Let’s walk forward bravely

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To say I am a patriotic person would probably be an understatement. The American Republic, the American Dream, ideals enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence burn within me.

While its inappropriate for a man to say, I tear up when I hear certain combinations of words that reflect these things. There is music and movies which evoke an emotional response within my soul.

At the bedrock of these feelings is the faith which my family instilled in my life and the blessings that Jesus Christ saved me so I might live a joyful life in Him no matter what I might endure on earth until eternity comes.

Over the last few years, I have seen people like me considered as being out of fashion because a group of revisionists, academics and politicians wish to make America something other than the shining city on the hill.

Well, we just saw a return to an advocacy for being proud to be American. The bullies who would say our ancestors were not exceptional in the legacies they passed to us will now no longer own the sole soapbox of modern viewpoint. Their stories, their successes, their goodness will once again not be erased by the shortcomings that so many wish to point towards.

We gave the blood of hundreds of thousands of men and women to end slavery in our country while it remains alive and well in countries across the world to this day. That is not to say, that there are not those in our country today who are not enslaved within our borders. My prayer is the current administration will free those women, children and men, wherever they are and whomever may be responsible to receive punishment for their actions.

We gave the long-termed toil, suffering and blood of men and women to uplift and enforce the civil rights of people of color, and women.

I can look back upon my family and proudly point to those who participated in these efforts.

I know of at least 19 of my grandfathers who fought to provide this American experiment to exist giving a new level of hope to serfs and slaves around the world.

The future of America has many possibilities. I want to see it last well beyond another 250 years. My people deserve that for their sacrifices.

So, for me watching the inauguration of a president is a moving experience, as it should be. Several of the men who have stood in that spot carry the same blood in their veins that I do as we share ancestral grandparents. Despite that being the case, even if there was no connection, I would still be moved by all that surrounds it.

I pray for our country. I feel there is a great sense of unity which is moving across our land. We see that those that want to divide us by age, education, wealth, color, religion, or other factors, are losing their grip upon our attention. The future of America is in our strength together. It’s America and Americans that should come before any other country or nationality. Before a dime is spent for anything, it should be asked, “How does it help America and Americans?” If it does not, it shouldn’t be spent or sent to anywhere in the world.

Our focus needs to be inward – our country needs to strengthen our infrastructure of all types to last for decades to come. We need to make choices that improve our country and bring it back to success economically. When I was a boy, I watched helplessly as our politicians sold our small towns and true Americans out, as plants across the country closed and jobs went elsewhere. We need to see that reversed enormously. Our focus should extend throughout our hemisphere, much as my ancestral cousin created the Monroe Doctrine, we should once again see our focus in this hemisphere rather than in the fields and deserts of Europe, and the Middle East.

I pray for our leaders as we all should. Their success is our success. Besides a praying America may be better blessed than a country that turns its back upon God. God Bless America, our leaders, our people, our future. Let’s walk forward bravely!

A life touching others – Grand Ole Opry star Buck White

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Buck White

Friends often come into our lives and have an impact, some just walk through and move on while others stay and sit a spell.

These impacts can be minor or can be major and can even change your life. I have been blessed with many people stepping into my circle of life who I have described in my books as Encouragers.

Whether for a long walk or just a moment, we can change people’s lives with our walk, our words, our intervention, our gifts, and our love.

On January 13, I heard of the passing of the oldest living member of the Grand Ole Opry. Buck White, 94, and his family The Whites – Sharon, and Cheryl celebrated 40 years as members last March.

I have been honored to have them in my life for longer than those 40 years when Buck’s late wife Pat took an interest in my music and life. By extension that brought Buck into my life and he also became an encourager as did their family and that’s why their actions prompted me to include them in my Encouragers book series.

The Whites, collectively Buck White and daughters Sharon White-Skaggsand Cheryl White performed together as a family act since the mid-1960s, and came to Nashville to pursue a career in music in 1971. Other family members also joined in through the years.

When I made my debut for the Grand Ole Opry in 1984 with my teenage bluegrass band the same year the Whites joined the Opry.

Just a few years earlier our group had recorded one of Buck’s mandolin tunes “Fancy Dan,” which appears on our “Country Kids” release.

