Mac and Slim and Jimmie- Part 2 In The Big Apple

Hi,

On the left is a photo of The Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers. Here's a guy dying of tuberculosis and he's smiling, thumbs up. Rodgers was a good singer, and yodeler. Whatever talent Rodgers lacked as a musician could be overlooked because of his courage.

In 1932 and for the second time in his career, Clayton McMichen was working for Jimmie Rodgers. The biggest opportunity for Mac and Slim Byrant was Jimmie wanted to record some of their songs.

"I got a royalty check last week," said Slim Bryant. "Every Mother's Day the country stations play it. It's been recorded by 178 different artists and the first was Jimmie Rodgers."

The song Slim wrote that Rodgers recorded was "Mother Queen of My Heart." It became Slim's biggest hit and Mac's song "Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia" was also recorded by Rodgers in that session and became Mac's biggest hit.

Here are the stats for the Victor sessions in Camden NJ: Aug. 10, 1932 Jimmie Rodgers recorded "In the Hills of Tennessee" (unissued) with Clayton McMichen fiddle, Dave Kanui- steel guitar; Oddie McWinders- banjo; Slim Byrant- guitar, George Howell- stand up bass; Recorded Aug 11: “Mother, the Queen of My Heart” (Victor 23721); “Rock All Our Babies to Sleep” (Victor 23721); “Whippin’ That Old T.B.” (Victor 23751); “No Hard Times” (Victor 23751). Recorded August 15: “Long Tall Mama Blues” (Victor 23766); “Peach-Pickin’ Time Down in Georgia” (Victor 23781); “Gambling Barroom Blues” (Victor 23766); “I’ve Only Loved Three Women” (Bluebird 6810)

McMichen had a short fiddle solo on Rodgers' version of St. James Infirmary, a rewrite Rodgers titled, "Gambling Barroom Blues." Mac also contributed two songs. The first one was recorded as “Prohibition Has Done Me Wrong” but not issued possibly because of copyright conflicts with Columbia. According to Juanita McMichen Lynch, Peer thought it was "too contoversial for the times." The master was put aside and then accidentally lost. A similar version was done later by Ernest Tubb. The second song Mac contributed was the popular “Peach Pickin’ Time Down In Georgia,” a song that was recorded a year earlier with Hugh Cross that McMichen copyrighted.

While in the New York area McMichen, Byrant and McWinders played a few vaudeville gigs and contacted Bob Miller, author of “Twenty-One Years” and sometime recording director with Columbia. Through Miller they were signed to record some twenty-four sides for Crown, an independent cut-rate label for Victor owned by Peer’s competitor, A & R man Eli Oberstein.

The sides for Crown include some great old-time songs. The Crown songs were: Georgia Wildcat Breakdown; Hog-Trough Reel; Wreck of the Old 97; Singing an Old Hymn; Way Down In Carolina; Back In Tennessee; Arkansas Traveler; Old Hen Cackled; Give The Fiddler A Dram; Ider Red; Blue Hills Of Virginia; Down The Ozark Trail; Counting Cross Ties; Log Cabin in The Lane; Where The Skies Are Always Blue; Bummin’ On The I.C. Line; Red Wing; All I’ve Got Is Gone; Down In Old Kentucky; Yum Yum Blues; Smoky Mountain Home; I Don’t Love Nobody; Old Joe Clark; When The Bloom Is On the Sage.

Peer set up another Rodgers session with another group of NY musicians. Because of Byrant’s innate ability to follow Rodgers, who played his own rhythm, Peer said of Bryant “he’s our regular guitar player.” Mac didn't play on the session.

About Byrant's last NY session with Rodgers on Aug. 29 he said, "We'd go over the songs for a while until Jimmie was ready. They were done in pop music style." The four songs produced were “In the Hills of Tennessee” (Victor 23736) written by Billy Hill; “Prairie Lullaby” (Victor 23781); “Miss the Mississippi and You” (Victor 23736); and “Sweet Mama Hurry Home (or I’ll Be Gone)” (Victor 23796). "Jimmie asked me and Mac to go to England on a tour," said Bryant, "but he was so sick the doctors wouldn't let him go. It was a shame I was looking forward to going. After Rodgers went back to Texas he send me a one penny postcard, thanking me. I still have that postcard."

