Johnny Cash, Gene Autry and Roy Acuff ... in the 1950s, Larry Harvey — a crooner from Carmanville — was a contemporary of them all.
He had a record deal, travelled in the same circles, and was working hard towards getting a crack at the big time.
A few years later, his popular peers were superstars. Harvey? Well, he was working in an Ontario bread factory.
The Newfoundlander had abandoned his shot at stardom, putting family before fame and fortune.
“He spun his wheels up here (in Toronto) and tried to do some things, but he never, ever regained the status of that springboard he was about to step off into major stardom down there in Nashville,” says his son, Shane.
But 50 years after he gave it all up, Larry Harvey is experiencing a career revival.
And it’s all because Shane has given him the ultimate present — something neither material nor measurable, something that definitely wouldn’t fit under a tree Christmas morning.
“I’m tickled over this thing my son has made,” says Larry, now 82.
And that was exactly Shane’s goal when he decided to repay his dad for having sacrificed a music career that appeared to have legs.
•••
It’s quite a trot from Carmanville to Nashville. And Larry did a prolonged milk run to get there.
He left Carmanville and worked various jobs around the island. One was in St. John’s at Buckmaster’s Field helping workers, “carrying a bucket of water and letting the guys take a drink out of it when they got thirsty. ... That didn’t pay much.”
Larry had grown up with music, singing on the back step with his grandfather. By the late ’40s or early ’50s, he was ready to go down the road to Ontario to pursue it as a career.
In Toronto, he sang at nightclubs, on radio and on the new medium called television. He also met Vergena Sparkes, a young woman from Glovertown, and they eventually wed.
He caught the attention of King Records, a Cincinnati-based label that also signed a singer named James Brown.
Larry agreed to an eight-song deal.
(Hear a sample of the music: http://www.thetelegram.com/FlyingPage/1050)
“He never actually lived in the States,” Shane explains.
“It was a back-and-forth situation for him as he was trying to develop his career out of Toronto. When things started to roll, he was down there recording, performing and hanging out.”
Among those he chilled with — Cash and Elvis Presley.
Shane says the former once complained to his dad about what the record company had done to the tempo of “Ring of Fire,” a song that would become the biggest hit of Cash’s career.
“(It was) the same as hanging out with anybody,” Larry says.
Adds Shane: “Those guys were just contemporaries of his. There was no awe. They were just all there doing it together. They were working on their craft to get things done. My father, he always believed that he was a part of it. It could have been his life. It wasn’t his life.”
With the increasing popularity of TV — and because of how Elvis and his pelvis were rocking it — radio DJs worried there’d eventually be no music left.
They started holding conventions, and that’s where Larry would meet up with the established and the up-and-coming. The gatherings would ultimately lead to the formation of the Country Music Association in 1958. The organization continues to drive country music today.
The name “Larry Harvey” is on the first membership list alongside the likes of Cash, Autry, Acuff, Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers, Marty Robbins and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
The contract with King Records called for Larry to release his songs as four, two-sided, two-song vinyl records over two years.
The first four did well, Shane says, reaching the top 10 in Canada and enjoying moderate U.S. success.
But as Larry was crafting a career, he voided the deal because of a row with King Records about its distribution in — where else? — Newfoundland.
Back home, Shane says, his dad had a large fan club of “mostly young girls in their teens.” And those followers, along with members of his family, were having trouble hearing Larry’s songs on the radio.
The record company’s focus was on getting him heard in the major markets, and that didn’t sit well with the singer.
“But he was so upset that they didn’t seem to be doing their job in Newfoundland that he asked to get out of his record contract,” Shane says.
•••
It was the beginning of the end for Larry’s shot at the big time.
Shane says his dad attempted to make it on his own, but with a young family at home, he eventually called his music career a day.
Larry had a wife, two daughters and a son, and there wasn’t enough money coming in from his music. He accepted a job in a bread production facility and moved on from factory to factory, before settling down at a one-man glass business he would run for 25 years.
While he continued to play around Ontario a little, the place where Larry’s music had the most impact was in his kitchen.
His family grew up listening to Larry’s repertoire which included a number of original, unrecorded, songs. Shane considers those songs the soundtrack to his his childhood.
A few years back, Larry gave Shane the Country Music Association membership list.
“I didn’t really pay much attention to it,” he says.
“I was more interested in the Elvis Presley postcard that he also gave me along with it. I put it away.”
