Music History

☞Say Old Man, Can You Play the Fiddle?

☞Yes, by Crackies, I can Play a Little!

☞Today in Music History -- 137 years ago, Saturday, June 6, 1885, noted chicken farmer & influential Old-Time fiddle player James Gideon “Gid” Tanner (1885-1960), leader of the famous “Skillet Lickers” Old-Time band, was born at Thomas Bridge near the town of Monroe in Walton County, Georgia. Gid Tanner is thought by many to be the greatest Old-Time fiddler of the 20th Century, & he is nowadays considered to be the linch-pin of the early Old-Time-Music movement.

☞Tanner learned to play the fiddle at the age of 14, & he quickly established a reputation as one of the finest musicians in Georgia. Early on, he participated in several fiddle conventions together with rival fiddler “Fiddlin’” John Carson (1868-1849), & when one of them didn’t win, the other would. Tanner reportedly had a repertoire of more than 2,000 tunes.

☞Although for most of his life Tanner made his living as a chicken farmer rather than as a musician, his band, the Skillet Lickers, became one of the most innovative & influential string bands of the 1920s & 1930s -- making 88 recordings for Columbia Records between 1926 & 1931.

☞The Skillet Lickers’ best-selling record was their 1934 RCA Victor recording of an instrumental version of “Down Yonder” -- a song composed in 1921 by Russian-born American songwriter Louis Wolfe Gilbert (1886-1970) as an updated version of his 1912 hit song “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee.”

☞Tanner stuck by the old traditions, even when other musicians around him were favoring a more modern, jazzy approach to their style & repertoire. He was also an extraordinary entertainer. He could accurately portray era stereotypes, singing as “low as a snake’s belly,” or high enough to nearly break glass. Along with the ability to contort his face into the strangest expressions, he could also throw his head back far enough to appear headless, & turn it around nearly as far as an owl.

☞Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers made their first recording, “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane,” in Atlanta on April 17, 1926. It was released by Columbia on a 78-rpm disc with “Watermelon on the Vine” on the flip-side. The Skillet Lickers made more than 100 recordings for Columbia Records before splitting up in 1931. Three years later, Tanner reformed the Skillet Lickers & had several releases on Bluebird Records. Tanner stopped making records in 1934, but he continued to perform into his seventies.

☞Many of the tunes & songs recorded by the Skillet Lickers remain popular with Old-Time, Country, & Bluegrass musicians to this day. Amongst their best-known titles are The Alabama Jubilee, Shortnin’ Bread, Old Joe Clark, The Ballad of Casey Jones, Boil Them Cabbage Down, Cotton-Eyed Joe, Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss, Soldier’s Joy, Bonaparte’s Retreat, & their biggest seller, Down Yonder.

☞In 1988, Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

☞The undated photograph depicts the visage of famous Old-Time fiddler Gid Tanner.