Sixty Years Ago This Month

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine

July 1995, Volume 30, Number 1

[Sixty Years Ago This Month — Bluegrass Unlimited ran a column for a number of years titled “Thirty Years Ago This Month.”  Now that we are in our sixtieth year of publication, we thought it would be fun to look back at some of those columns from thirty years ago, which now will be reporting on what was happening in bluegrass music sixty years ago.]

Thirty Years Ago This Month

NEW RELEASES

The latest front Starday is “That Dobro Sound’s Goin’ ‘Round” (SLP 340), featuring the picking of “Uncle Josh” Graves, “Bashful Brother Oswald” (Pete Kirby), “Shot” Jackson, “Deacon” Brumfield, and “Hoss” Linneman, who was also the recording engineer for the project. Each musician solos on at least two cuts, with mainly guitar and bass backing.

Just in time for this year’s Newport Folk Festival (see What’s Happening), Vanguard will release several albums of music from last year’s Newport Folk Festival. Doc Watson can be heard, along with several other folk performers on “Traditional Music At Newport, 1964, Part 1” VRS- 9182, VSD-79182), while legendary fiddler Clayton McMichen is similarly spotlighted on “Traditional Music At Newport, 1964, Part 2” (VRS-9I83, VSD- 79183). In addition, there will be three albums released of the “Evening Concerts” by the headliners: “Volume I” (VRS-9184, VSD-79184) includes the Kweskin Jug Band (with Bill Keith), “Volume 2” (VRS- 9185, VSD-79185) features the Greenbriar Boys (the only bluegrass band in the series), and “Volume 3” (VRS-9186, VSD- 79186) has more of Doc Watson.

Elektra has recently released “Tom Paley And Peggy Seeger” (EKL-295, EKS-7295), a fine album of traditional music by the former New Losl City Rambler and Mike Seeger’s sister.

Recent single releases include: Hylo Brown with “Outlaw Girl”/”I Wonder” (Starday 715), the Country Gentlemen with “Bringing Mary F^ome”/“Northbound” (Rebel 250), “Cousin Jake” (Tullock) and “Uncle Josh” (Graves) with “We’re Going To Have A Ball”/“Dobro Rumba” (Cotton- town Jubilee 112), Grandpa Jones with “Falling Leaves”/” Here Comes The Champion” (Monument 866), Parsley and (Landon) Messer with “Hem Of His Garment”/” Walking The Path To Heaven” (REM 363), and Larry Richardson and the Blue Ridge Boys with “I’ll Meet You In Church Sunday Morning”/”Sad And Lonesome Day” (Silver-Belle 1008). Also released recently,an EP by the Carroll County Ramblers with “Johnson’sOld Grey Mule”/ “When Autumn Leaves Begin To Fall”/ “God Gave You To Me”/“You Are My Sunshine” (Four Star, CC-132).

WHAT’S HAPPENING

The July-September issue of the Journal Of American Folklore (Vol. 78, No 309) includes “An Introduction To Bluegrass” by folklorist L. Mayne Smith. The 12-page article is the first to examine the musical style in scholarly detail. It will inspire others (including Neil Rosenberg, author of Bluegrass: A History, published in 1985) to delve deeper into the history of the music.

The July issue of Sing Out!, the folk music magazine features “The Lilly Brothers Of Hillbilly Ranch” by Sam Charters, with a frank portrayal of the scene at the colorful downtown Boston cabaret where Everett and Bea usually play.

Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cut-Ups (Gene Burroughs, guitar, David Deese, banjo, Bobby Lester, fiddle, John Palmer, bass) will be at the Country Music Park in Fincastle, Va., on Monday, the 5th of July, with country star George Jones.

Roy Acuff and two members of his band will be injured in an auto accident on Saturday, the 10th, near Sparta, Tenn. Acuff, 58, will suffer a broken pelvis, a fractured collarbone, and several smashed ribs. Harold “Shot” Jackson, 44, will be in critical condition with a fractured skull and fractures of both jawbones. Female vocalist June Stearns, 26, will escape with only a broken leg. The accident will happen on Route 70, the same road which once had a sign warning of “Heavy Traffic Ahead,” inspiring the song of the same name, written by Bill Monroe in the mid- 1940s.

Maybelle Carter and daughters Helen and Anita will be injured on Sunday, the 11th, near West Jefferson, Ohio, when their car will be rammed from behind while at a stoplight. Maybelle, 56, will suffer cuts and bruises, while Helen, 37, and Anita, 32, will sustain neck injuries.

The Dillards will be performing at the Troubadour in Hollywood, Cal., from Tuesday, the 13th through Sunday, the 25th.

This year’s Newport Folk Festival will open on Thursday, the 22nd, and run through Sunday, the 25th, in Newport, R.I. Nearly 76,000 fans will attend. Many bluegrass and old-time country artists will be featured, including Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, the Lilly Brothers, the Charles River Valley Boys, the New Lost City Ramblers, Maybelle Carter, Sam and Kirk McGee, Cousin Emmy, and Roscoe Holcomb, plus fiddlers Eck Robertson, Arthur Smith, and Byron Berline with his father, Lue. The younger Berline will be heard for the first time by future employer Bill Monroe. (Headliner Bob Dylan, performing on the 25th, will open his set by “plugging in,” backed by the Paul Butterfield band, bringing the sound of “folk rock” to the festival. Audience reaction will be mixed, with some booing.)

A “Country Music Festival” will be held at the Coney Island Amusement Park, near Cincinnati, Ohio, from Friday, the 23rd, through Sunday, the 25lh. Flatt and Scruggs will appear on the 23rd with Loretta Lynn and Tommy Cash.

Grand Ole Opry is the name of a new syndicated TV show being videotaped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., by WSM-TV. Scheduled to be aired this fall in California, Texas, and the Midwest, the show, hosted by Judy Collins, is taped at the Opry on Friday nights.

The Nashville publishing firm of Pamper Music, Inc., has announced the signing of Don Reno to an exclusive songwriting contract.

IN THE STUDIOS

Jimmy Martin will be recording for Decca at the Columbia Studios on 16th Avenue in Nashville on Thursday the 8th, with Bill Emerson, banjo, Earl Taylor, mandolin and harmonica, Vernon Derrick, fiddle, “Lightnin’” Chance, bass and Willie Ackerman, drums. They will record “The Last Song,” “Sweet Dixie,” “Wild Indian,” “Run, Boy, Run,” “Theme Time,” and “Orange Blossom Special” during the three-hour session.

Charlie Moore and Bill Napier will be in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sunday and Monday, the 25th and 26th, to record an album for King. With Charlie (guitar and lead vocals) and Bill (banjo, lead guitar, and baritone vocals) will be Eb Collins (mandolin), Paul Mullins (fiddle and bass vocals), and Henry Dockery (string bass and tenor vocals). Eleven titles will be cut, including “Long Old Road,” “Truck Driver’s Woman,” “Hot Rod Kids And Women Drivers,” “Long White Line,” and the “Ballad Of Big Fred.”