognition as a songwriter after penning Porter Wagoner’s first hit, “Company’s Comin,” which was performed regularly on The Ozarks Jubilee TV show broadcast from the Jewell Theatre in downtown Springfield, Missouri from 1955-1960.
I’d like to not only tell you about the songs, but also about the man behind the music: my father, the songwriting janitor; and the legacy mission that I’ve embarked upon as his daughter.
See “Continued Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4” for the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say back in Dad’s day)
