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| Benny Sims | |
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| Born | 1924 Sevier County, Tennessee |
| Died | December 23, 1995 (aged 70–71) Johnson City, Tennessee |
| Genres | Bluegrass, country |
Benny Sims (1924 - December 23, 1995) was a bluegrass and country musician who played with Flatt and Scruggs, Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe.
Benny Sims was born in Sevier County, Tennessee in 1924. His father and uncle were musicians. Beginning at six years old, Sims played throughout his school years.
In his junior year of high school, he was drafted by the U.S. Army Air Corps, and assigned to aid in the sale of war bonds. Following that, he was sent to Italy to perform on a radio program that was broadcast to the Allied and U.S. Forces. [1]
After leaving the military, Benny played with The Morris Brothers, Wiley and Zeke, through which he met Earl Scruggs, a previous bandmate of the brothers. Scruggs had recently formed a band with Lester Flatt, and when they found themselves in need of a fiddler in 1949, they invited Sims to join the group.
After joining Flatt and Scruggs, Sims played on over 25 recordings in 1949 and 1950, including "Little Girl in Tennessee", "It's Too Late Now", "Salty Dog Blues", [2] "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", "Pike County Breakdown" and "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms." [3] Sims sung lead vocals on "Old Salty Dog Blues," possibly because Flatt and Scruggs had a last-minute recording session with Mercury Records, and the band was looking for material. Benny had played with the Morris Brothers, who frequently performed the song during their show.
When Flatt and Scruggs changed their label, Sims recorded just six more tunes before leaving the band, including "We Can't Be Darlings Anymore," "I'll Stay Around," and "Head Over Heels In Love With You." After leaving, Sims ventured to Knoxville, Tennessee where he became a staff musician on the WNOX Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round (a popular country-radio program) and another program called The Tennessee Barn Dance that aired each Saturday night. During this his time at WNOX, Sims worked with many artists including Carl Story and Charlie Monroe.
After three years in Knoxville, Sims moved to Johnson City, Tennessee to work at WJHL-TV where he appeared on the morning show, "Hi Neighbor." The show aired only three times per week, so in Benny's extra time he performed around East Tennessee with acts like Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe.[ citation needed ]
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Excluding a short tour with Jim & Jesse McReynolds, Sims spent the remainder of his life in Johnson City, where he fully retired from professional entertainment and traveling in the early 1960s. Following his retirement, Sims was still musically active in his church services and gave some fiddle lessons, yet had no desire to return to the traveling life of a professional musician. He lived out the rest of his days happily with his wife, Eula, until he died on December 23, 1995.
Just two months before his death, Sims was honored by the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance's dedication of the Benny Sims Scholarship Fund, which is awarded yearly to students of East Tennessee State University's Bluegrass, Old-Time, & Country Music Studies Department. At this event which was held at the Paramount Theater in Bristol, Tennessee, many bluegrass superstars showed their support by performing that evening. Some of those artists include Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys, Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, John Hartford, as well as students from ETSU's Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies.
William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass".
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it largely developed out of old-time string music, though in contrast, bluegrass is traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments and also has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes as well as in blues and jazz. Bluegrass was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Monroe characterized the genre as, "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Lester Raymond Flatt was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs.
Earl Eugene Scruggs was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from the traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been played. This new style of playing became popular and elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized the instrument across several genres of music.
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music", Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful. In 1952, Hank Williams told Ralph Gleason, "He's the biggest singer this music ever knew. You booked him and you didn't worry about crowds. For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God."
Benny Edward Martin, was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the eight-string fiddle. Throughout his musical career he performed with artists such as the Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno, the Smoky Mountain Boys and Flatt and Scruggs, and later performed and recorded with the Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown, Jimmy Martin, Johnnie and Jack, and the Stonemans, among others. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Flatt and Scruggs were an American bluegrass duo. Singer and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs, both of whom had been members of Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, from 1945 to 1948, formed the duo in 1948. Flatt and Scruggs are viewed by music historians as one of the premier bluegrass groups in the history of the genre.
Vassar Carlton Clements was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions.
Josh Graves, born Burkett Howard Graves, was an American bluegrass musician. Also known by the nicknames "Buck," and "Uncle Josh," he is credited with introducing the resonator guitar into bluegrass music shortly after joining Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1997.
"Salty Dog Blues" is a folk song from the early 1900s. Musicians have recorded it in a number of styles, including blues, jazz, country music, bluegrass. Papa Charlie Jackson recorded an adaptation for Paramount and Broadway in 1924. According to Jas Obrecht, "Old-time New Orleans musicians from Buddy Bolden’s era recalled hearing far filthier versions of 'Salty Dog Blues' long before Papa Charlie’s recording." Similar versions were recorded by Mississippi John Hurt and Lead Belly.
Charlie Monroe was an American country and bluegrass music guitarist. Charlie performed with his brother, Bill, as part of the Monroe Brothers. He later formed his own group, Charlie Monroe & the Kentucky Pardners.
Gary Ruley and Mule Train is an acoustic bluegrass band based in Lexington, Virginia who also play New Grass and Jazz music.
The Bailey Brothers and the Happy Valley Boys were an American bluegrass act widely considered to be among the first to cultivate the duo harmony vocal technique widely used in modern bluegrass music today. Charlie Bailey began his musical career in 1936. His brother, Danny Bailey, teamed up with him in 1940, and the brothers began making frequent appearances on Tennessee radio stations in the Knoxville area. Danny formed the Happy Valley Boys after Charlie joined the military in 1941.
The McGee Brothers were an American old-time performing duo of brothers Sam McGee and Kirk McGee. Sam typically played guitar and Kirk usually played banjo or fiddle, although they were both proficient in multiple string instruments. The McGee Brothers were one of the most enduring acts on the Grand Ole Opry during the show's first fifty years. They made their initial appearance on the Opry in 1926 and the following year joined Uncle Dave Macon's band, the Fruit Jar Drinkers. In the 1930s, the McGees teamed up with early Opry fiddler Arthur Smith to form a string band known as the "Dixieliners," and in the 1940s they played and toured with Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys and several other notable acts.
The Lilly Brothers, were bluegrass musicians born in Clear Creek, West Virginia. They have been credited with bringing bluegrass to New England and with influencing such future bluegrass artists as Peter Rowan, Joe Val and Bill Keith, among others.
Howdy Forrester, born Howard Wilson Forrester, was an American bluegrass fiddler and a popularizer and practiser of the "Texas" or "show fiddle" style. He was a long-time member of Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys.
Benjamin Horace Williams was an American bluegrass musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he sang and played fiddle, guitar, banjo, autoharp, and mandolin.
John Ray Sechler, known as Curly Seckler, was an American bluegrass musician. He played with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in their band the Foggy Mountain Boys from 1949 to 1962, among other bluegrass acts during his career in music.
Wilene "Sally Ann" Forrester, also known as Billie Forrester, was an American musician considered to be "the first woman in bluegrass", having been employed by Bill Monroe and his band, the Blue Grass Boys, from 1943 to 1946.
Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall! is a live album by bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. It was recorded on December 8, 1962, at the first bluegrass concert ever performed at Carnegie Hall. It was released in 1963 by Columbia Records.
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