Seven years of singing at county fairs, church picnics and chicken barbecues have paid off with a singular honor for Phyllis Pitch.
The East Scranton resident, a member of the country band Hickory Rose, was inducted October 17, into the New York State Country Music Hall of Fame in Cortland, N.Y. She is the first woman from Pennsylvania to achieve the honor.
Hickory Rose, which proudly calls itself "Scranton's own" since all its members live in the city, consists of Mrs. Pitch on vocals; her husband, Ron, on bass guitar; her brother-in-law, Bob, on drums; and two friends the Pitches have known for 30 years: Gerard Drury on pedal steel guitar and Sanford Rudolph on lead guitar and keyboards.
"I'm the only amateur, I guess," Mrs. Pitch says. She grew up listening to music - "I had a transistor in my ear all the time," she says - and she used to sing in rock 'n' roll bands.
Everybody told her she should be singing country music, though, and in 1992 she began doing just that with the formation of Hickory Rose.
"People were so impressed with Phyllis," says Loretta Eckel, the daughter of a square dance caller and co-founder of the country music park in Cortland. Hickory Rose has played the park several times already, and is booked for New year's Eve.
The band has a repertoire of 400 to 600 songs, from the hits of Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson to the traditional country music of Kitty Wells and Tammy Wynette. "My heart is in traditional," Mrs. Pitch says. "People are hungry for the traditional country music that radios are afraid to play today."
But when Hickory Rose plays the county fairs, she knows the audience. "They want to hear what's on the radio," she says. "We play for everybody."
Hickory Rose works in southern New Jersey and New York, as well as in the Poconos. Mrs. Pitch says there are big country music dance clubs in New Jersey, but country music doesn't have much of a following here in Scranton. "If it's not karaoke or alternative, they don't want to hear it," she says.
The Cortland country music park and campground opened in 1984, but the hall of fame dates back to 1975, Mrs Eckel says. It includes 35 honorary members from Nashville, as well as area musicians elected by the board on the third Sunday in October. Mrs. Pitch was a shoo-in. both for her singing and her caring for others, according to Mrs. Eckel.
Cortland is not as unlikely a spot for "the Nashville of the east" as you might think. There are lots of country music fans there, Mrs. Eckel says, as well as plenty of country musicians.
The hall has over 900 members, representing 38 states and 9 countries. An indoor stage has seating for 500, and an outdoor stage that can accomodate 7,000 fans.
Mrs. Eckel says she and her husband had been collecting country music memorabilia for years and were looking for a place to put it. "This campground came up," she says. The 18-acre facility, at Exit 11 off Interstate 81, was in bankruptcy.
The hall of fame has over 1,300 items of memorabilia, Mrs. Eckel says. "I have a lot of special pieces that mean a lot to me." Her favorites are a white three-piece suit donated by Kenny Rogers, and a $9,000 Paris-made sequined gown worn by Tammy Wynette. "It is just gorgeous," Mrs. Eckel says.
"Tammy was here four times," she adds. "I just thought the world of her."
Hickory Rose, meanwhile, will open for another legend of the Grand Ole Opry, Loretta Lynn. The First Lady of Country Music is booked to play in Cortland next May.
"We know we'll never be millionaires, but we have a hell of a good time," Mr. Pitch says.