In the early part of the 1980s, The Whites delivered favorites like their first Top 10, “You Put The Blue In Me,” as well as “Hangin’ Around,” “Give Me Back That Old Familiar Feeling,” and “Pins And Needles,” – the latter all produced by Sharon’s husband, country and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs(the two married in 1981).

A few years later, the group agreed to join me on the “In the Heat of the Night” “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” CD on my song “Let’s Live Every Day Like It Was Christmas.” While the album became a huge seller benefiting charity, the song for us made its way to be included among the top country vocal collaborations of the year. The album made the list of Top 50 Christmas Recordings in history.

The Whites, hand-picked for their involvement in the movie and soundtrack, O Brother, Where Art Thou? led to considerable industry recognition – including the greatest honor possible – a GRAMMY win in the esteemed ‘Album of the Year’ category. They also received ‘Album of the Year’ trophies from the ACM (Academy of Country Music), the Country Music Association (CMA), and the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards.

Many music industry folks refer to The Whites as the “new first family of country music.” I would have to agree with that statement. They have definitely earned seats at the front of the table.

Buck and Pat were dedicated followers of Jesus Christ. They walked, talked and lived their faith. Whenever I was in Nashville through the years, they invited me to church. I was raised in church, and often performed sharing gospel songs in churches, gospel concerts and festivals. But it was at one of those church services where they brought me, that I rededicated my life to Christ. Their son-in-law Ricky Skaggs was there participating in the service and was there with me at the alter. So, Buck not only uplifted my life with encouragement, helped raise my career with his musical gifts, but he invested in me spiritually, ensuring that I would have eternal life in Christ. For all these things I am thankful, but for the latter, there is no amount of appreciation which could repay that investment in my walk towards and with Jesus.

My prayers are with his daughters Sharon, Cheryl, Rosie and Melissa and all their families and all who loved Buck. I know he was universally loved throughout of industry. The family shared this comment on social media:

“The Lord answered our prayers and took our daddy home peacefully this morning at 8:00 a.m. We are so thankful for his 94 years on this earth. He was a great Dad who taught us by example to put Jesus first always. His great loves were the Lord, our mother, his family and music. Most people will remember him not only for being a great musician and entertainer, but also for being fun-loving and full of mischief. He lived a full life and finished well.”

If you have never listened to the Whites, I encourage you to check out their unique blend of bluegrass, country, folk, gospel and Texas swing. I think their top-notch instrumental work and striking family harmony will make you want to hear them more! Thank you Buck for being my friend and encourager.

The Whites and Randall Franks backstage in Owensboro, Ky. in 2010.

Uncle Dud Doolittle and the rickety ladder

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As I begin the new year, I am always led to clean, I find myself reaching up into shelves, hitting all the spots neglected through the rest of the year. It’s times like these, I tend to desire a good laugh to take away the mundane of such activity. So, I got to thinking
upon my Uncle Dud, and before you know it there was a smile as wide as a whale which formed across my face, Here’s one that got me to laughing:

My great Uncle Dud Doolittle was an entrepreneur extraordinaire who operated the little general store at Flintville Crossroads. Now Uncle Dud was as swift as could be. He stood about five-foot-five and was wiry as a well-strung bed frame. His circular Ben Franklin spectacles offset his gray hair, and he was seldom seen outside his wool, dark green-striped suit and favorite gray beaver hat.

When working in the store, he also wore a black visor on his head that looked odd because it made his bald spot shine as he worked below the store’s light bulb.

With the variety of folks who made his store a regular place to be, he was always finding himself in unique and unusual situations. Folks were always eager to give a hand, especially Cousin Clara who made a drop by the store a daily ritual.

It was a quiet Friday afternoon in July of 1948. Uncle Dud stood on a rickety wooden ladder putting a shipment of canned peaches in his favorite pyramid display. As he drew his task to close Cousin Clara came in saying, “Sure is hot out there.”

She noticed a can lying below the ladder so she walked over and stepped under the ladder to pick it up. As she raised up, she knocked over the ladder sending Uncle Dud to the floor.

“Doggoned it,” Dud said. “I told you before to stay away from that ladder. Don’t you know it is bad luck to walk under a ladder?”

