From 1969 to 1997 people around the world were able to enjoy some of the most amazing talents in the country music industry. It wasn’t just music either, it was a comedy, acting, and down to earth family fun.
Hee Haw ran for almost 26 seasons and 655 episodes. The show continues to air on RFD-TV in reruns. Four super talented stars from those wonderful days that so many of us grew up with, are featured here today and introducing a new project called Kornfield Friends.
Kornfield Friends Road Show is currently touring through the mid-west and areas of the country like the South East. The idea of the show was a tribute to Hee Haw and the family that the show created.
Jana Jae has been performing most of her life is known to some as The First Lady of Country Fiddle. As a member of the famous Buck Owens band the “Buckaroos” she entertained millions on the Hew Haw show. Jana said that at first, she hesitated to play the blue electric fiddle but afterward realized it was a good thing she did. Now Jana and several of her closest and dearest friends will again entertain audiences with skits, songs, and family fun that they once saw on the original show.
Along with Jana, fans will see the lovely Misty Rowe, Lulu Roman, the handsome banjo picker and talented artist T. Graham Brown and special guest Irlene Mandrell.
Misty Rowe was part of the Hee Haw show for 19 years and was famous for her “bedtime stories’ where she would share a nursery rhyme, rewritten in her own special bedtime story way. Each one would end with a wink, a giggle and usually a humorous laugh at the end, followed with a “moral of the story.” She was also known for the spin-off “Hee Haw Honeys.”
LuLu Roman will be part of the “fab four” and is well known for “LuLu’s Truck Stop” where greasy food and bad customer service served up many hilarious moments. She also has an amazing singing voice as well as her talent as a seasoned comedian. She is a Country Gospel artist who has recorded several albums and was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Lulu will reprise some of her famous skits for audiences on the roadshow tour.
Now entering his fifth decade as an entertainer, T. Graham Brown continues to branch out in his career. Before moving to Nashville in 1982, he made a few cameos in feature films, including 1977’s Greased Lightning with Richard Pryor. More recently, he’s started acting again, and his colorful personality can be seen in such films as Saving Samuel and Ticket To Nashville. He is also featured in the television series The Dream Motel, which contains a unique premise.
Brown’s initial entry to Country Radio was the sad and soulful “Drowning In Memories.” That Top-40 single helped him to establish himself, and by the winter of 1986, he had warmed up to audiences with the bluesy hit “I Tell It Like It Used To Be.” Other hits quickly followed, with his first self-penned release “Hell And High Water,” which became his first number one song. “I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again” and “Don’t Go To Strangers” were the next releases, which all became chart-toppers.
The soulful vocal stylings of T. Graham Brown were all over the airwaves, as his sophomore release Brilliant Conversationalist added more titles to his arsenal of hits, such as the seductive “The Last Resort,” and “She Couldn’t Love Me Anymore.” It was a time period that Brown sums up as something of a blur.
Irlene Mandrel first rose to prominence as a model for CoverGirl, and later gained national attention when she appeared from 1980–1982 with her siblings on the highly rated Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters TV variety show. Shortly after the show’s cancellation, she joined the cast of Hee Haw for a number of years as one of the “Hee Haw Honeys.”
