Lily May Ledford- Growing Up in Pinch 'Em Tight Holler

Hi,

Continuing my series on Lily May Ledford: Banjo Pickin' Girl. Some of this information and more will be presented in a feature I've written for the Old-Time Herald. It would be easy to write a book.

Lily May Ledford was born on a tenant farm in a remote area of Kentucky called Red River Gorge on March 17, 1917. Later, after achieving fame on the radio, Lily May was said to have come from Pinch'Em Tight Holler. The original Ledford family came to America in 1738. They bought land together in Virginia near the Roanoke River in the 1750s and moved to Randolph County, NC by 1769.

Lily’s father Daw "White" Ledford was born on Nov 23, 1882. He was the fourth generation of Ledfords born in Kentucky and married Stella May Tackett about 1907. Lily's parents were tenant farmers and life wasn't easy. Of the 14 children four died shortly after birth and several others died when still young.

"The main source of our livelihood was farming the steep cleared hillsides and the spare bottom land along the banks of the Red River and the many creeks, "said Lily May, "our main crop was corn and sorgum cane."

"We raised many vegetables in the many smaller patches ground closer to the house. We supplimented this with wild game, fresh berries, grapes, nuts and many kinds of wild greens. We raised hogs for meat and kept a milk cow or two."

"Our underclothing was made of flour sacks and shoes were bought only for winter and paid for with furs Papa trapped and sold."

This was related to me by Cari Norris Lily May's granddaughter, "Another great story she told was about her and her brother, Coyen: When they were little, their parents sent them to plant watermelons by the river in the spring and gave them a huge can of watermelon seeds. They planted about half the seeds, then decided they would dig a big hole, and dump the rest of the seeds in. They spend the rest of the afternoon fishing by the river and caught several fish, which really pleased their parents. But when a huge mass of watermelon vines grew in one spot a bit later, their parents figured out what they had done and I think they got spankings. Lily May enjoyed hunting and fishing in Red River."

According to Lily May, "Sometimes neighbors would visit at night with a banjo and Papa would take down his fiddle and they would play far into the night. Us little boys and girls would sit on the floor spell bound."

White Ledford also played the banjo, guitar and pump organ and Lily May learned to play both the fiddle and the banjo. One of the songs she learned from her father was John Henry when she was around 7 or 8 years old. Now Cari Norris plays the song on Lily May's banjo. John Garst, one of the leading researchers on the John Henry Ballad, was excited to see the lyrics. This was one of Lily May's favorites:

John Henry
(Lily May Ledford version, learned from her father, Daw White Ledford circa 1924)

When John Henry was a little bitty boy, sittin’ on his daddy’s knee;
He said the Big Ben tunnel on the C & O road, is gonna be the death of me; Lord, Lord, is gonna be the death of me.

When John Henry was just seven years old, holdin’ to his Mama’s hand; He said, “If I live to be 21, I’m gonna make a steel drivin’ man; Lord, Lord,...

Well John Henry made a steel drivin’ man, belonged to the steel drivin’ crew; And every time his hammer came down, you could see the steel walkin’ through, Lord, Lord...

John Henry had a pretty little woman, her name was Polly Ann; John Henry got sick and he could not work, Polly drove the steel like a man; Lord Lord...

Well they put John Henry on the right hand side, they put the steam drill on the left; He said before I let that old steam drill beat me down, I’ll hammer my fool self to death, Lord, Lord...

John Henry went up the boss and said, oh boss, how can it be; You know the rock is so hard and the steel is so tough, I feel my muscles givin’ way; Lord Lord...

Then John Henry went up on the mountain side, he looked to the heavens above; He said take this hammer and wrap it in gold, and give it to the woman I love; Lord, Lord...

So they took his hammer and they wrapped it in gold, they gave it to Polly Ann; And the last words John Henry ever said to her were, Polly , do the best you can; Lord Lord, ....

If I die a railroad man, bury me under the tie; So I can hear old number 4, as she goes rollin by;
Lord Lord....

But if if die a steel drivin’ man, bury me under the sand; With a pick and shovel at my head and feet and a nine pound hammer in my hand; Lord Lord...

