“I’ll never forget opening up for Buck Owens,” said Jessey Higdon of Bruce. “That was a big deal for a 15-year-old kid.”
That was in Joliet, Illinois. Throughout Higdon’s music career he played in a lot of the same clubs that Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis played.
He even wrote a song about one of them –Island 35 in rural Arkansas.
“The parking lot was actually a bean field,” he said. “You paid a cover to get in, and they had moonshine and no telling what else. They shot dice in the back. It was a unique place. Feds would come in every so often and blow it up, and two weeks later it was back open again. I played a few places when I was young that I wouldn’t play today.”
Jessey was the oldest of six children of Sam and Mary Higdon. He was born in rural Arkansas, but moved a lot as a kid after his father became a preacher.
“I went to 13 different schools before I graduated high school,” Jessey said. “One good thing is it teaches you to adapt.”
Higdon’s earliest memories of music were of his father playing guitar.
“I can remember my daddy playing music long before he became a minister. In fact, he opened up for Hank Williams at a concert in Arkansas in 1950.”
“Daddy tried to get me to learn some chords very early on, but it wasn’t until I was nine years old I told him I wanted to learn how to play. Everybody else was going outside and playing, and I was inside practicing.”
Higdon was playing rhythm guitar along side his father by the time he was 10, but things changed when his dad entered the ministry.
“He always liked pastoring small, rural churches. My twin sisters would sing with us when we played in church. You can’t beat that harmony.”
Jessey started his own band when he was 15. His first concert was a teenage dance, but his young music career was put on hold when he was drafted into the Army in 1967 and shipped off to Korea.
“My dad was adamant that you go serve your country when they call, but don’t let them talk you into re-upping,” Jessey said. “I was tempted to re-up, but music was the main reason I didn’t stay.”
One of his earliest groups was called the “Memphis Sounds,” but he soon learned he’d be better off using his own name.
“Every time we went to the expense of getting some promotional pictures done for the group, somebody would drop out shortly after,” Jessey said. “I decided I would just call it the Jessey Higdon Band from then on, because I knew I would always be there.”
He moved to Rockford, Illinois where he worked in a Chrysler assembly plant, while attending college three days a week and playing music three nights a week.
When his father landed a church in Water Valley in 1975, Higdon came down to finish school at Ole Miss.
It was during this time his music career was at its peak. He regularly played honky tonks, country clubs, dinner clubs and put out four albums and 23 singles.
He would open shows for acts such as the Oak Ridge Boys, Conway Twitty and Dottie West.
“North Mississippi made my living,” Jessey said. “I traveled all over playing, but my crowds always came from Oxford and surrounding areas. They were good to me.”
He played music as a career until the 1990s when he decided to get another full-time job.
“I always said if I didn’t have a big hit by the time I was in my 40s, I would do something else.”
He used his college degree to get into teaching, but several years in was still making more money playing music a few nights a week than from his teaching job.
A friend and fellow musician, Dr. Larry Tyler, head of the special ed department at North Mississippi Regional Center, encouraged him to pursue an opportunity there.
“I used to play at the Regional Center with my band,” Jessey said. “We always played two shows for free – the Regional Center and St. Jude.”
Jessey went back to school and earned his masters and PhD while working at the regional center and still playing music on the weekends.
“You can do anything if you work at it,” he said. “I had the perseverance to push forward. I credit my parents for that.”
While Jessey never had the “big hit,” he wrote dozens of songs through the years that earned lots of radio play including “Sneakin’ Cheaters” and “I Had Yesterday With You.”
“‘I Had Yesterday With You’ always got a great response in all my shows,” Jessey said. “When you get on stage, that response you get, especially if it’s about one of your own songs, there isn’t another feeling like that.”
Jessey said Mike Brown of Water Valley and Mike McGreger, who worked with Elvis, were big supporters of his throughout his career.
“I really appreciate those guys.”
He retired from North Mississippi Regional Center five years ago. At 68 years old, he still plays various events with the Sharecroppers band out of Yalobusha County.
He’s also getting into playing some Gospel as well.
“We’re the Sharecroppers for Jesus,” Jessey said with a smile. “I had someone suggest there could be some money in that, but we’re not doing it for money. You move people with music. That’s what we want.”
He hasn’t given up his song writing either.
“I’m still working on one for my wife Debbie,” Jessey said. “I promised it would be something upbeat.”
Thinking back over his musical career, Jessey said he has no regrets.
“I think everything turned out great,” he said. “I’ve gotten to do something I love all my life. I’m still enjoying it today.”