“I didn’t know you were superstitious,” Clara said.

“About the only time I am superstitious is when somebody like you walks under a ladder and deliberately sends me to the ground,” he said.

“Do you believe it is seven years bad luck to break a mirror?” Clara asked.

“No sireee! My Uncle Corn Walter broke a mirror, and he did not have a bit of bad luck,” Dud said.

“Why didn’t he?” Clara asked.

“He got bit by a rattlesnake and died two days later,” he said.

Throughout the conversation, Dud remained as he had landed on the floor — standing on his head.

“Why are you still like that?” she asked.

“When I stand on my head the blood rushes to my head, but when I stand on my feet the blood don’t seem to rush to my feet,” Dud said. “I didn’t know why, so I wanted to just stay here and think about it a minute or two.”

“Why, that’s easy to figure out in your case Uncle Dud,” Clara said. “Blood can’t go in to your feets because your feets are full, but it can go into your head cause your head’s empty.”

Is there an opportunity ahead?

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I once walked through some of the most amazing imaginable moments a human being could dream upon.

Many of the legendary stars of yesteryear were part of my life sharing their energies, advice and day-to-day existence with me. I have rubbed elbows with some people blessed with resources beyond our imagination.

What has those past experiences provided me? A life which has yielded many books and stories shared in columns and on radio and television interviews.

Their investment has allowed me to excel in so many areas of life through the work I have done in film, television, radio, writing and on stage.

Has that made a difference? Perhaps to someone, perhaps a person was touched by something offered up through God’s gifts to me.

What do I do with it though, going forward. With the change of the years, I often find myself reflecting on what I might do to make the next year more successful, more financially solvent, and more positive for all impacted.

Despite all my best efforts as months of the calendar turn faster and faster, I realize that my best plans often fall by the wayside as I live life. But at least, if I make the effort at the beginning by planning on what I’d like to do, creating lists and schedules, then maybe a percentage of those items will get done.

Each day or week or month, I can take out my pen, check or strike something off the to-do list.

Those moments always bring me a moment of great satisfaction.

With each passing year, sadly, I realize some of the things on my long-term goal list become less likely to occur in my lifetime. But regret accomplishes nothing but building a barrier to slow our progress in other paths we must travel.

Despite seeing those things fall from my list, it allows me to focus upon other ones which have a higher likelihood of coming to pass.

The new year is here. What are you going to do with this opportunity? Are you going to use it to strengthen your mind, your body, your relationships, your strength, your faith, your hopes and dreams?

Choose a path with a goal at it’s end, and run towards your goal. You can make it! You can change your life. You can uplift others that God sends your way. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

So at the end of this year, some goals will be accomplished. For me, if I am successful, I will have made a bit of money, paid all my bills, and along the way, made some folks smile or encouraged them in their walk for God.

If I do that, its been a good year. I hope your year and life is more than you can imagine.

A Happy Tear

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As we travel unique roads in life, it is sometimes saddened by the fact that those that travel along with us eventually step off the path.

They can simply follow a different route, taking the path of least resistance, or they may choose a steeper climb.
Sometimes they find a life peril that they cannot overcome.

Either way we look at life, it includes comings and goings. People enter our lives sometimes for a season, sometimes for years. Then one day they are no longer on the journey with us.

This time of year for me brings those absences closer to my mind and gives me more of a desire to reflect upon happy times past.

As we look deeply into our minds eye, those folks who made such an impact upon us are often among those that are absent.

I found the other night as I tried to find sleep, my head turned on the beige cotton pillow case while making an a dent in the heavily stuffed pillow. No matter which way I turned my head, or my body, the gray matter inside my head just kept churning out images from across the years. The moments I saw made me exceptionally happy. Childhood games of play, college dates, and moments that shaped who I am.

All of these filled my head so, I couldn’t find sleep, so eventually I just got up and watched TV until the movie I was watching lulled me to sleep.

Despite the respite of sleep, the next day the images remained flashing in my thoughts. I found myself welling up inside not understanding really why. My body was doing it, just on its own course.

The tears flowed down my check as these people who had meant so much in my walk were visible to me again.