'Til next time,

Richard

Coon Creek Girls: Renfro Valley

Hi,

On the left is a photo of the Coon Creek Girls, now a trio, playing on stage in Renfro Valley, Kentucky.

Renfro Valley and the Renfro Valley Barn Dance were created by John Lair after John and Lula Renfro, the first settlers in Lair’s Kentucky home area in Rockcastle County.

It's important to know that these events directly shaped bluegrass music. Karl and Harty and WLS were imortant influences on the Monroe Brothers and Bill Monroe in particular, who impressed the duo with his fast mandolin playing. More on the Monroes in future blogs.

John Lair was born on July 1, 1894 in Rockcastle County, Kentucky. His father was a farmer and Lair attended a one-room school before going on to finish high school in the county seat town of Mount Vernon. After army service in World War I, he worked in a variety of jobs that included teaching school and editing a small-town newspaper. Work as an insurance company claims adjuster brought him to Chicago in the late 1920s where he became interested in radio.

Around 1930 WLS management was looking to form a new stringband for The Barn Dance radio show and asked John Lair, who was working in advertising to help. Lair who played jug, harmonica and wrote songs excelled at finding talent and then organizing and promoting this talent.

He formed the the first and most famous edition of the Cumberland Ridge Runners, by combining Karl Davis and Hartford Taylor (Karl and Harty and also performed under the name of the Renfro Valley Boys) with banjo and guitar player Hugh Cross and a fiddler named Homer Miller who was known for off-the-wall antics. Cross was already a well-established country crooner and collaborator on the earliest recordings of songs such as "Red River Valley" and "Wabash Cannonball." Lair created a hillbilly image for the outfit, dressing them all in checked shirts, straw and overalls. A famous photograph of them shows them in front of what looks like a rustic log cabin, but was actually a replica of Fort Dearborn created for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

A red-haired vocalist and bassist named Clyde Foley was hired to take part in comical sketches with Miller as well as play music; he soon changed his name to Red Foley and went on to become a huge country star. Another featured part of the group for a time was singer and banjo player Linda Parker, also known as "The Sunbonnet Girl." She was really forced to ham-up the hillbilly part and was always dressed onstage in a frilly gingham dress.

Lair eventually was employed by WLS as producer, emcee, and music librarian. As Lair became interested in discovering the real life events upon which old songs were based, he began accumulating a large sheet music collection and gained a reputation as an authority on folk music.

In the fall of 1937 John Lair joined forces with Red Foley, Whitey Ford the Duke of Paducah, and Chicago advertising executive Freeman Keyes to launch the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, which broadcast from Cincinnati over WLW. Lily May Leford (Coon Creek Girls), Dolly and Millie Good, and Red Foley were some of the stars that moved with Lair to Cincinnati and he also added the Duke of Paducah and Aunt Idy (with Little Clifford) to his show. Lair was trying to recreate the music found in his Kentucky homeland instead of the Western and cowboy trends that had recently become popular on the WLS Barn Dance.

Lair was planning to move the Renfro Valley show to his home home in Rockcastle County, KY. He was investing money from his sucessful show on WLW into building cabins, a restaurant (the lodge) with southern home-style meals, a souvenir shop, a candy kitchen, a barn for performances and a country store in Renfro Valley.

Move to Renfro Valley Kentucky "where time stands still"

By November 1939 construction was completed and Lair moved the Renfro Valley Barn Dance Show to its final home in Renfro Valley Kentucky. Not everyone in the Renfro Valley Barn Dance Show wanted to move to a remote area in Kentucky. Lair’s original partners Red Foley and Whitey Ford didn’t stay long. They sold their interests and went back to WLS Chicago. Another star A’nt Idy wouldn’t go at first and then only stayed a short while.

The original Coon Creek Girls split up. Daisy and Violet went with the Callahan Brothers, Howdy Forester, and Georgia Slim to Tulsa, Oklahoma and then to Dallas, Texas. According to Daisy, they were ready for a taste of "big city life." For a while Lily May played with the Amburbey Sisters: Berthy Amburgey (Berthy Woodruff, aka, Minnie), Irene Amburgey (Martha Carson, aka, Martha), and Opal Jean Amburgey (Jean Chapel, aka, Mattie), born in that order, as the Coon Creek Girls.

