Published: November 07, 2008 11:29 pm      

"Follow my light to the end'

Hyndman musician keeps country sound, adds positive, Christian message to boot

HYNDMAN, Pa. — John Topper used to sing about going into honky tonks. Now he sings about staying out of them.

“Used to be I’d sing the standard country songs, songs about cheating and unrequited love. But now I write and sing songs with positive messages, with Christian messages,” Topper said, seated in the sun room of his Hyndman home. Behind him loomed Wills Mountain, its oaks hanging on to the last vestiges of autumn’s yellow.

Make no mistake about it. Just because Topper, now 64, had a spiritual transformation in the 1970s doesn’t mean there is any less twang, any less steel guitar or any less country in his music.

Topper has recorded in distant studios, such as in North Carolina and Georgia, and he has recorded not far from home in Pennsylvania.

He has made the obligatory trips to Nashville.

“I always hoped that someone would buy one of my songs (to record), but it never happened,” Topper said, adding that he took it as a spiritual signal that he was to ply his trade and spread the good word near home.

“I had a Nashville picker come here once to talk about my music and he looked around our place and said ‘John, if you never make it big on the national scene, you already have what everybody else is after.’”

Topper calls his albums “projects.” His latest project is “Reflections,” and on it are tributes to two people who were dear to him, two people who are no longer earthbound, his father, Dr. John Topper and his friend Stephanie Messenger.

Although Messenger is not named in the song “The Light,” she inspired its completion.

“So many people we knew had been diagnosed with cancer,” Topper said. “I’d been thinking about that for a long time and actually had the first verse.

The doctor sat down and looked me straight in the eye. The tests were not good. I thought “Oh Lord, why?”

Messenger, who had been diagnosed with the disease, often took her sons, M.J. and Spencer, to fish in the creek on the Topper property.

“Stephanie was on the bridge, baiting a hook for one of the boys when I stopped to talk. She was always upbeat and no different that day, even though she was ill. And then I saw it. I saw the light. It was the light in her eyes. They sparkled and I realized it was the light of Christ,” Topper said.

Topper scooted up his driveway and in a short time finished the song.

My Lord says “I’m the light at the end of life’s tunnel. Follow my light to the end. Never fear darkness again.”

Topper is a self-taught guitarist.

“Harlan Howard, who was an idol of mine, said if it has more than three or four chords then it’s not country. So that’s plenty of chords for my kind of music,” he explained.

Topper’s simple lyrics and his clear voice blend well in the tribute to his father, “The Old Country Doctor.”

Dr. John Topper is a legend, not only in Hyndman, but throughout the tri-state area where he delivered, according to his son, hundreds upon hundreds of babies in people’s homes.

The emergency room at Memorial Hospital is named in Dr. Topper’s honor.

“I remember Dr. Topper well,” said Dr. Nick Casto, a local doctor who spent years as an emergency room physician. “Sometimes when we would get busy in the ER, he’d show up and give us a hand.”

Doctor John is still talked about yet.

Old Doc Topper’s still talked about yet.

Songwriter Topper said he has made enough money from his projects to pay for them. There are numerous ways to reach Topper:

• (814) 842-6387

• 207 Old Dominion Road, Hyndman, PA 15545

• www.cowboyjt.com

Topper said he wrote “The Old Country Doctor” in 15 minutes and was able to sing it for his mother shortly before she passed away in October.

“Mom and I were recalling some funny stories about Dad,” he said. “That evening I wrote the chorus and the first two verses hit me right away. A few days later I sang it for Mom and we both cried.”

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.