The Shelor Family (also known as Dad Blackard's Moonshiners) was an American folk music group formed in Meadows of Dan, Virginia in the 1920s. Their music, which was recorded during the Bristol sessions in 1927, had a profound impact on country and bluegrass music. The original family band included Joe Blackard (banjo, vocals), his daughter Clarice (piano, vocals), Jesse Shelor (fiddle, vocals) and Pyrhus Shelor (fiddle), and later resurfaced on an album of field recordings arranged in 1975.
Born in December 1894, Jesse Shelor began playing the fiddle at ten years-old under the tutelage of the regionally popular musician Wallace Spangler. Spangler’s two sons Tump and Babe were also fiddle players, and Babe appears on the compilation album The Old-Time Virginia Fiddlers. [1] In 1917, Jesse Shelor was drafted into the armed forces during the First World War, but was discharged after most of his division was wiped out by the Spanish influenza. He renewed his music career with his mentor Spangler and married Joe Blackard's daughter, Clarice, in 1919. [2] Working as a mailman and playing banjo on the side, Blackard offered the songs "Young Beichan", "The Holy Twig", "Fine Sally", and "Bow and Balance to Me" to writer Cecil Sharp for his book English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians in 1918. [3] Like the Shelor family, the Blackard family included several musicians including bluegrass fiddlers Delmar and Buddy Pendleton. [2]
In the 1920s, Jesse and Pyrus Shelor joined Joe and Clarice Blackard to perform under the name "The Shelor Family" for dances and other social functions. [4] While on the lookout for new artists, record producer Ralph Peer took the advice of Ernest Stoneman, and traveled to Bristol, then a crossroads for folk musicians. Although the initial response was lackluster at best, musicians soon came in droves, including the Shelor Family, to record for Peer when Stoneman revealed he was being paid $50 per side. [3] On August 2, 1927, the group, along with Jesse and Clarice Shelor's seven-year-old son Joseph holding sheet music, recorded the songs "Sandy River Belle", "Big Ben Gal" (incorrectly labeled Big Bend Gal), "Billy Grimes the Rover", and "Suzanna Gal" at a millinery shop. Released under the name Dad Blackard's Moonshiners, the four sides are a part of the Bristol sessions, which had a significant impact on future waves of country and bluegrass musicians. [2]
Even though the Shelor Family was offered the opportunity to record again, the group never returned, but the family and the generations that followed continued to stay involved in music both professionally and semi-professionally. [2] Among the most successful performers of the Shelor Family is Sammy Shelor, who leads the commercially successful bluegrass band Lonesome River Band. [5] In 2009, Field Recorders Collective released an album, which featured material performed by descendants of Jesse and Clarice Shelor in 1975. [6]
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".
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. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music.
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.
The Dillards are an American bluegrass and country rock band from Salem, Missouri. The band is best known for introducing bluegrass music into the popular mainstream with their appearance as "The Darlings" on The Andy Griffith Show.
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles, the African music and blues of early African Americans, and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.
Brad Leftwich is a prominent American old-time fiddler, banjo player, singer and teacher of traditional old-time style. He is originally from Oklahoma but has resided in Bloomington, Indiana for most of his life. He performs solo and with his long-time musical partner and wife, Linda Higginbotham, and with his band, The Humdingers, which also includes Sam Bartlett and Abby Ladin.
Jim & Jesse were an American bluegrass music duo of brothers, Jim McReynolds and Jesse McReynolds. They were born and raised in Carfax, a community near Coeburn, Virginia, United States.
Doyle Wayne Lawson is an American traditional bluegrass and Southern gospel musician. He is best known as a mandolin player, vocalist, producer, and leader of the 6-man group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Lawson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
The Johnson City Sessions were a series of influential recording auditions conducted in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1928 and 1929 by Frank Buckley Walker, head of the Columbia Records "hillbilly" recordings division. Certain releases from the Johnson City Sessions—especially Clarence Ashley's "The Coo-coo Bird" and The Bentley Boys' "Down On Penny's Farm"—are considered by music scholars as important recordings of early country music that influenced a whole generation of revivalist folk musicians of the 1950s and 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Doc Watson.
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.
Walker's Run is an acoustic bluegrass band based out of Lexington, Virginia who also play New Grass and Jazz music.
Old time fiddle is a genre of American folk music. "Old time fiddle tunes" derived from European folk dance tunes such as Jig, Reel, Breakdown, Schottische, Waltz, Two Step and Polka. The fiddle may be accompanied by banjo or other instruments but are nevertheless called "fiddle tunes". The genre traces from the colonization of North America by immigrants from England, France, Germany, Ireland, and Scotland. It is separate and distinct from traditions which it has influenced or which may in part have evolved from it, such as bluegrass, country blues, variants of western swing and country rock.
Bluegrass fiddling is a distinctive style of American fiddle playing which is characterized by bold, bluesy improvisation, off-beat "chopping", and sophisticated use of both double-stops and old-time bowing patterns.
The Lonesome River Band is an American contemporary bluegrass band. The band has released 15 recording projects since its formation in 1982. Lonesome River Band is led by Sammy Shelor who is a member of the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame and a 5-Time International Bluegrass Music Association Banjo Player of the Year Award recipient. The band has experienced numerous personnel changes over the years, and has not included an original member since Tim Austin left the band in 1995 to focus on Doobie Shea Records.
Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited is a double-CD produced by Grammy Award-winner Carl Jackson, a Bluegrass and country music artist, as a benefit for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Tennessee. The project was conceived by executive producer Rusty Morrell, a Bristol native who was well acquainted with the story of the historic 1927 Bristol Sessions and imagined a modern tribute to the sessions that have been dubbed the "big bang" of country music. The project includes 37 tracks - 18 songs and 19 spoken word tracks that provide context. WSM disc jockey and country music historian Eddie Stubbs narrates the project, and a who's who of country artists recorded the new versions of the old classics. Jackson recorded the album between 2013 and 2015. It was released by Sony Legacy Recordings on May 12, 2015.
Donald Glen Rigsby is an American mandolinist, fiddler, guitarist, vocalist, and producer in the bluegrass tradition. He is known for his solo career, and for his work with the Lonesome River Band and Longview.
Patuxent Music is an independent record label in Rockville, Maryland.
Alan Daniel Bibey is a mandolinist, singer, songwriter, and band leader in the bluegrass tradition.
Rickie Hal Simpkins is an American fiddler and mandolinist in the bluegrass tradition. He is best known for his solo albums and his work with the Lonesome River Band and the Seldom Scene.
Joe Mullins is an American banjo player, vocalist, band leader, and radio broadcaster. He plays bluegrass and gospel music.
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