Dan and I both got a very late start in gettin' involved in the band business. Dan was almost 40 and I was 32 when I joined up with the band. Dan had already been in a band for a while before I came along!

The first band Dan played with was called the "Buckshot Band". His nephew Leonard Craddock played lead, Dennis Brownen on drums, Terry Coker played rhythm guitar, Garrel Byrd played bass, W.O. Thompson on steel and Dan sittin' in on rhythm guitar. All of the guys sang which always makes it easier on a band! He set off on a Texas tour with them, for a few weeks in a converted school bus and had a ball.....at least, what he can remember about the trip. *S*


The next band was "Cross Country West", that where I entered the picture. Dan was already playin' with them, when I went to listen to them one night and got a little tooted and got up to sing. They invited me to come to practice the next couple of weeks and then sit in with them one night. I was thrilled...this was something I'd wanted to do all my life. The night we finished playin' when I sat in with them, they asked me to join the band!

The "Cross Country West" band consisted of Jim Waggoner on steel, Mike Walling on lead, Clark Hale on drums, J.C. Hale on bass(Clark's Dad), Dan on rhythm, and myself as lead and backup singer for Dan and Mike. I was with the band about 6 months before Jim Waggoner, who had put the band together, was killed in a tragic car accident on his way home from work to get ready to go play. The band still played that weekend, but it was the hardest thing to do, without him! Musicians are a funny group of characters, after you play together for so long, you get used to hearin' the instruments come in at certain times and in the individuals own style...and even though Jim wasn't there, I could still hear his steel playin' in my mind! J.C.Hale retired not long after that he was replaced with Robert Evans on bass. We kept the band together about another year, before we quit.

We did enter the Wrangler Country Showdown in Oklahoma City at Belle Starrs', before Jim had gotten killed and ALMOST won the thing. You had to perform 6 songs, 2 of them had to be originals. Well, there was a misunderstandin' of the rules...we did 2 orginal songs alright, but one was written by Dan's nephew Leonard and his brother Lonnie wrote the other one. Well, accordin' to the judges the originals had to be written by members of the band, even though their rules didn't state that. The crowd went wild after the decision...several fights broke out and it wasn't even us fightin'!!! This was a huge club and there was people booin' the judges and all kinds of mess!!! The judges felt really bad but said that they had to abide by Wranglers rules for the contest. The radio station that was doin' the broadcastin' felt really bad also, so they made us the Wrangler Country Showdown Band for the rest of the contest. We opened and closed every contest and played for the solo contestants. They wanted us to be a regular band for the radio station...but we had to many dates booked up to be able to do that!


We quit playin' for about a year after that. Every Friday and Saturday night we just about lost our minds. So....we went back to playin' again! The next band started out, just to do it when we wanted to. Dan's brother Lonnie was stayin' with us and we put together a 3 piece band, it would have been a 4 piece but we couldn't find a drummer. Dan got into his mind that I could play drums since I was always slappin' out the tempo on my legs when I sang. He then came waggin' home a set of drums to surprise me with. I was surprised alright!!! *S* He brought them home to me on a Tuesday and I played em' out that weekend and then he had the nerve to hire me out as a drummer the next Saturday night!!! I broke out in hives, I was so nervous. I guess I did alright though, they tried to hire me! *S* Dan said he wouldn't make a very good band wife though, I think I made a $100.00 that night and Dan and Lonnie drank up almost all of it out there in the crowd wishin' they were up on stage!

Well, this new 3 piece band became known as "BJ and the Bandits". It went from a 3 piece band to a 6 piece band before long. Dan on rhythm and Myself on drums, Leonard Craddock on lead, Lonnie Craddock lead and rhythm, Dan Craddock Jr. on lead and rhythm, Hubert Stufflebeam on bass, made up the 6 pieces. We played for about another 2 years before we gave the band business up for good! Now we still go sit in with bands occasionally and have so much fun doin' it, without being committed to it every weekend!

We have so many close friends and relatives that are musicians, so we can still play music any time we get the urge, and the parties around our house and theirs are to die for! We sit up and play music all night long!






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