More to come,

Richard

Mac and Slim and Jimmie- 1932

Hi,

On the left is a picture of Jimmie Rodgers, the Father of Country Music. Rodger became famous in 1928 with a series of hit songs- starting with his megahit, "T for Texas" also known as Blue Yodel Number 1. Jimmie was largely a blues oriented pop singer. He wrote or reworked blues and pop songs attaching his famous blues yodel as a fill at the end of the verses.

Rodgers was one of the few musicians still able to sell records in the Great Depression. By 1932 he was still one of the biggest stars in music and the biggest in country music. The problem was- he was dying of TB. Ralph Peer, who managed Rodgers and the Carter Family, tried to have Rodgers record regularly for Victor. Ralph had a deal with Victor- he received no salary for managing their 'country music' division, but instead got the royalties from record sales.

In the late 1920 Peer was receiving royalties of $250,000 a quarter which today translates to a figure around $60 million a year. Peer needed Rogers to do a session in the summer of 1932 so Rodgers called his good friend and pal Clayton McMichen to join him in Victor's Camden Yard studio located in a revamped church in New Jersey.

When Rodgers called Mac on the phone they briefly discussed some of the recording details. Mac wanted to bring the Georgia Wildcats but Jimmie didn't think Peer would pay for the whole band. Peer had already arranged for session players including banjoist Oddie McWinders. Since Mac had played had on Jimmie's 1929 winter tour Peer and Rodgers just wanted Mac to play the fiddle- not the band. Mac finally asked if he could bring Slim, his guitar player. Rodgers, who played guitar, but not well, was slated to play the guitar and sing.

Jimmie wrote to Mac: “Mr. Peer says he wonts [sic] me to do at least 10 numbers so if you have anything of your own be sure to bring it along because I'm pretty sure I can get several of your songs recorded.” Regarding Bryant, Rodgers wrote: “I will pay his expenses if he cares to come along with you and takes a chance on working with us.”

In August 1932 Clayton brought Bryant with him and they met Jimmie in Washington, DC. After being chauffeured to Victor studios in Camden, New Jersey, the men rehearsed with Oddie McWinders (banjo) Dave Kanui (steel guitar) and George Howell (string bass). They tried to record "In the Hills of Tennessee" but when the first session produced no suitable takes, Ralph Peer dismissed Kanui and Howell.

[Banjoist Oddie McWinders, whose real name was Odie Winders, was born in Todd County, KY on March 9, 1887 to Susie Bell Rager. Nothing is know of his father whose last name was Winders. Oddie was nationally recognized for his banjo picking and owned one of finest banjos. He also recorded the Crown sessions with Mac and Slim. He died shortly thereafter on Sept 24, 1933. One song in his repertoire was "Bound To Ride" which has become a bluegrass standard.

I have a copy of Jimmie's letter, dated July 27th, 1932 to Mac. Here's what Jimmie says about Odie: "I am planing to have a good banjo player to go with us. You may know him, his name is Oddie McWindows (sic). And boy can he play a banjo? I'll say he can. Mac, he plays a banjo old style and also plays all the popular stuff. I mean takes solos and plays leads. He beats any dam thing I ever heard of playing a banjo- baring no body... ]

Rodgers was so sick he could only play the guitar for short periods of time. When the pain from his TB got bad, Mac gave him shots of morphine. Even when he was feeling well Rodgers played his own rhythm on the guitar. Jimmie would leave out beats and add them whenever he felt like it much as the traditional bluesman of the day. Playing with him was not easy.

Slim just listened and whenever Rodgers changed chords Slim would change. Slim became so good at following Rodgers that Jimmie called Slim, "his guitar player." A month later when Mac and Slim were still in NYC recording a session for Crown Records, Peer called Slim to do another session with Jimmie, this time without Mac. Peer had lined-up some New York session players. Peer asked Slim if "he could keep up with these New York players?" Slim replied, " I can play with anyone."

More to come,

Richard

Mac and Slim: On the Road Again-Georgia Wildcats

Hi,

By May 1931 Slim Bryant had quit his electrician job in Atlanta. He was now a professional musician first briefly at WCKY in Covington, and then at WLW Cincinnati. McMichen had formed his Georgia Wildcat band with Slim (Guitar), Bert Layne (fiddle), Pat Berryman (banjo), and Johnny Barfield (Guitar). Bert Layne, Mac's brother-in-law didn't stay long in Cincinnati.