The longer God blesses us with time, the more people will flow in and flow out of our adventure. Some reach so down deep within us, that we are left with a huge hole inside when they are gone. Those holes never really fill, they are just left along the roadside. But from time to time, a smell, a photo, a place brings an artesian spring to life from the bottom of those holes and the water finds our eyes and a few drops drip out upon our cheeks.

For most, the tears of sadness long ago emptied, and those that now flow are happy memories, tempered with some amount of missing.

This time of year, though I am ever mindful that men are not suppose to cry, it seems I do run up on a few more artesian springs dripping on my cheeks from time to time as I have at least in my mind looked back down the path at those left behind, on another road or raised beyond my reach for now.

I pray that any waterworks in this time of year which come to you are underlined with a happiness that once was and hope for what will be.

May 2025 be a year of amazing opportunities for all of us.

Don’t miss your window

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You know everything we do in life has a period when it is best by.

Marriage, children, working life, education and so many other of the things we do, are often set best in certain periods of our lives.

I have missed a lot of windows in my life, I will be the first to admit. Some of those misses, as time has passed have brought regrets and sadness. But life comes and goes as we plan. Living it at the moment in time when we are existing is probably the best path for all of us.

I recently spent the day doing what my folks have done for generations. Possibly not to the annual extent that we once practiced, since that meant we had something to eat all the year long.

That was harvesting, canning and freezing greens of various types.

I have always loved eating greens with a bit of fatback for seasoning and a piece of cornbread on the side. A meal is made of them.

I will have to admit my efforts were not as efficient as they could have been and I lost a lot of greens simply due to timing.

I didn’t have the time needed to press through all the greens, cook and process immediately. Thus, I lost several pounds of greens to turning and wilting over the subsequent days since the cutting.

Despite the delay, I am only one person, so there is only so much that can be accomplished while trying to keep life afloat.

But I will know next time to make sure I have adequate time to dedicate to the effort.

When I was little, the process was swifter, there were many hands, making the work lighter.

The cooking and processing were done as they came straight from the garden with no time to spare.

I can still see my grandmother’s iron pots lined up on tripods above a burning fire in the yard as each crop was processed for canning.

Even though it was several days of work, each crop went fast, because everyone focused their efforts on that and filled the root cellar for months to come with that vegetable. Then they moved on to the next one.

You couldn’t wait or you’d miss the window of goodness. Whether it was beans, corn, greens, beets or any other crop, they got our full attention.

So, for everything we pursue in life there is a window of goodness – when it is the best time for that life experience to come to pass. Now that doesn’t mean we can’t go to college in our eighties. I have known several people who accomplished degrees at that point in life. That also doesn’t mean we can’t get married, have children later in life, if biologically possible, although it does often require more energy than afforded to keep up with the responsibilities associated.

As it is said to everything there is a season, and as I worked through my step back into the process of canning and freezing greens, it reminded me, we must make the time to do what is needed when its required or we will loose part of our crop.

The same is true in life. We must make the time to do what we want during the window when everything is good for that purpose. Don’t miss your windows in life, once they are closed and painted shut, it’s hard to get them open again as time goes along.

Don’t jump to conclusions

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We are all blessed with the faculties of mind endowed by our creator to allow us to reason.

Now some folks, as my late mother would say, stood behind the door when God was giving out good sense, and that would also expand to reason.

I have seen people all my life faced with situations and they jump to a conclusion and pull folks into their prejudice or the negative Spirit within them based upon their life experiences.

Without evidence they gossip about someone or accuse someone of something that offends them in some manner.

We find these kinds of folks in all walks of life, those can inhabit our work place, our church, our school but especially these folks live to type on social media.

There is no repercussions for typing away whatever one assumes about someone.

Sadly, families are sometimes the worst hive of folks that jump to conclusions about someone they are suppose to love. In some cases, the love is suppose to be unconditional. That circumstance is generally within one’s immediate clan. The extended clan gets a bit of grace because they are removed from the unconditional assumption, but the benefit of the doubt is still expected. Blood is thicker than water as they say.

What is it we lose when we jump to a conclusion without evidence and then act upon it. It usually results in hurting someone’s reputation, or their feelings, or both. Depending on how serious these things are, it could also impact them financially, socially or even legally.