Soon Lily May and her sister Rosie added a younger Ledford sister to their act, Minnie (stage name "Black-eyed Susie" or "Susie" for short) and continued as the Coon Creek Girls. To replace some of the talent he lost, Lair hired two of the best musicians and comedians of the Barn Dance era, Homer and Jethro.

From the first Saturday night the venture was a moderate success. In spite of dire predictions and Lair moving at the onset of winter, the crowds got bigger and bigger. Radio experts who had held that people wouldn't drive a hundred miles or more to see a barn dance out in the country were amazed. All winter long the crowds kept coming from unbelievable distances and when spring brought ideal traveling weather; all roads seemed to lead to Renfro Valley. License plates from as many as fifteen different states were found on a single Saturday night.

Lair’s dream had come true, much to the appreciation of audience members who filled the auditorium and the many thousands of radio listeners. Lair functioned on stage as emcee and guided the program, song by song, week by week and it was broadcast on radio station WHAS in Louisville. After the departure of partners Red Foley and Whitey Ford, Lair now controlled every facet of the performer’s lives.

"John Lair, once he moved to Renfro Valley," said Lily May’s daughter Barbara Greenlief in a 1996 interview, "had them sign contracts that they couldn't record anything unless he said so; they couldn't talk to other people, they couldn't make any other deals. I mean he—the contracts were just—he owned them."

The barn could comfortably hold about 800 people. Some weekends thousands would flock to the small valley. The two scheduled shows on a Saturday night could not accommodate everyone. "They (Shorty Hobbs and Little Elder Long) and the Homer and Jethro team simply tore up the stage encore after encore," recalled Lily May. "Crowds started flocking in the barn at 5 or 6:00 and they were doing shows ‘til the roosters were crowing at daybreak."

More on the Coon Creek Girls and Lily May later,

Richard

War of the Worlds

Hi,

We are approaching the anniversary of Orson Welles greatest hoax, Oct. 30th, when he broadcast H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938 to make it seem like a current news broadcast. It caused local panic as many listeners believed it was a real alien invasion. This was Welles first notoriety and caused a widespread scandal.

Another "war of the worlds" happened when the Coon Creek Girls led by Lily May Ledford descended upon the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA in 1939 for two weeks to open for Orson Welles production of the play "The Green Goddess."

Sure there have been other all-time booking mismatches, take Jimi Hendrix and the Experience signing on as an opening act for the Monkees in midtour. After dates in the South, they played several concerts in July 1967 in the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills.

But the Coon Creek Girls and Orson Welles. What were they thinking! The Coon Creek Girls had just played at the White House for the President and Mrs. Roosevelt and the King and Queen of England. Their popularity was at an all-time high.

According to Lily May, "As word got out to the ever alert newspapers, reporters began to arrive from several papers for interviews and the story spread to a New York booking agent who booked us two weeks in the large Stanley Hall in Pittsburgh PA with Orson Welles and Company."

In a 1996 interview with Barbara Greenlief (Lily May's daughter), she commented: "Daisy (one of the Coon Creek Girls) told me one time, I think it was when they were on stage with Orson Welles, that the guys in the orchestra pit kept making fun of them and their accent, and talking about those, you know, the hillbillies. The men would always ask them if they wore shoes at home."

"So one time when the women ran out on stage, they took off their shoes. And so they were kind of playing with that stereotyped image, you know, throwing it back in the guys' faces and laughing at them for thinking such a stupid thing."

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning director, writer, actor and producer for film, stage, radio and television. In the mid-1930s, his New York theatre adaptations of Macbeth and a contemporary allegorical Julius Caesar became legendary. In 1941, he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Citizen Kane, often chosen in polls of film critics as the greatest film ever made. Welles received a 1975 American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement award, the third person to do so after John Ford and James Cagney. Critical appreciation for Welles has increased since his death. He is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important dramatic artists of the 20th century: in 2002 he was voted as the greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute's poll of Top Ten Directors.