In the above picture taken in late 1931 or early 1932 at KDKA. The Georgia Wildcat line-up was (left to right) Pat Berryman, Clayton McMichen, Johnny Barfield and Slim Bryant.

By the fall of 1931 McMichen and Bryant were back in Atlanta making records. On Oct. 26, 1931, McMichen and his Georgia Wildcats with Slim Bryant and Bert Layne did a session for Columbia. The cut their jazzy western number "When the Bloom is On The Sage" and Slim's "Yum Yum Blues." Two days later they cut one of Mac's favorite fiddle compositions, "Wild Cat Rag" with a nice guitar solo by Slim and "Sweet Florene."

In between the Wildcat sessions, Mac (as Bob Nichols) cut 4 sides with Riley Puckett: "Devil's Dream," "Durang's Hornpipe," "Longest Train (In the Pines)," and "That's No Business Of Mine (Nobody's Business)." Possibly because of the economy, they were never issued.

One song Mac claimed he wrote and Slim as well, was "In The Pines." Slim and Juanita McMichen Lynch (Mac's daughter) are still getting royalties for the song. To be fair- they did a rewrite on the song, changing most of the lyrics. Mac regarded it as his and Slim's song. It was first released as "Grave In The Pines" done by Clayton as Bob Nichols, vocal with a simple guitar accompaniment (by Slim?), in 1930.

Surely Clayton knew of other versions existed before his "Grave in the Pines." Dock Walsh recorded "In The Pines" in 1926 for Columbia, hence Clayton's title. Somehow even Bill Monroe credits Clayton for the song even though Monroe doesn't use Clayton's lyrics. ["In the Pines/Longest Train", also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?," is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s.]

Later in 1937 Mac recorded the song with his Georgia Wildcats as "In the Pines" and it appears in his 1934 songbook. For more info and lyrics: http://bluegrassmessengers.com.temp.realssl.com/in-the-pines--version-2-clayton-mcmichen.aspx

After the session in Atlanta and just before Christmas in 1931, the Wildcats we moved to Pittsburgh's KDKA, the first radio station in the country. After a brief stay at KDKA (see photo take above) the Wildcats played at Cleveland's WTAM in 1932 before getting the call from Jimmie Rodgers in the summer of 1932.

More to come,

Richard

Mac and Slim: On the Road Again

Hi,

By 1931 the Great Depression had brought the record industry to its knees. People just didn't have money for records. They did listen to the radio, and the radio needed music- back then there was only live music. WSB, the Atlanta station, didn't pay their old-time performers. Mac's band, The Home Town Boys, would continue to play on WSB off and on until 1931. According Clayton from Clayton McMichen Talking: "We kept playing up there [WSB], goin' up there, and we got tired of playing for nothin'. We'd quit and then go back."

Slim and Mac decided to try their luck elsewhere. They headed for Cinncinati Ohio and WLW, a station that paid a salary to their performers. "We knew that there was money in radio so we started looking for work," explained Bryant. "In early 1931 McMichen, Bert Layne, a singer named Cox, and me went to WLW in Cincinnati. They didn't have a place for us right then because they had just signed Otto Gray and his Oklahoma band. So we went back across the Ohio River and auditioned at WCKY in Covington, KY."

WCKY was interested in hiring the band, if they could bring popular Skillet Licker singer Riley Puckett. Cox, who already had a good job in Atlanta, dropped out and Riley agreed to go. So a new band was formed, named "The Skillet Lickers" with three original members; Bert Layne (fiddle), Mac (Fiddle), Riley (guitar and vocals) and Slim Bryant (guitar). Junaita gave me an original silver point photo on the WCKY Skillet Lickers.

At WCKY The Skillet Lickers got a weekly salary and a percentage of the money they earned playing shows around town. The station owner had several theaters and they played any venues they could find. At one show in Cincinnati there was a line of people three blocks long waiting to get in. Word of the sold out show got back WLW Cincinnati management and they offered The Skillet Lickers an opportunity at WLW for more money and a better percentage of our receipts.

