Billy Beeman

Thank You, Bob Nolan

I thank the Creator for endowing Canadian-born Bob Nolan with the talent and sensitivity to speak in lyrics and melodies of the beauty of His magnificent creation - the land, the people, the flora and fauna of our American West.

I have spent many happy hours of my seventy-nine years interpreting Bob’s songs on my violin while accompanying the voices of The Wagonmasters, The Reinsmen and The Lobo Rangers.

My first exposure to Bob Nolan's songs was in 1936 when I heard The Sons of The Pioneers at the Texas Centennial. They were appearing at Cavalcade of Stars Show while my younger brothers Bobby, 8, and Don, 6, were playing at The Ford Motor Company Pavilion as guests of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. I was 9 years old at the time and have been playing Bob Nolan songs thousands of times ever since.

Some nine thousand shows by the Wagonmasters at Knotts Berry Farm’s Wagon Camp with Dick Goodman, Jim Eisenberg, Eldon Eklund, Don Richardson, Harvey Walker, Dee Woolem, Rachel (Cadwallader) Beeman, Vern Jackson, Dave Bourne, Bill Hazel and Bobby Beeman always included Bob Nolan songs.

In August of 1979 I thought I was finally going to meet Bob Nolan. Dick and Dixie Goodman had been visiting Bob in Big Bear and had invited him to come with them to our Annual “Beeman Bash” in Placentia, California. Bob was planning to come with them but at the last minute he said that he thought he should stay at home as he was not feeling like making the trip. Of course we did not know how seriously ill he was. Dick extended his apologies to the crowd of some 65 musicians and families who came to brighten up our days as we all waited for my wife, Rachel, to recover from the coma she had been in since her brain surgery on November 5, 1977. Rachel’s death came in April before Bob died in June of the following Year, in 1980.

Within weeks the world lost two of its most talented individuals and I spent the following four years as a recluse writing poems and music to help me through my depression. Listening to Bob Nolan’s music with my brother Bobby helped me through this dark period of my life. (August 12, 2006)

Bob Nolan

(Billy Beeman 1993)

From the palette of your lyrics

Your music fills the canvas of my mind.

I listen and the majesty and mystery of nature I behold.

The beauty of the moment is suspended now forever in your lines

From beyond reality

In Heaven's master gallery,

Your masterpiece will touch a kindred soul.

In 1994 while in Yosemite, I wrote "Wild Rivers Song" while wondering what Bob would say about the scenes I was experiencing.

Wild River's Song

Over the mountain and down through the canyon

I ride to the wild river's song

Over rocks and rills as it hurries on

I halter my pony beside rushing water

And camp by an old water-fall

The stars shine down on a night bird's call

As all of creation defines what it means to be free.

Freely beholding the wonders of nature

I know this is where I belong

Free from the everyday fight for survival

I find peace of mind in the wild river's song.

I watch the reflections of tall timber reaching

Like arms in a prayer reaching high

Up to the sky where eagles fly

The wild river endlessly seeking its path

'Til at last it is home to the sea

Let it ever be. Let it ever be

As all of creation defines what it means to be free.

Bob Nolan's Let Me Share Your Name is performed here by The Lobo Rangers, featuring Billy Beeman's violin. His website honoring that marvelous group, The Wagonmasters, is: http://thewagonmasters.com/