Three or four years ago, Shane — by then a professional musician and composer himself — came across it again. He went over the names.
“I started saying to myself, how come when you say the name ‘Larry Harvey,’ you don’t say ‘Larry Harvey, Johnny Cash and whatever.’ That’s when I decided I’d try to figure out what happened to my dad.”
Shane knew his dad had given up music prematurely, but he wanted more details.
His father maintained he was happy with his decision, but that there was one small sore spot. He regretted never having played the Ryman Auditorium, Grand Ole Opry’s original home.
“I said, ‘I think I owe my dad something. ‘What if I could get him on stage at the Grand Ole Opry?’”
•••
In an interview, the father and son shy away from talking about the final outcome of Shane’s efforts to open doors for his dad.
That would give away the ending to their movie.
Yes, movie.
Shane — who writes film scores — decided to do a documentary about Larry’s life and the Opry attempt.
“Paper Promises” — named for one of Larry’s unreleased songs — premiered on the Super Channel Nov. 29 and it’s in heavy rotation all this month.
(View the trailer for "Paper Promises": http://www.thetelegram.com/FlyingPage/1050)
The doc paints a poignant picture of family and love, of music, memories and a mission.
“That’s one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to make the documentary. I said, ‘I’m going to tell my dad’s story, because he was the real deal.’ ”
Without spoiling the climax, Shane met numerous obstacles in trying to get his dad on the Nashville stage.
But there don’t seem to be many hurdles facing “Paper Promises.”
Shane says there’s been “an explosion of interest” in it, and he gets emails every day from people touched by the story.
Because of the buzz, he got Larry back in the studio to record some of those songs his father had kept in a box.
“They are absolutely fabulous,” he says. “They are gems. … Oh man, when you hear them. It’s unbelievable, man.”
Ten songs were cut over five days in Toronto last week and Shane isn’t yet sure how they’ll distributed. (The DVD and soundtrack of “Paper Promises” are available at www.paper-promises.com.)
Larry says going back into the studio was much like it used to be, although he was more nervous this time.
That anxiety obviously didn’t interfere — Shane says his dad sounds fantastic.
“His voice has aged,” he says proudly, “but he has more emotional authenticity than before.”
It’s too early to judge how the music industry will respond, he says.
•••
But at least one major player in the Canadian music industry has been inspired — songwriting legend Jim Vallance, who has collaborated on most of Bryan Adams’ hits, as well as on songs recorded by everyone from Aerosmith to Neil Diamond to KISS.
He helped out when Shane hit a roadblock during his Opry efforts.
Vallance says he heard his story, which “just tears your heart out.”
Then he heard the songs.
“When I first heard the music, I thought, this is outstanding. This is as good as anything that was around at that time. That blew me away.”
He thinks Larry had the talent to take his career to another level.
“If you look at the potential, it’s enormous if you look at just the quality of the songs. … The quality of the songwriting is world-class.”
Vallance compares being on the early CMA roster to playing with an Original Six hockey team: the talent level was high.
“That list was the country music industry, and he was there. He was one of them. I really believe that he would have had a shot if he had stuck it out. … I’m 100 per cent confident it would have happened.”
Vallance doesn’t know how anyone who hears or sees Larry’s story can fail to be moved.
“I think it will have legs all by itself, just based on the magic of the story,” he says.
Whether it does or not, Larry Harvey is walking on sunshine because of Shane’s efforts.
“It’s like going to the racetrack and you get a winner,” he says.
Shane says his mother and sisters are also beaming.
“The whole family is just so proud of my dad and they feel the same way,” he said.
“It’s just been part of our life all these years, and to get a chance at 82 — to get a chance to do this — everyone is excited and happy for him.”
He says he played some of the newly recorded songs for his mom — who’s suffering from a serious bout of arthritis — and she started crying, saying Larry sounded better than ever.
But even though he’s getting a taste of his old life, Larry is quite happy with his choice to put family first.
“I consider myself a very lucky man, and I did have some nice (experiences) coming up, and some bad ones.”
Towards the end of “Paper Promises,” Larry is asked how he felt about going from rubbing elbows with Elvis and Johnny Cash to working in a factory.
His reply is something to the effect of, “I was always famous in my own mind.”
The question of will he be famous in everyone else’s eyes could still be answered.
Twitter: bartlett_steve
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The movie is airing to the end of December. See the airing time's here: http://www.superchannel.ca/movies/view/15473604/Paper-Promises