Because they had a contract with WCKY they hired a lawyer and Mac agreed to leave Riley Puckett at WCKY. Gid Tanner and Bill Helms came up to play with Riley and WCKY kept the Skillet Lickers on their station. Slim, Bert and Mac went on to WLW. Mac picked up banjoist Pat Berryman and guitarist Johnny Barfield for the WLW show.

According Mac from Clayton McMichen Talking: "Gid and Riley couldn't do what Clayton and Bert and Slim could do. We's on WLW and they's on WCKY. And oh we gave em a lickin'."

With two Skillet Licker groups playing on the radio Mac changed his band permanently to The Georgia Wildcats.

Mac and The Skillet Lickers- Part 5

Hi,

This is my last installment for now of Mac and The Skillet Lickers.

On the left you can see a photo of Slim Byrant who became Mac's guitarist for most of the 1930s. Here's a trivia question for you: When did Slim Byrant first play with the Skillet Lickers?

You can check some of the great articles on Slim by Rich Kienzle but you won't find the answer there. I actually found it out from Slim, himself.

The year was 1929 and Slim was invited by McMichen to do a road show with the Skillet Lickers. Slim had met Mac through Mac's uncle Elmer. Elmer and Slim cut one record for Okeh on March 15, 1929. This is what Slim related to me about the Birmigham show: "The deal was we'd all go down the Birmingham and divide up what ever money we made. So I took off work on Wednesday and Thursday and we played at this big festival. All the Skillet Lickers were there, Uncle Dave Macon and the McGees. I had to go back to Atlanta to play a baseball game, so I left. I never got paid a dime for the show."

Besides the Skillet Lickers, members of the Skillet Lickers played and recorded with any number of spin-off bands. Mac's main two bands were McMichen’s Home Town Boys and McMichen’s Melody Men (Usually a trio with Riley Puckett; sometimes Bert Layne as McMichen- Layne String Orchestra or Lowe Stokes). Mac did several duo projects usually under the alias of Bob Nichols: Riley Puckett and Bob Nichols (Clayton McMichen); Claude Davis and Bob Nichols (Clayton McMichen); Bob Nichols (Clayton McMichen) and Hugh Cross. Mac played with the Georgia Organ Grinders (1929 featuring McMichen- Fiddle; Bert Layne- Fiddle; Lowe Stokes- Organ; Fate Norris Banjo; Melvin Dupree- Guitar; Dan Hornsby- vocals) and also
Oscar Ford (McMichen, Bert Layne, Riley Puckett).

When Mac started playing with Slim, he found his perfect playing partner. Slim played jazz, knew modern chord comping and could play old-time country. By now it was 1930 and the record industry which was king in the mid to late 1920's was quickly slowing down. On Bryant's birthday, Dec. 7, 1930, Slim was included in his first recording session with Mac cutting a jazzy version of "When The Bloom is on the Sage." McMichen used his nickname as the new band name that weekend. "He called us McMichen's Georgia Wildcats with Slim Bryant," recalled Bryant. "I never asked him to put my name in there—he just did it."

The Skillet Lickers were over as far as Mac was concerned. Columbia, reeling from the depression, turned once more to their cash cow- the Skillet Lickers- hoping they could save the company. Mac, who was well paid for his sessions, couldn't turn down the kind of money they offered. He had a family to feed. On October 24, 1931, the original Skillet Lickers (with Clayton McMichen) made their last recordings: “Miss McLeod’s Reel,” “Four Cent Cotton,” “Molly put The Kettle On,” “Sleeping Lulu,” “McMichen’s Breakdown,” and “Whistlin’ Rufus.” The Skillet Lickers would record one last time in 1934 but not with Mac.

The band was still famous and the individual members, mainly Riley Puckett and Mac would form bands that would be called the Skillet Lickers. At one time in 1931 there were two bands with original members named the Skillet Lickers that played at rival radio stations: WCKY (Riley and Gid) and WLW (Mac with Slim, Barfield and Berryman). So Slim played on the radio on two bands named the Skillet Lickers, first at WCKY (Mac, Riley, Layne, Bryant) and then at WLW.

This prompted Mac to finally adopt his earlier band name, The Georgia Wildcats, based on Mac's nickname.

More to come,

Richard

Mac and The Skillet Lickers: Part 4- The Music

Hi,

This Blog we'll look at some Mac and the Skillet Lickers complete songs. Then we'll look more closely at Mac's two favorite fiddle contest songs.