Because we have the ability to move the world with our words and our Spirit pushing upon other people’s, we must be cautious of what we say about others and the conclusions we draw based upon a set of circumstances.

Now, that does not mean we should not reason with the evidence we see to protect ourselves and those we love, it just means, we should not rush to judgment and speak upon someone publicly unless we know beyond the shadow of the doubt that the evidence we have seen is conclusive. Even then, is it our job to be the spokesperson of this news?

Did God make us His orator? Or have we taken it upon ourselves as a gossiper? Does telling the story bring us joy or excitement? Then we may not be God’s chosen orator.

If he has chosen you to speak ill about someone in any situation, that is something that you will not want to do. In fact, you will desire not to do it so much, you will avoid it. You will only do so, when you have no other choice.

As children we all learned to jump rope in some fashion. Some of us excelled at it and were able to even rhythmically jump while rhyming with great speed. While many of us enjoyed seeing or participating in this play, we all had the good sense to only join the activity if we were capable of not getting our feet caught in the rope.

We should use a similar approach to jumping to conclusions. Make sure you have the ability not to get yourself or someone else tripped up on what you tongue might be saying about your conclusion.

The lights of the season

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I climbed up the stairs to the attic and in a way it did reflect the season, as all throughout there was a covering of white. It was insulation instead of snow but it did put thing in mind, as I crawled around in the space finding the boxes with Christmas decorations.

I would hand them down one by one to my mother or dad in alternating fashion as we prepared to begin the annual tradition of making the homestead more festive.

The boxes would pile up in the living room as each one awaited emptying.

We had foregone real trees for the an artificial years before. I was tasked for placing each branch in its appropriate hole in the trunk and shaping it.

Before long it would be ready for ornaments, lights, icicles, and eventually the star on top.

The process went fairly fast considering it all had to come out of boxes and placed with care until it glistened and gleamed with the shine of the season.

After the tree, then came all the special additions around the house. Each table got a Christmas doily, a Christmas candle, and maybe some hand made decoration to draw the eye.

The cards would get their very own clothes line that stretched across the wall with each displayed to add to the season.

We didn’t have a fireplace, although for a few seasons, we had a brick lined box with and electric light within its hearth which would add a glow to the living room.

When the inside was just as mother wanted it, my father and I were dispatched to the exterior attraction.

Which meant all the front bushes would each have their own colored lights some flashing and some solid. A wreath of greenery with red ribbon would be added to the front door.

One of my favorite pieces that is now long lost to time was a large lighted face of Santa Claus which was always placed last hanging on a trellis of holly by our door.

Christmas in my mind’s eye is always more colorful, more vibrant and ever so more festive than each one that seems to pass these days.

Perhaps, I recall things much better than they were or I don’t recognize the beauty around me at present as much.

Maybe the absence of many who brought life so much joy dims the present over the past.

It makes a challenge in my heart that I must strive to be more mindful of those that are with us who can bring life to each and every moment of the holidays.

Use the coming season to uplift and enrich your heart by bringing joy to all God sends your way!

I’m on my way back to the old home

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The holidays always bring a sense to me within my soul. It’s a desire to go home and spend time with the family and old friends in familiar environs.

For me a peace comes over me when open horizons turn to mountain hillsides and tight roads winding between them back into the hollers. The farm houses stand upon the high points leaving what bit of flat there is for growing crops.

Smoke rises from the chimneys as I wind up through the valley to reach the old home place that sheltered our family for nearly two hundred years.

On the porch as I reach the drive are my grandmother and grandfather finishing the hanging of the greens to decorate the outside of the house.

The interior will already be filled with the smells and the vision of hundreds of Christmases – stockings on the mantle, a fresh cut tree with all types of handmade decorations hanging from the limbs.

Sadly, the vision I see today is only in my mind’s eye as the old home place is now someone else’s and the older generations that once gathered at it’s hearth are now resting beneath the family sod.

This year I chose to make my journey to my musical home place. So much of my life and mentoring came from the musical lineage of the Father of Bluegrass Music – Bill Monroe and his Uncle Pen Vandiver. The lineage is sort of mine as they both were my mother’s cousins. I was so blessed as a teen when Bill took me on to mentor my fiddling and my band leading.