More on the Welles-Coon Creek Girls engagement from Lily May: "He was making a tour with the 25 minute play the Green Goddess (a popular stage play of 1921 by William Archer) with our first (opening act) matinee performance. When the light men missed cues the infuriated Mr. Welles stopped the performance several times and stepped to the front and apologized to the audience and berated the terrified sound and light men with that awesome voice of his."

"Well we were well received from the sophisticated audience and everyone waited for the evening papers and the critics words. They all simply ripped Mr. Welles calling it a farce etc. About us they said, 'Well it was alright if you go for Hillbilly mouthings.' "

"That same afternoon Mr. Welles sent his valet to our dressing room with the message I should come to his dressing room. I was already half afraid of him now but dared not disobey the message. I was led to the presence of that august body and treated him very royally as he asked if I could do a favor for him. After our act and bows I was to go to the center mic and tell the audience that now the house was to be darkened for the next big act- a complete blackout."

"They were to hold onto their hats and pocketbooks for a minute or so. And then I was to pick up my skirt and just fly from the stage! This I did and Mr. Welles complimented me and I did this for the next two weeks." (From Lily May Ledford's Autobiography)

That's about it! More on Lily May later.

Richard

Bluegrass Paintings

Hi,

This is a close-up from my painting Banjo Pickin' Girl. It shows the raccoon pumping water in the ocean while a possum in a simmons tree watches. (click to enlarge)

Time for a commercial break from my series on Lily May Ledford: Banjo Pickin' Girl

The IBMA Bluegrass Blog has done a short feature on me and my paintings:

http://www.thebluegrassblog.com/

The goal of this site is to give information about bluegrass and old-time songs. My paintings started in 2006 tell the story of bluegrass song lyrics.

I am selling prints of these paintings and the originals. To buy my prints with pay pal or a CC you can go to my ETSY store: http://www.etsy.com/your_shop.php

You can also just email me: Richiematt@aol.com I'm always looking for ideas to do a new bluegrass painting.

Right now I'm working on "Mole in the Ground." Someone wants me to do "Red River Valley" so I'm going to start that next week.

You can see the paintings here on my blog and read about the history of the songs. I'm also writing an article about my painting "Bury Me Beneath the Willow."

Thanks,

Richard

Coon Creek Girls play at the White House

Hi,

I'm going to do several other features of Lily May Ledford: Banjo Pickin' Girl. This one details the Coon Creek Girls performance at the White House for President and Mrs. Roosevelt and the King and Queen of England on June 8, 1938.

You can hear Lily May give an account of the event on "Gems: Lily May Ledford" a CD produced by her granddaughter Cari Norris on JuneApple. If you want to get a copy you can get one here: http://www.elderly.com/recordings/items/JUN-CD078.htm This striking collection of songs, instrumentals and stories showcases the natural talent and honest humor of Lily May.


A Big Year- 1938

1938 was a big year for the Coon Creek Girls: Lily May (photo on left) and Rosie Ledford with Ester Koehler (guitar, vocals and mandolin) a contest winner from Ohio and Evelyn Lange (fiddle and bass) another contest winner from Wisconsin. They had just had their first radio performance in Oct. 1937 and were becoming stars on WLW radio in Cincinnati on The Renfro Valley Barn Dance. Kentucky native John Lair had created the Renfro Valley show after leaving WLS in Chicago and bringing Lily May and other stars like Red Foley with him.

John Lair met banjoist Bascom Lamar Lunford at a folk festival in Asheville, NC. When Lunsford attended the National Folk Festival in Chicago in 1937 he visted with Lair in Chicago. Lair was appointed to the Board of the National Folk Festival by director Gertrude Knott as "a student of the origins of folk music." Lair was working at WLW in Cincinnati having started the Renfro Valley Barn Dance. Lair asked Lunsford to find talent for WLW and teach square dancing to various clubs in the Ohio valley. Lunsford also performed on WLW’s Saturday night concerts.

Knott asked Lair and Lunsford to organize the Ohio Valley Folk festival to find talent for the next National Folk Festival to be held in Washington DC later that year. Lair included the Coon Creek Girls and Red Foley to the Festival roster. On March 27, 1938 Ohio Valley Folk festival sponsored by WCKY was held in the Cincinnati Music Hall. The Library of Congress, to record the event, dispatched Alan Lomax. The Coon Creek Girls highlighted the event and secured a spot along with Robert Day on the National Folk Festival roster for 1938 plus important connections with Lunsford and Lomax that would help them later in the year get an invitation to perform at the White House.

After the Festival recording engineerAlan Lomax complained about all the hillbilly music. Back then hillbilly music was commercial country music and not folk music that a purist would follow. Director of the National Festival Gertrude Knott seemed to approve of the Coon Creek Girls and Lair promoted them as Kentucky girls from remote mountain areas that sang old ballads. Years later Alan Lomax seemed later to change his mind and invited Lily May to star in his theater production.

According to a Washington Post newspaper report with a photo: "These Kentucky mountain girls make up one of the winning teams from the Ohio Valley Festival held in Cincinnati in preparation for the National Festival. Each plays all four instruments in the picture and sings ballads known in their families for generations."

In May the National Folk Festival directed by Gertrude Knott was held for the first time in Washington DC at Constitution Hall. The Coon Creek Girls and Robert Day accompanied by John Lair made the trip financed by a mere $92 from the Ohio Valley Festival.

Also in May 1938 John Lair went with the girls and A’nt Idy Harper to record their first session with Vocalion Records under Uncle Art Satherley. They recorded nine songs including "Little Birdie," "Pretty Polly" and two of Lair’s songs. At this session they also recorded the song that Lily May would become identified with: "Banjo Pickin’ Girl." Lily May was already being called "Banjo Pickin' Girl" on her WLW shows.

The White House

Late in 1938 an invitation came for the Coon Creek Girls to perform at a White House concert for President and Mrs. Roosevelt in honor of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth who were to visit in June 1939. Perhaps the invitation was made through Lunsford, who knew the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt from the 1933 White Top Festival. Lily May thought it came from the Coon Creek Girls performance in Washington DC at the National Festival although I haven't found any record of Eleanor Roosevelt attending but she may have or at least heard a radio broadcast. John Lair later credited Alan Lomax although Lair couldn't remember his name, with the invitation.

Regardless of who secured the invitation, the first royal visit to the States by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth while visiting the Roosevelt’s would feature a performance by Lily May and her Coon Creek Girls.

Mrs. Roosevelt decided the concert would show a cross section of American music. Bascom Lamar Lunsford and his square dancing group was invited along with Marion Anderson the concert contralto, opera baritone Lawrence Tibbet, pop singer Kate Smith, folklorist Alan Lomax, and The Coon Creek Girls. Local churches formed a black gospel choir to sing spirituals.

John Lair was not invited but he and his wife decided to accompany The Coon Creek Girls to Washington to attend this prestigious event. Arriving several days before the June 8 performance Lily May recalled "The day of the concert we went over for an early rehearsal. We went through the material we were going to do that night. A distinguished looking gentleman came to the door and listened for a while. Then he asked how long I’d been playing and I said, "I’ve been playing a long time." He said he played a little and asked if he could play with us. Then he said "I’ll get my fiddle."

"After getting his fiddle he introduced himself as Cactus Jack so that’s what I called him. We went to another room. He would play a tune then I’d play one. Then we’d both play one together. This went on for quite some time. We barely made it out in time for the show." Later John Lair told Lily May that Cactus Jack was in fact Vice President John Nance Garner, a pretty fair country fiddler!

Each performer was scheduled to do three songs plus the Coon Creek Girls would play fiddle tunes for Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s square dance group. So on the evening of June 8, 1939 limousines began to deliver the cream of Washington D.C. society to the East Room of the White House. Security was tight as President and First Lady, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were entertaining King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England. John Lair, who wasn’t invited followed the Girls limousine with his wife in their car. The only way he could get in was to carry the bass fiddle for the Girls.

