Redbuds are in full bloom at the Core Arboretum.
And last Thursday afternoon, a foreman who cares for the old-growth forest off Patteson Drive laughed with glee as soon as he learned of the trajectory that a local song celebrating this colorful tree is now taking in Oklahoma.
“Chris is out here a lot,” Zach Fowler said.
“That's amazing. Great song. I would have to congratulate him.”
Mr. Fowler is a biology professor at WVU and a pioneer in the botany of a place saved from a development boom at the end of World War II when the soldier-turned-student march to Morgantown on the GI Bill began. overseeing the efforts.
He mentions his university colleague Chris Haddox. He is a professor of sustainable design and knows how to choose a guitar and write songs.
In 2021, Haddox released a self-titled album of heartfelt and upbeat original songs with the help of Mountain Stage Music Director Ron Sowell, and it continues to do well on Americana charts both domestically and internationally. Contains.
Haddox is currently tied with Willie Nelson on one of those charts.
So let's talk about it.
You can even hear the connection to Earth Day in the current context of that particular song's story.
I'll explain that too.
Redbud Road Trip
A Haddox-composed song that has recently captured the ears and eyes of Oklahoma wranglers, cowboys and two-steppers is “Nothing Says Spring Like Redbud.”
The song is a Western swing-style number that would be right at home on Bob Wills' bandstand at a Tulsa dance hall.
Haddox wrote songs in his head while behind the wheel.
As he drove from Charleston back to Morgantown on Interstate 79, he was fascinated by the number of redbuds he kept seeing.
After the song was released on CD, he decided to explore the potential marketing roots of the song.
“I started to wonder how many states have adopted the redbud as their state tree,” said the professor and songwriter.
After all, there's only one Oklahoma State.
So he pitched it and it wasn't long before he actually heard back.
Tourism marketers loved it and wanted to use it in a campaign video promoting Redbud's state parks.
Haddox tweaked one of the lyrics to reference Oklahoma.
A weekly TV spot about stay-at-home tourism, Discover Oklahoma's edition features jump cuts from state parks.
Oklahoma State Park. Oklahoma State Parks have a lot of great names.
Robards Cove.
Roman nose.
Also Quartz Mountain and Texoma.
With the help of Lauren Nelson, a proud daughter of Lawton and 2007 Miss America, a crowd of schoolchildren sings this Redbud song together.
The video is available on the Discover Oklahoma Facebook page.
“Local Red Bud fans are invited to join in and hear Chris and his band perform in honor of our spring princess, ‘Celsius canadensis,’” the page says in the introduction.
Don't take it all
Fowler says he's glad Irvin Stewart listened to Earl L. Corr (yes, that one) when the two started talking in earnest in 1948. .
Stewart was WVU's provost and Core, a professor, was a star in the biology department, where his work in botany had already blossomed into international fame.
Three years after America's victories in Europe and Japan, the Mountain State's flagship university grew even faster and became even larger.
At Suncrest, large tracts of land, including the farms of the Kreps and Dill families, had been acquired to establish the Evansdale campus.
Fowler said Core knew how everything was going to happen.
river of fire
Monday is Earth Day. The event, which raises environmental awareness, was founded in 1970, a year after Cleveland's Cuyahoga River actually caught fire and became so polluted that mountains of trash floated on top of the oil slick.
The event also occurred during the then-active back-to-the-land movement in West Virginia, which Fowler said was somewhat of a challenge to biologists devoted to botany and land conservation. It is said that there is a debt of gratitude.
Mr. Core convinced Mr. Stewart to set aside 91 acres behind where the WVU Coliseum now stands as a safe haven for more dense, lush nature, the arboretum director said. . Interrupted by various shocks of wildflowers.
“We have trees here that are 200 years old and probably even older than that,” Fowler said.
The arboretum, named by WVU in Koa's honor in 1975, is Earth Day with the film's signature happy ending.
“Earl L. Corr was a hero, and this place is a treasure,” Fowler said of the all-out-doors advocate who died in 1984.
Bud (with my Bud)
Meanwhile, Haddox, a regular at Core Arboretum, said she's grateful her song is being used to encourage people to get outside in Oklahoma.
He doesn't take his gifted songwriting skills too seriously at times, he said.
His current relationship with the aforementioned Willie Nelson is proof.
The Morgantown songwriter and Texas troubadour currently sits at No. 14 on the Folk Alliance International Music Charts.
Haddox was responsible for “Nothing Says Spring Like Redbud,'' and Nelson was responsible for “The Border.''
“Hey, I'll take Willie to a draw any day,” Haddox said.
“I'm associated with redbud right now, but he's always been associated with a different kind of bud. Maybe I should go on tour.”
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