Here is the Playlist for the Mother’s Day show. (I hope your mother’s day was happy.) 
Artist – Song Title – duration – Album Title – (date) Label
9:00 Introduction
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Snuffy Jenkins & Pappy Sherrill – I Want My Rib 3:02 “33 Years of Pickin’ and Pluckin’” (1971) Rounder
- Snuffy Jenkins, Greasy Medlin and Pappy Sherrill (from NC State Archives)
Off and on, Snuffy Jenkins, Pappy Sherrill and Greasy Medlin played together for decades. Taking the Garden of Eden as a jumping-off-point, “I Want My Rib” is a minstrel-type novelty number that features Greasy’s vocals. Snuffy Jenkins was a pioneer of the three-finger banjo style that is the backbone of bluegrass, so naturally I played a track on which he plays washboard.
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Johnny Darrell – Mama Come ‘n’ Get Your Baby Boy 3:08 “The Best of Johnny Darrell (1969) United Artists
- Johnny Darrell
Johnny Darrell was a fine singer who had the misfortune of singing great songs that were big hits – for people who covered his versions. “With Pen in Hand” was his biggest number, but basically all the United Artists stuff is awfully good.
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Meg Christian – For Mama 0:53 “Turning It Over”
Meg Christian is a fine singer and songwriter who has unfortunately been overshadowed by Holly Near and Chris Williamson, with whom she was associated in the 1970′s. Meg is performing again, so hopefully she will finally get her due.
- Pete McMahan – Echoes of the Ozarks 2:19 “Missouri Fiddlin’ #3” (year unknown) Graphic Records
9:15 Mostly Local
The Piney Pickers were a band whose members were drawn from all over East Tennessee. These members were: Billy Womack of Woodbury on fiddle; Jack Sallee of Cookeville on banjo; Mayford Blankenship of Vonore on guitar and lead vocals; James Ramsey of Loudon on bass, plus sometime members Mose Herron of the Knoxville area on rhythm guitar and Alcoa resident Bruce Whitehead or William Garrett on mandolin. On this album the Piney Pickers are joined by a pair of Dobro players – high school history teacher Eldon Davis and the one and only Josh Graves.
Billy Womack’s fiddling is beginning to be released on CD, thanks to the Arts Center of Cannon County’s Spring Fed Records.
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The
Louvin Brothers & Fiddlin’ Bob Douglas – Take the News to Mother 2:45 “Sequatchie Valley” (c1990)
- Fiddlin’ Bob Douglas & Georgia Boy Brown (Friends of the Cumberland Trail)
Fiddlin’ Bob Douglas was a southeastern Tennessee treasure who performed on the radio in Chattanooga and won about every fiddle contest around. He also had the distinction of giving the legendary Louvin Brothers one of their first professional jobs in early 1946. This recording dates from that association.
The Knoxville Grass were, along with the Pinnacle Boys, about the biggest thing around in the white-hot Knoxville bluegrass scene of the 1970′s. “Darby’s Castle” was a high point of a great string of fine LP’s.
9:30 Mother’s Day
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Peggy Little – Sweet Baby Girl 3:08 “A Little Bit of Peggy Little” (1969) Dot Records
- Peggy Little
Peggy Little’s biggest number was a cover of “Son of a Preacher Man,” released shortly after Dusty Springfield’s smash hit version. However, Peggy turned in an unforgettable performance on just about everything she recorded. “Sweet Baby Girl” has been recorded by others, but never as well.
Hank Williams and Ray Price sideman Don Helms should be familiar to most fans of traditional country music. Starday put out a series of side- and session-man steel guitar and Dobro instrumental LP’s in the 60′s. I wish labels still did that sort of thing.
I wish I knew something about John Hodnett – “Help Me Get to Dayton” is a gritty, Merle Haggard-type slice-of-life about a hitchhiking runaway junkie teen prostitute who just wants a ride home to mama. The other side of this 45 single is a lighthearted Western Swing-flavored number.
9:45 Hymn Time
Esco Hankins is sometimes belittled as a Roy Acuff imitator, but the two tunes in this set were his own compositions, and amply demonstrate Esco’s well-rounded talent. In addition to being singing partners, Esco Hankins and Jackie Tincher were husband and wife.
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- Esco Hankins
- The Summers Trio – Mama 1:56 “This Is Why We Sing” (1970) Tri-State Recording
- l-r, Margaret Summers, Elmer Summers and Naomi Boshears
The Summers Trio wrote most of their own songs. The writer credit on these is merely “Summers,” so it’s likely that credit was evenly divided. The fact that it wasn’t credited to “Summers Trio” caused me to believe that the credit was individual, but I now feel differently after re-reading the album liner notes.
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The Daugherty Quartet – Mother’s Bible 2:18 “Beyond the Last Mile” (1969) Tri-State Recording
- l-r, Bob Wilson, Carol Wilson, Andy Daugherty and Nina Ruth Daugherty
The gospel music of Jacksboro, Tennessee is rather well represented on vinyl and I suspect that The Daugherty Quartet is partly responsible for that. The Summers Trio number above is from an album which has 6 numbers by the Summers on one side and 6 by the Daughertys on the other, “a” side. Andy Daugherty is the father of both Nina Ruth Daugherty and Carol Wilson and, of course, the father-in-law of Bob Wilson.