"Well on Renfro Valley he was boss," explained Lily May. "So here we were the stars with him behind us toting the big bass fiddle. Security stopped him and searched the pockets of the case, shook the bass fiddle and looked in the fiddle. They finally decided to let Mr. Lair in but they turned his wife away." Viginia Lair, who had bought a new dress for the occasion, reportedly left in tears.

"We were ushered up there while Alan Lomax was playing his final song, Old Chisolm Trail," said Lily May. "We ran out there an lit right in to ‘How Many Biscuits Can You Eat,’ that was the song they told us Mrs. Roosevelt wanted. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and right down there they were…the King and Queen in the front row. Why they were so close you could have spit on ‘em."

Lily May continued, "The king had rather a long-faced, dour, deadpan look, and he worried me a little. Then as I glanced down, I caught him patting his foot, ever so little, and I knew we had him."

The Coon Creek Girls played another FDR favorite, "Get Along Miss Cindy" as well as an English ballad, The Soldier and the Lady, in honor of the royal couple. They also played "Buffalo Gals" for Lunsford’s square dance group from North Carolina.

Next: Lily May Ledford and Orson Wells. Life is stranger than fiction!

Richard

Gems: Lily May Ledford

Hi,

On the left is my painting of Lily May (click to enlarge). Little did I know I would learn so much about her when I painted this.

I've been listening to Gems: Lily May Ledford. This striking collection of songs, instrumentals and stories showcases the natural talent and honest humor of Lily May. She was born on March 17, 1917 in a remote area of Red River Gorge, Kentucky called Pinch 'em Tite Hollar.

After reading her autobiography, I can only reflect with awe her recounting of her childhood and her rise to stardom with the Coon Creek Girls on the radio, highlighted by her performance at the White House for President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor who were visited by the king and queen of England.

Lily May's talent in music can only be compared to my friend Doc Watson. They have a special quality that transcends the flesh; when I listen to them I feel as if I'm immersed in a spiritual sea filled of honesty human emotion.

I'm writing a proposed article about Lily May for the Old-Time Herald. I'll be sharing part of her life with you. By sharing, she'll be making our lives better which is something she would have wanted.

I've also been painting the song "I Wish I was A Mole in the Ground." The painting is almost done. I've found out that Tempy or Tempey is the nickname for the unusual name Temperance. The first recording was done by a friend of Lily May's- Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Lunsford and John Lair, Lily's manager and employer for many many years helped organize several folk festivals which led to Lily May's Coon Creek Girls being invited to the White House.

It's funny how the circle is unbroken....

More on Lily May later,

Richard

Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Hi,

Yesterday I played at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame & Museum on 2590 Richmond Road Renfro Valley, Kentucky 40473.

I brought all ten of my song paintings and Josh Andrews a singer/guitarist came with me to sing three of the painting songs: Molly and Tenbrooks, Careless Love and Bury Me Beneath the Willow.

It's a good drive from Louisville over 100 miles and we arrived in Renfro Valley around 10:15 to do our 90 minute show starting at 11:00 AM. After we started unloading we met the director, Robert Lawson, who helped us set up the paintings and the sound equipment. Robert was very friendly and helpful and we felt right at home.

Josh Andrews and I did a sound check and played through a few songs to get warmed up. A small crowd had gather and folks were starting to sit down on the chairs in front of the homespun stage. We kicked it off with Molly and Tenbooks. I'd talk for a few minutes about each song and the painting I'd done for the song.

I thought we played well and our sound was good. I noticed one young woman singing along with me. At one point there were 20 to 30 folks there milling around and listening. After the show several people were interested in the art and I gave them my card and even sold a print of "All the Pretty Little Horses."

Robert Lawson liked my art and I decided to leave two paintings to be displayed at the museum; Molly and Tenbrooks and Banjo Pickin' Girl. Robert said he had a spot of Molly and Tenbooks in the Bill Monroe exhibit and he was working on a new display for Lily May Ledford and would have her song, Banjo Pickin Girl, there.



My painting of Molly and Tenbrooks (click to enlarge) on display:

Kentucky Music Hall of Fame & Museum Post Office Box 85 2590 Richmond Road Renfro Valley, Kentucky 40473

Robert is planning on having me back in the Spring 09.

More on the museum later,

Richard