The most improbably successful tunesmith in the U.S. last week was a genial, buckskin-fringed character out of Timbo, Ark. (pop. 100) named Jimmie Driftwood. Six Driftwood royalty-winners—Soldier's Joy, Battle of Kookamonga, Tennessee Stud, Sal's Got a Sugar Lip, The Battle of New Orleans, Sailor Man—were riding the sales charts of pop or country-and-western tunes; in other versions most of them are sung and strummed by Driftwood himself.
Two years ago, Jimmie Driftwood was getting along on $3,200 as principal of the Snowball, Ark. high school. Although he had been singing, composing and collecting...
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