On April 17, 1926 Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers cut their classic first eight sides: “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane,” “Bully Of The Town,” “Pass Around the Bottle,” “Alabama Jubilee,” “Watermelon on the Vine,” “Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan,” “Ya Gotta Quit Kickin’ My Dog Around” and “Turkey in The Straw.” Their first single, “Bully of the Town,” backed by “Pass Around the Bottle,” was a huge hit, selling over 200,000 units and causing the Skillet Lickers to eclipse Charlie Poole and his North Carolina Ramblers as Columbia’s hottest Country artists. Other songs from that session, "Soldier's Joy" and “Turkey in the Straw,” sold well and “Watermelon on the Vine” became another hit.

Here is a complete list of their recording under the name The Skillet Lickers, I've included the 1934 session even though bert Layne and Clayton were no longer present and the band actually split up in 1931.

Complete Songs recorded by the Skillet Lickers: Alabama Jubilee; Baby Lou; Back Up And Push; Be Kind to a Man When He's Down; Bee Hunt On Hill For Sartin Creek; Big Ball in Town; Billy in the Lowground; Black Eyed Peas and Cornbread; Black-Eyed Susie; Boil 'Em Cabbage Down; Boll Weevil Blues; Bonepart's Retreat; Broken Down Gambler; Buckin' Mule; Buffalo Gals; Bully of the Town; Bully Of The Town No. 2; Cacklin Hen and Rooster Too; Carroll County Blues; Casey Jones; Charming Betsy; Chicken Reel; Cindy; Coon From Tennessee; Corn Licker Still in Georgia (skit; Part I- Part XIV); Cotton Baggin'; Cotton-Eyed Joe; Cotton Patch; Cripple Creek; Cumberland Gap (On A Buckin‘ Mule); Dance All Night with A Bottle In Your Hand; Darktown Strutters Ball; Day At The County Fair; Devilish Mary; Dixie; Dogs on a Coon Hunt; Don't You Cry My Honey; Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan; Down Yonder; Drink 'Em Down; Everyday Will Be Sunday, By & By; Fiddlers' Convention In Georgia; Flatwoods; Flop Eared Mule; Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss; Football Rag; Four Cent Cotton; Four Thousand Years Ago; Georgia Man; Georgia Railroad; Georgia Waggoner; Giddap Napoleon; Girl I Left Behind Me; Git Along; Going Down Town; Goodbye Booze; Hand Me Down My Walking Cane; Hawkins’ Rag; Maple Leaf Rag; Hell Broke Loose in Georgia; Hen Cackle; Hinkey-Dinkey-Dee; Hog Killing Day; I Ain’t No Better Now; Ida Red; I Don't Love Nobody; I Got Mine; I Shall Not Be Moved; It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'; I'm S-A-V-E-D; I'm Satisfied; It's A Long Way To Tipperary; Jeremiah Hopkins Store At Sand Mountain; John Henry; Johnson's Old Grey Mule; Just Give Me the Leavings; Keep Your Gal At Home; Kickapoo Medicine Show; Leather Breeches; Liberty; Man In The Woodpile; Miss McCleod's Reel; Mississippi Sawyer; Molly Put the Kettle On; Nancy Rollin; Never Seen the Like Since Getting Upstairs; New Arkansas Traveller; Night in Blind Tiger; Old Dan Tucker; Old Grey Mare; Old Joe Clark; Old McDonald (Had a Farm); On Tanner's Farm; Original Arkansas Traveller; Pass Around The Bottle And We'll All Take a Drink; Please Don't Get Offended; Polly Put the Kettle On; Polly Wolly Doodle All The Day; Possum and Taters; Possum Hunt On Stump House Mountain; Practice Night with Skillet Lickers; Prettiest Little Girl in the County; Pretty Little Widow; Prohibition, Yes or No; Prosperity And Politics; Ricketts Hornpipe; Ride Old Buck to the Water; Rocky Pallet; Rock That Cradle Lucy; Roving Gambler; Rufus; Run Jimmie Run; Rye Straw; Sal's Gone (Down) to the Cider Mill; Sal, Let Me Chaw Your Rosin Some; Settin' In The Chimney Jamb; She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain; Shortenin' Bread; Show Me The Way To Go Home; Skip To The Lou My Darling; Sleeping Lulu; Smoke Behind the Clouds; Soldier's Joy; Soldier, Soldier (Won't You Marry Me); Streak O' Lean, Streak O' Fat; Sugar In The Gourd; Sweet Bunch of Daisies; Taking The Census; Tanner's Boarding House; Tanner’s Hornpipe; Tanner's Rag; There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight; They Gotta Quit Kicking my Dog Around; Tra-Le-La-La; Turkey in the Straw; Uncle Bud; Watermelon Hanging On the Vine; Where Did You Get That Hat; Whoa, Mule, Whoa; Wild Horse; Work Don't Bother Me; Wreck Of Old Ninety-Seven; Ya Gotta Quit Kicking My Dog Around.

