Hi There, Acorns. Well, I thought the story song series was over for this year, but my friend Pritish finished this cartoon by Easter morning after all. I didn't want to post it on Easter, so I held it until now. I debated about saving it for next year's story song series, but who knows what the future holds. It could be now or never. YouTube will allow me to schedule videos to publish a whole year in advance. I've done that once or twice, when the mood struck me and I sang/filmed a song but didn't want to use it until a special date. Perhaps morbidly, when I scheduled that far in advance, I thought how weird it would be if I somehow died and the video published after I was no longer here. :-) Anyway, after some consideration, I figured some of you might really enjoy this story song, especially if you've never heard it before, so why hold it in reserve when someone could enjoy it now? In some previous posts, I mentioned that our late friend, Mr. Sam Ensley, had a good band back in the late 90's called Roots and Branches. This recording came from their first album. I think Sam did an excellent job with his vocal, and as always, Wayde Powell, III's banjo playing is superb (though I think he would have been only a teenager at the time). I honestly don't know if Sam Sr. or Sam Jr. played the mandolin on this track, but I'm guessing it was Sr. If I find out different, I can always come back to this video and post a correction. It could also have been Niki Powell, Wayde's older brother, though the mandolin used doesn't sound like any that I remember him playing. Whoever played it, played very well. I know that the members of Roots and Branches were all Jerry Reed fans. Reed released this song in 1970. If you are familiar with Reed's sound in the 70's, then you can probably guess that his version had a little more "funk" to it. :-) Interestingly, Reed's verses are a little more detailed than what Sam sang. The last verse is missing in Reed's version, though the chorus is identical. You can hear Reed's version here on YouTube. I noticed also that Billy Strings (one of the most popular new bluegrass stars right now) has a video on YouTube of him singing this song while sitting on someone's couch. The first time I ever heard this story, it was merely a short joke. I have a vague childhood memory that I might have even heard the joke from a preacher at the beginning of a service. I've known a lot of preachers who are also hunters. The joke consisted solely of the story told through the first chorus of the song. Because of that childhood memory, I figured that the song probably derived from the joke, but after looking online, it seems that the song actually goes all the way back to at least 1904. Tipper of Celebrating Appalachia might be interested to note that the song contains the word "vim" as a term to describe the bear's level of energy or determination. If you've ever heard that old word, it may likely have been paired with the word "vigor," as in "vim and vigor," to describe a person's level of enthusiasm or effort. It also seems that the original version of the song was racist in nature. Someone apparently cleaned up the song somewhere along the way. The fact that Billy Strings also left out the last verse (the one about baptizing the bear) makes me wonder if Sam might have written that verse himself. He was a very skilled songwriter. When I received from Sam a bonus copy of their first CD (just a few months before Sam passed), I knew I wanted to use this story song in the series, so I asked Sam for permission, which he graciously gave. I could certainly have sung it myself, but I knew that as a solo performer I could not bring as much to the song as the band did. I wondered what sort of picture I could show while the song/story played, then I thought that maybe a basic cartoon would work out. Of course, I procrastinated until early March before trying to find someone to make the cartoon. A gentleman named Pritish helped me out. If you're ever in need of animation, you can find him on Fiverr (please see link below). If you enjoy Sam's singing as much as I do, you can also find a few other songs by him on YouTube. Looking ahead here at the BPA channel, I will continue to upload old cassette audio tracks of me and Pap as well as of Pap and Granny, that is until I run out of things to share. I'll also be uploading a song for Ira Louvin's birthday in April. If we are able to capture any footage of mine and Jamie Shook's performance at the end of June for the Cherokee County Arts Council, I'll share it too. As always, thanks for watching!

Animation by Pritish:
https://www.fiverr.com/s/v0x6rN

Listen to original singles released on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5VX6Z...

Listen to original singles on YouTube:
   / @paulwilson6260  

Listen to Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016):
https://open.spotify.com/album/4VnoOy...