Grandpa Jones
Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones was one person who aged right into his makeup. Like his real appearance, however, his actual background and role in country music were deceptive and more complex than they seem. Beginning in the 1920s, he began attracting attention with his boisterous performing style, old-time banjo performing, and powerful singing, and by the 1940s, with hits like "Rattler" and "Mountain Dew," he began receiving national attention. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1946 and remained there throughout his career; in the 1960s, with hits like "T for Texas," he continued making a place for himself on the country charts, and as a regular on Hee Haw since its inception in 1969, he became a television celebrity. But Jones' influence went much further than that chain of successes would indicate -- he was almost single-handedly responsible for keeping the banjo alive as a country music instrument during the 1930s and 1940s, and in addition to his own work and songs, he was an important associate and collaborator of Merle Travis.
Jones was born in Niagra, KY, and grew up not in the mountains or the countryside, as one would think from his music, but in industrial Ohio and Kentucky, living in factory towns. His father was a fiddle player, and his mother was a ballad singer. He listened to a lot of radio growing up, especially the National Barn Dance out of Chicago, and his strongest influences included old-time country music and gospel songs as well as the music of Jimmie Rodgers, which led him to begin yodeling. He'd made it onto the radio himself by 1929 at the age of 18 as the Young Singer of Old Songs. Later on he moved to Chicago, teamed with Bashful Harmonica Joe, and appeared on the Lum and Abner show. During the mid-'30s, he started working with Bradley Kincaid, the man who gave Jones the "Grandpa" name, a result of his grouchy moods during their early-morning radio broadcasts -- Jones thought the name worked and adopted makeup to match. Coupled with his skills as a comedian and raconteur, the image was a natural. It was with Kincaid that Jones' career moved to Boston, where their brand of country music proved extremely popular among rural New Englanders.
As a solo act later in the 1930s, Jones had radio shows on numerous stations from West Virginia and Connecticut to Cincinnati, where he sang folk ballads and more old-time country ballads as well as gospel songs. He also learned to play the banjo and made it an integral part of his act at a time when the instrument had all but vanished from country music; it was the combination of Jones' old-time repertory and humor that helped to keep the banjo alive as a viable, popular country instrument. Jones later hooked up with Alton and Rabon Delmore and Merle Travis, and played with them throughout World War II as Brown's Ferry Four. He and Travis also became the first artists to record for the newly founded King label, under the name of the Shepherd Brothers. Jones' own earliest solo records were also done for King during this period, among them "It's Raining Here This Morning," "Eight More Miles to Louisville," "Rattler," and "Mountain Dew."
Those singles brought Grandpa Jones to national attention, and he was poised for the next step in his career, a move to Nashville. Before that, however, he married Ramona Riggins, who became not only his wife but his accompanist on fiddle and mandolin. In 1946, he began playing on the Grand Ole Opry and touring with acts such as Lonzo & Oscar and Cowboy Copas. He didn't stay in Nashville too long at first, moving to Lorton, VA, and a radio show in Arlington, and later on the Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond. Finally, he returned to Nashville as a regular member of the Opry. Jones recorded with King Records from 1945 until 1952, when he moved to RCA Victor, where he remained for four years, recording both traditional-sounding country and topical songs ("I'm No Communist").
In 1956, he began a six-year stint on Decca Records, recording a total of 16 songs including the talking-blues country hit "The All-American Boy" in 1959. Jones moved to Fred Foster's Monument Records in 1962 and had a Top Five country hit the following year with "T for Texas." His career during the 1960s continued uninterrupted, and in 1969 he joined the cast of the new country music/comedy showcase Hee Haw, which gave him unprecedented national exposure for the next two decades. By 1978, he'd been elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame and, by that time, was taking on the real-life role of elder statesman within the community. He continued recording into the 1980s, although his music is somewhat under-represented today on compact disc, apart from the Monument and Decca sides. In 1984, Jones published his autobiography, Everybody's Grandpa. He died February 19, 1998.
© Bruce Eder /TiVo
Discografía
14 álbum(es) • Ordenado por Mejores ventas
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Les idoles de la musique country : Grandpa Jones, Vol. 1
Country - Editado por Mpm el 20 ago. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandpa Jones Sings Hits from "Hee Haw"
Country - Editado por Monument - Legacy el 1 ene. 1969
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Grandpa Jones Remembers The Brown's Ferry Four
Pop - Editado por Monument - Legacy el 2 dic. 2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Grandpa Jones Live (Live)
Country - Editado por Monument - Legacy el 1 ene. 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sings Real Folk Songs
Folk - Editado por Monument - Legacy el 31 oct. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Rain Is Still Falling
Jazz - Editado por Black & Partner Licenses LLC el 31 mar. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Greatest Hits
Country - Editado por Vintage Jukebox el 17 may. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
That Memphis Train
Jazz - Editado por Black & Partner Licenses LLC el 7 may. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mountain Dew and Other Classics
Country - Editado por Good Time Records el 20 ago. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mountain Dew
Jazz - Editado por Black & Partner Licenses LLC el 31 mar. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strictly Country Tunes
Country - Editado por RedDirt el 1 ene. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hits Collection (Original Mix)
Pop - Editado por Parker Street Music el 27 nov. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandpa Jones' It's Raining Here This Morning (Grandpa Jones)
Country - Editado por Charly Records el 25 jun. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -