BRISTOL, Tenn. — Tim Stafford of Blue Highway stood on stage in direct sight of Tim White’s country music mural on State Street during Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion three weeks ago.
He spoke of Bristol and bluegrass. A Grammy Award-winning musician of bluegrass for decades, Stafford referenced Bristol as not only the birthplace of country music — but, perhaps, of bluegrass, too.
“The General Shelby Hotel is where they held ‘The Farm and Fun Time Show,’” said Stafford by phone. “That was a cauldron where the foundation of bluegrass was born. Bill Monroe didn’t play there, but the Stanley Brothers did. For people in this area, ‘Farm and Fun Time’ was huge.” But first came Monroe and his brother, Charlie, who initially recorded on Feb. 17, 1936, in Charlotte, North Carolina. They recorded 10 songs. One, “In My Dear Old Southern Home” — renamed from “Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea,” came from Rodgers. Another, “On Some Foggy Mountain Top,” came from the Carters.
Monroe continued to draw from the Rodgers and Carter wells. In 1937, he recorded “Weeping Willow Tree.” The Carter Family recorded it as “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree” on Aug. 1, 1927, in Bristol, Tennessee.
He struck gold on Oct. 7, 1940, when he recorded “Mule Skinner Blues” in Atlanta. It emerged from Rodgers, who titled it “Blue Yodel, #8.” Monroe kicked the tempo up, drove it hard with his mandolin, and created a history-turning classic from the father of country music.
Records made by Rodgers and The Carter Family led to their individual distinctions as the father of country music and the first family of country music. Together, theirs and other historic recordings made in Bristol in 1927 led to eventual branding of Bristol as country music’s birthplace.
“These recordings in Bristol in 1927 are the single most important event in the history of country music,” said Johnny Cash, now quite famously.
However, thought varies wildly on the actual birth of bluegrass.
Many consider the formation of Monroe’s classic band as the beginning. Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise and Howard “Cedric Rainwater” Watts formed and recorded such classics as “Blue Moon of Kentucky” in 1946, moments during which bluegrass was born.
Monroe, particularly in hindsight, spoke otherwise. In his essay to accompany Bear Family Records’ “Bill Monroe: Blue Moon of Kentucky 1936-1949,” author Charles K. Wolfe quoted from an interview that Monroe gave to Jim Rooney.
“Charlie (Monroe) and I had a country beat, I suppose, but in my music — bluegrass music — started when I ran across ‘Mule Skinner Blues’ and started playing that,” said Monroe.
Rodgers’ tune, reworked as a bedrock of what became known as bluegrass, catapulted Monroe. It’s the song that established him and bluegrass on the powerful Grand Ole Opry.
Whichever — 1940 or 1946 — one man and one band barely constitutes an entire genre. However, with the formation of The Stanley Brothers, whose style certainly drew upon that which Monroe began, bluegrass began to take shape. They were Southwest Virginia mountain-hewn boys with dreams as big as the ridge upon which they grew. Well, Carter and Ralph Stanley debuted on WCYB’s live radio program, “The Farm and Fun Time Show” in Bristol, Virginia, on Dec. 26, 1946 — three months after Monroe’s classic band formed.
“That was the biggest thing in this part of the country,” the late Ralph Stanley said in 2013, while aboard his beloved bus in Bristol. “The only thing bigger was the Grand Ole Opry. We were on [‘The Farm and Fun Time Show’] from ’46 to ’58.”
The Stanley Brothers were far from alone on “Farm and Fun Time.” For instance, when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left Monroe’s band, they eventually made their way to Bristol. They lived in a trailer park within walking distance of Tennessee High School.
“Flatt and Scruggs took their Foggy Mountain Boys name from a Carter Family song, ‘Foggy Mountain Top,’” Stafford said. “I think it was pretty big when they moved here.”
Indeed, Flatt and Scruggs ushered an infant sound to Bristol. They compounded what The Stanley Brothers brought to town and “Farm and Fun Time” nearly two years before.
“When Flatt and Scruggs brought the baby home, they went to Bristol,” White said. “That happened on ‘Farm and Fun Time.’ I think it was definitely the cradle of bluegrass because of ‘Farm and Fun Time’ and that 10,000 station that got it out everywhere. It’s definitely the cradle.”...
MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment