The school bus driver with a Grammy (Joe Thompson of the Fairfield Four)

[Tanuki]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/2016/02/22/school-bus-driver-joe-thompson-grammy/80564506/



It’s a special day in the afternoon bus line outside tiny Watertown Elementary School in rural eastern Wilson County.
A smiling 4-year-old blonde girl carries a neon-yellow cardboard sign that reads “We Love Mr. Joe” and sheepishly hands it to the beaming bus driver.
“Ms. Elise!” he says, chuckling, deep voice booming. “Thank you, baby.”
...........

But this sign also is a large congratulations card — Joe Thompson just four days earlier had won a Grammy award in Los Angeles, about 2,048 miles away.
Thompson leads legendary gospel quartet The Fairfield Four, which broke big outside the genre in 2000 by appearing at the end of the Coen Brothers' movie “O Brother Where Art Thou?”
Still, that music thing is just a part-time gig for the 80-year-old bass singer.
His regular job, which pays $17 an hour, is driving a school bus for little boys and girls with special needs from Mt. Juliet to Watertown Elementary School and back.
And Thompson loves it, so much so that he mentioned it in his acceptance speech when The Fairfield Four won for best Roots Album at the Grammys.
While critically acclaimed and well-known, The Fairfield Four, like many gospel acts, doesn’t have the kind of touring schedule or album sales that can sustain its members. The group plays about four or five shows a month.

Thompson worked for 29 years building trucks for Peterbilt, retiring in 2002. He says he got bored at home and started driving a bus for Wilson County Schools that same year.
The kids just love him.
He greets each like a grandchild.
Those pre-K kids don’t really know what a Grammy is. Teachers say they just know Mr. Joe got a big prize.
Those same teachers say Mr. Joe deserves another prize for the way he makes each of his kids with special needs feel important and safe.
“He makes them feel like rock stars,” teacher Heather Howard says.
“Some of them have issues with socialization. When he says their names, he puts some emphasis on it. And they’ll say, ‘Hey, how are you?’ For him to get them to talk back with him, that’s really cool.”
.......(more at link)


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I watched one of the Obama-Romney debates at a watching party at Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church in Goodlettsville, TN. The original group started as members of the congregation. There's a little about the group's history about halfway down in the link below:
http://www.fairfield-missionarybaptistchurch.org/history.html

[monmouth4]

1. The music in that movie was fantastic. So glad this group is recognized...n/t