{"id":2458,"date":"2016-09-07T19:35:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T23:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2458"},"modified":"2016-09-07T22:49:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T02:49:09","slug":"troubadour-owner-west-virginia-country-music-legend-jim-mccoy-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2458","title":{"rendered":"Country Music Legend Jim McCoy Dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim McCoy, the owner of the Troubadour Restaurant and Lounge<\/a> on Highland Ridge near Berkeley Springs, West Virginia has died. He was 87.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Troubadour was named after McCoy\u2019s friend, the Texas Troubadour \u2014 the late Ernest Tubb.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCoy started his career in music in the 1950s when he hosted a half hour country music radio show every Saturday on WINC in Winchester, Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCoy toured the country with his own band — Jim McCoy and the Melody Playboys — and recorded with a major Nashville label.<\/span><\/p>\n

A young Patsy Cline got her start on McCoy\u2019s WINC radio show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPatsy Cline lived in Winchester, not too far from the radio station,\u201d McCoy told This Week in Morgan County in an interview earlier this year.<\/a> \u201cWe were using one microphone. Patsy was 14 years old. She comes into the radio station. I didn\u2019t talk her that day. But the next Saturday she was there. And she said \u2014 I want to sing. I don\u2019t want no money. I just want to sing. We hadn\u2019t rehearsed. I said \u2014 well, we need to rehearse. When I heard her sing, I will never forget it. I knew she was going to be a big one. She was a great singer at 14. People don\u2019t know it but she played a little piano too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Troubadour — dubbed by Danish television as the last honky tonk in America — is home to a yearly Patsy Cline festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCoy had boundless energy and a dry sense of humor — penning such classic country songs as \u201cDivorce Me Like a Woman, Leave Me Like a Man,\u201d \u201cIf the Truth is Gonna Hurt Just Lie to Me,\u201d and \u201cMomma Pinch a Penny While Daddy Throws a Dollar Away.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

McCoy and his doctor — Matt Hahn — released those songs and others at a CD release party in 2008 at the Troubadour.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that party, McCoy brought the house down when he sang Ernest Tubb\u2019s classic — Waltz Across Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n