b'THE ARIZONA DUUUDEDolan Ellis, Arizonas Official Balladeer, Part 2By Bob Roloff, The Arizona DuuudeYou can follow Bob Roloff on Facebook.I fun, funny song. I still sing it when people request it, had the opportunity tosit down with Dolan and they request it all the time.Ellis, Arizona\'s OfficialState Balladeer since 1966. This is the second part of I\'ve often wondered how entertainers like you remember our interview. the lyrics to all of their songs. How do you do it? Dolan replied, Well I Dolan noted, I have lots of favorite places in Arizona. Idon\'t know, the brain is a marvelous love the Mogollon Rim country, but what I really like isthing. For one, theyre a story and the desert, the Sonoran Desert country, the desert reallystories are easy to remember. In does appeal to me. I love to be around the Saguaros andfact, when I was a kid I would writephotography and art, all kinds of out in the desert. The desert is a story; it tells a story ifsongs. Back then I remember mythings. Why don\'t we have a place you know how to read the desert. It tells a story everydad saying, I don\'t understand howfor folklore? So I just you know, I\'ll time you go out there.I love the heat; it doesnt botheryou cant remember your spellingjust start a folklore center. So thats me, except maybe now because I\'m a little older. Inwords, but you can remember allwhy I bought it with that in mind.town, its a different kind of heat than it used to be. Thethe lyrics to songs." Its because of humidity is higher because of all the lawns and pools. the story, it tells a story. Its prettySo we get it up, did a 501c3 and got amazing. People request somethingit going, and got the University of A friend of mine, Babs Sanders, said to ask you aboutI haven\'t done for years, I\'m on stageArizona involved. We wanted to build the Truck Stop in Tuba City. Whats the story behindand the pressure is on, it just comes out, it just follows.a beautiful new facility, but we needed the Universitys that? Well, I wrote a song called, Who\'s GonnaRunIt amazes me that I can always pull things out of the hatfinancial statement to be able to make it happen. So I The Truck Stop in Tuba City When I\'m Gone?Its athat I haven\'t done in years. My doctor tells me don\'tsaid if you will come in, if you will be the credibility so fun fast-moving lyric song, I did on the Jerry Lewis TVstop singin cause thats the best medicine. that we can get this loan, then we will gift you the land, telethon, and after I came off the stage the guy from thethe buildings, and the Folklore Center when it is paid TV station said you got a phone call out in the hallway.I asked Dolan how the Arizona Folklore Preserve cameoff. That has all transpired now. The state of Arizona So I go pick it up and this guy on the phone says areabout. Well, it happened when I bought some propertynow owns those four acres that were part of my ranch. It you the guy that just sang that song on TV? I said ya.in Ramsey Canyon. I found a really neat mountainwill be run by the University into perpetuity.He said this is Leroy Van Dyke and I\'d like to recordranch up in there with 18 acres. It needed a lot of work,that song. I thought it was one of my friends puttin\' meit was all run down but it had a creek running through itI am the artist in residence, and I go down there once on. So I went noooo if you\'re really Leroy Van Dyke, Iwith cottonwood trees. So I bought it and restored it. Ita month and do one weekend on Saturday and Sunday. want to hear some of that auctioneer stuff; he\'s the guywas just beautiful. I knew why I bought it because I wasIts open every weekend, with shows at 2 pm both days. that had this big hit about the auctioneer. So he rattledlooking for a spot to open and to build a folklore center. We now have two to three hundred different folk acts off some of this auctioneer stuff, and I said okay. I metfrom Arizona and New Mexico. We try to stick with him the following morning, we signed a contract. HeI had gone to the Scottsdale Library way back in thethe southwest, California, Colorado, and Utah. The recorded it and put it on the top charts for me. We wereeighties, and went into the southwestern room, andfolk singers, the songwriters, we now book almost two up there for several weeks in the top forty. So anywayasked to see the area on folklore. The section was aboutyears in advance because so many people want to work this Tuba City Truck Stop has become a meaningfultwo inches wide. It had some Burl Ives in there, a bookthe place. The project is really a meaningful moment in song in my career. People always enjoy it because its aabout Yaki Indian dancers and that was about it. I\'mmy life. I\'ve put many, many years and a lot of my own going like where is the folkloremoney into it. Its very important to me. and where is it being archived to be presented to the generalToday Dolan says he is retired as he will ever get with public? I said we had placestwo to three shows a month. If I wanted to work more, for dance, we had places forI could work more; I don\'t solicit at all, just whatever comes across my web site. I\'m really busy every day on the computer. I have been archiving, organizing, writing, and getting my stuff together. I still don\'t have all my stuff together. I have at least ten thousand files to go thru and digitize. My heart is in writing, recording and archiving now. I have things unwritten on my hit list. Things I want to write about that I haven\'t gotten done yet. This is the time of life to get those things done.The internet is a wonderful vehicle. My Facebook page is being redesigned right now because I\'ve reached the maximum of five thousand. So I\'m going to go into another style of page so that I can keep going with it. I can reach thousands of people via my web page right here in my home with a story or some sort of thought-provoking thing. I can teach them about Arizona. dolanellis.com and dellis@dolanellis.net38 January 2020'