Hillbilly Music (1920-)

White country bluesman Cliff Carlisle was among the most prolific recording artists of the 1930s; a blue yodeler in the tradition of Jimmie Rodgers, he helped pioneer the popularity of the Hawaiian steel guitar in country music, while the ribald imagery of his material established him among the wittiest and most reckless composers of his day. Born in Taylorsville, KY, on May 6, 1904,

Eck Robertson was one of the most noteworthy fiddlers I have run across, because there is so much incredible history surrounding a man whose fiddling almost transcended the Old-Time style. Eck was an accomplished talent, and played many parts of his tunes in second or third position, a convention much more common to Classical style playing than Old-Time. Eck is also credited with being the first recorded country artist (see below).

The music of Fiddlin' John Carson from Fannin County, Georgia, was the first of what we know today as "country music" to be broadcast by radio and recorded for phonograph. He and his daughter, Rosa Lee, who was known as "Moonshine Kate," were the first stars despite the fact that little of the fame and none of the fortunes produced in the country music industry ever were theirs.

Go back in time to learn about old time country music in the early days.

Samantha Bumgarner was born in 1878 in Dillsboro, North Carolina. Her father, Has Biddix, was a fiddle player of local renown, and by the time she was fifteen Samantha was playing banjo. Like Fiddlin' John Carson or Uncle Dave Macon, Samantha Bumgarner came to a career in music later in life, as commercial country music was just getting off the ground.

Vernon Dalhart was born as Marion Try Slaughter the Second on April 6, 1883 in Jefferson, Texas. He was named after his grandfather, who was a notorious bully and Ku Klux Klan member. His father, Robert Slaughter, and also a bully, was a small rancher outside of Jefferson. Here Dalhart learned to ride and shoot and to play the harmonica and Jews harp. All these years, his mother's brother, Robert Castleberry, felt his sister was being mistreated and he continually quarreled with Robert Slaughter. The feud grew worse over the years and in 1893 the quarrel ended in Bob Castleberry shooting Bob Slaughter.