Pappy Sherrill

Last updated
Pappy Sherrill
Birth nameHomer Lee Sherrill
Also known asPappy Sherrill
Born(1915-03-23)March 23, 1915
Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, US
DiedNovember 30, 2001(2001-11-30) (aged 86)
Chapin, South Carolina, US
Genres Bluegrass music, old time
Occupation(s)Musician
Instruments fiddle
Years active1928–2001
Labels Rounder Records
Associated acts Wade Mainer, The Blue Sky Boys, The Morris Brothers, Snuffy Jenkins, Byron Parker and His Hillbillies, The Hired Hands
Website www.snuffyandpappy.com

Homer "Pappy" Lee Sherrill (March 23, 1915, Sherrills Ford, North Carolina - November 30, 2001) was an American Old Time and Bluegrass fiddler.

Pappy received his first fiddle, a tin model from Sears and Roebuck, at the age of seven. His first professional performance was in 1928 at Radio Station WSOC in Gastonia, North Carolina. In 1934 Pappy was performing for the Crazy Water Barn Dance on Charlotte, North Carolina's WBT radio station. It was while playing for Crazy Water Crystals that Pappy joined The Blue Sky Boys at station WWNC in Asheville, NC and later The Crazy Blue Ridge Hillbillies at station WGST in Atlanta, Ga. There, he met his wife and formed another band named The Smiling Rangers and moved back to Raleigh, NC at WPTF and then to Danville, VA for station WBTM. [1]

In October 1939 Pappy joined the WIS Hillbillies. This introduced Pappy to Dewitt "Snuffy" Jenkins and began a musical friendship that would endure throughout their lifetime. In 1948 Byron Parker, "The Hired Hand", died. To honor the memory of their dear friend the WIS Hillbillies underwent a name change and became The Hired Hands. The Hired Hands became a veritable force in the country music scene in South Carolina and in 1954 they appeared on WIS-TV's very first day of broadcast. There, the group conducted a television show, "Carolina in the Morning." [2]

Related Research Articles

Old-time music Genre of folk music

Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin.

Milton Brown Musical artist

Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing". The birthplace of Brown's upbeat "hot-jazz hillbilly" string band sound was developed at the Crystal Springs Dance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas from 1931 to 1936.

Billy DeBeck Cartoonist (1890–1942)

William Morgan DeBeck, better known as Billy DeBeck, was an American cartoonist. He is most famous as the creator of the comic strip Barney Google, later retitled Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. The strip was especially popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and featured a number of well-known characters, including the title character, Bunky, Snuffy Smith, and Spark Plug the race horse. Spark Plug was a merchandising phenomenon, and has been called the Snoopy of the 1920s.

Reno and Smiley

Reno and Smiley were an American musical duo that was composed of Don Reno and Red Smiley. They were one of the most acclaimed duos in country and bluegrass music in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Forest Orion "Mick" Mixon III is the play-by-play radio voice announcer for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League. Mixon took this position during the 2005 football season, replacing Bill Rosinski. He was formerly a color analyst for the Tar Heel Sports Network, working alongside former "Voice of the Tar Heels," play-by-play announcer Woody Durham, beginning in 1989.

The Morris Brothers were an American country music group particularly popular in the 1930s, although they continued to play together occasionally until the 1970s.

Wade Mainer American bluegrass musician

Wade Echard Mainer was an American country singer and banjoist. With his band, the Sons of the Mountaineers, he is credited with bridging the gap between old-time mountain music and Bluegrass and is sometimes called the "Grandfather of Bluegrass." In addition, he innovated a two-finger banjo fingerpicking style, which was a precursor to modern three-finger bluegrass styles.

Albert Green Hopkins was an American musician, a pioneer of what later came to be called country music; in 1925 he originated the earlier designation of this music as "hillbilly music", though not without qualms about its pejorative connotation.

The Blue Sky Boys were an American country music duo consisting of the brothers Earl Bolick and Bill Bolick, whose careers spanned over forty years.

DeWitt "Snuffy" Jenkins was an American old time banjo player and an early proponent of the three-finger banjo style.

Joseph Calvin "Butch" Robins is an American five-string–banjo player with his own, distinct style. He's an individualist and, according to himself, "a seeker of information, knowledge and wisdom."

J. E. Mainer was an American old time fiddler who followed in the wake of Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers.

Roy Book Binder Musical artist

Roy Book Binder is an American blues guitarist, singer-songwriter and storyteller. A student and friend of the Rev. Gary Davis, he is equally at home with blues and ragtime. He is known to shift from open tunings to slide arrangements to original compositions, with both traditional and self-styled licks. His storytelling is another characteristic that makes his style unique.

Charles Thomas Bowman was an American old-time fiddle player and string band leader. He was a major influence on the distinctive fiddle sound that helped shape and develop early Country music in the 1920s and 1930s. After delivering a series of performances that won him the first prize in dozens of fiddle contests across Southern Appalachia in the early 1920s, Bowman toured and recorded with several string bands and vaudeville acts before forming his own band, the Blue Ridge Music Makers, in 1935. In his career, he would be associated with country and bluegrass pioneers such as Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' John Carson, Roy Acuff, Charlie Poole, and Bill Monroe.

Jim Eanes was an American bluegrass and country music singer and guitarist.

Tommy Faile was an American songwriter and singer best known for composing "Phantom 309" and singing "The Legend of the Brown Mountain Lights". He was known for his deep voice and comic on-stage banter.

Boyden Carpenter (1909–1995) was a hillbilly and bluegrass artist active in the 1930s and 1940s in the United States.

Paul Brown (American journalist) American journalist and musician

Paul Brown is an American journalist and musician. He began his radio and journalism career at commercial radio station WPAQ in Mount Airy, NC. He began work in public radio in 1987, at NPR member station WFDD in Winston-Salem, NC. From 1999 to late 2013, he worked at NPR's Washington, DC headquarters as a news executive, editor, producer, reporter and world newscaster. He is a traditional musician who acquired his first repertoire from his Virginia-born mother. He is best known in music circles as a banjo player, fiddler and singer. He has documented musicians and music traditions, primarily in the southeastern US, and produced numerous recordings.

Marty Roberts American radio disc jockey, songwriter, TV personality and actor (1918–2009)

Marty Roberts was an American radio disc jockey (DJ), songwriter, TV personality and actor.

References

  1. A history of the musical careers of Dewitt "Snuffy" Jenkins, banjoist, and Homer "Pappy" Sherrill, fiddler. Ahrens, Pat J. 1970
  2. Homer Lee "Pappy" Sherrill: Master Fiddler. Fiddler Magazine, Spring Issue. Ahrens, Pat J. 2001