So, I decided to go back to his hometown of Rosine, Ky. To visit. I was blessed in that my old friend Marty Hays and his wife Robin hosted my visit at the Bill Monroe Homeplace. The restored home has many of the aspects of the home that Bill knew as a boy. Each room offers a unique look into the warm fires that once burned in the fireplaces.

In one of his songs “I’m On My Way Back to the Old Home,” he tells a story of the Homeplace.

That today also hosts the annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival. I hope that you will take the time to add it to your plans for 2025. It’s a wonderful show with many of the top talents of bluegrass being there.

During my visit, I was blessed to also take in the Uncle Pen’s Cabin – owned by James Monroe, and the Bill Monroe Museum. I went to the Rosine Cemetery and paid my respects to Bill, Uncle Pen and all the Monroe clan.

To help make the visit a musical connection back to my time touring with his Blue Grass Boys, I celebrated my 40th Anniversary with a concert at the Rosine Barn Jamboree accompanied by the talents of The Rosine Sound. This talented group includes Marty Hays, Jasper Dale Beatty, Larry Hill and Dylan Lunsford. It was an uplifting show and with their help I played many of the tunes that I had shared with Bill.

Meeting the people of Rosine and enjoying the warm welcome they offered was similar to the mind’s eye vision I described at the beginning of my piece. I may not be able to recreate those days that stand in my memory, but I sure can make them over in news ways.

I encourage you, if your wishing to take a trip and find both good folks and some interesting places to see look towards https://www.ohiocounty.com/billmonroe . Learn more about my history with Bill Monroe at https://RandallFranks.com/Bill-Monroe-and-the-Blue-Grass-Boys/ .

Making memories is a holiday tradition

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As we continue to forge forward, there a feeling in the air in my hometown and region that is very positive.

Despite anything that may be hyped up in the social media or on the news, folks are doing their very best to create a holiday season for their children and families that uplifts and goes beyond what those in power may want us focusing upon.

It is in times like these that I fondly look back upon the memories my parents created for me as a youth. The dinners, the parties, our traditions of decorating for Christmas and how we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas, all imprinted into my brain joys that still yield dividends in my heart.

Standing with my father, holding the end of a string of lights as we tried to discover the broken bulb before hanging those outside our home, remains a colorful moment in my memory.

We always finished it by hanging the large lighted face of Santa in the holly trellis by our door.

I can remember my mother shopped for weeks, picking up the items she needed to make her holiday meals a success. Extra was needed for guests and the additional food choices added to the monthly budget. But she would spread the purchases out over several weeks, to make it fit into the budget. An item here, and item there, especially while using coupons to make the deals even more affordable.

Holidays always meant family and friends visiting or us going to visit with them. Games, music, and lots of talk always combined into what we all saw as memories that we share in our hearts.

Today, it is a little hard to overlook the high costs associated with the expense of normalcy.

During Halloween, the cost of giving out candy was outrageous compared to previous years.

Now we are moving towards Thanksgiving. As we look around us, there are many great opportunities to find things to be thankful about. Despite the best efforts of those who may wish to infuse the political landscape into how we should conduct our holidays, I say “poppycock.” And for those who are not familiar with that word it means: nonsense or senseless talk.

I keep hearing via social media how some are uninviting friends and relatives to holiday events. Well, if that’s how you carry on your life, all I can say is you need a healing helping of the Holy Ghost. Nothing is more important than you relationships with family and tried and true friends of a lifetime.

Politics come and go, and despite philosophies, family and friends must overcome being on different sides of a vote.

We are all better than petty arguments over national trends that we have very little impact upon.

For an analogy, we all are passengers on the ship of state and we must find a way to live our lives, no matter which way it turns.

I see my neighbors already putting up their Christmas lights and shopping in the grocery stores for their holiday meals.

I am sure we will see many gather in their homes, sit around the table, take in a movie at a theater, watch some football on the big screen TV, go to the Christmas parade, and gather for holiday parties.

We have a life to share with those we love. Though sometimes we must forge different paths over things that happen in life, politics is not one of those things that merit such. Build the memories that you and your children will look to cherish decades from now when all the nonsense is forgotten.