Let's look at two of the songs that were important to Clayton throughout his career that he recorded with the Skillet Lickers.

Bile Them Cabbage Down recorded by the Skillet Lickers in Oct. 1927. This was one of Clayton's show pieces. He used the song to win many of his competitions. Curiously he doesn't includes it in his 1934 songbook. Then he says in his 1959 interview that Bile Dem Cabbage Down was one of his songs, indicating that he wrote it. He said he wrote it in 1938 or 39 when he was refering to his Georgia Wildcats recording for Decca in 1937. Somehow, the fact that he recorded the song with the Skillet Lickers was completely erased from his memory. He had been bitter for many years about the Skillet Lickers- it was his band and Gid somehow got all the credit.

Mac's attachment to the song is similar to other early country artists like the Delmore Brothers who, once they recorded a song, it was their property, even if they didn't write it. Sometimes by writing a new verse or two that was enough for them to feel like they'd written the song.

The sense of ownership was strong. I heard, and this is not substantiated, that Mac wouldn't let other performers play or record Bile Them Cabbage Down and was even in some verbal and legal scuffles over the song. [Hannah Boil Dat Cabbage Down was published by Sam Lucas in 1878] The surprising thing is Mac, who was friends with Fiddlin' John Carson, must have know Carson recorded the song in 1924. Other Atlanta performers like Earl Johnson played and recorded it. This was a song the top fiddlers in Atlanta knew- so it's hard to understand Mac's lapse.

Pretty Little Widow was recorded by the Skillet Lickers in 1928 when Lowe Stokes was aboard. This is another of Mac's show pieces and contest numbers. In the 1959 interview he relates that it was one his father's songs. He taught it to Mac circa 1910 when the youngster would accompany his father and family to the local dances. Mac, his father and uncles played fiddle and his mother played straws. His grandmother used to play banjo but she was getting older now and didn't play publicly anymore.

In the interview Mac relates how the folks in Nashville [Hank Garland and Red Foley] copied his father's song and called it "Sugarfoot Rag." Mac bemoans the fact that even if he raised hell there's nothing that can be done about it. [The song was first recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson in 1925 as "Old Frying Pan and Old Camp Kettle."] The Skillet Licker's excellent version includes some banter at the beginning and verses sung by Riley Puckett. [For a complete transcription see my web-site: http://bluegrassmessengers.com/pretty-little-widow--version-1-skillet-lickers.aspx ]

Pretty Little Widow- Skillet Lickers 1928
Mac to Bert: Well Zeke, how're you doing with the little widder now?
Bert as Zeke: Oh boy fine, fine.Mac: They tell me you're gettin' up quite a case up there is that so?
Bert as Zeke: You bet.
Mac: I just learned a new tune called the "Little Widder," I'm gonna play it for you and her. Riley you sing it now.
Riley: Let's go

(Fiddle)

Lawd Lawd, what a pretty little widder,
If I was a young man I'd go and git 'er.

(Fiddle)

Lawd-- what a pretty little widder,
Black my boots and I'll go and git 'er.

(Fiddle)

Mac and the Skillet Lickers- Part 3 Corn Licker Still

Hi,

The famous “Corn Licker Still in Georgia” series of fourteen skits (fourteen sides; seven 78s) originally recorded between 1927 and 1930 consisted of rural humor and social commentary at its best mixed with great fiddling by Clayton McMichen, Bert Layne, Lowe Stokes, and Gid Tanner, the popular crooning of Riley Puckett, and the banjo of Fate Norris and sometimes Gid Tanner. According Clayton from Clayton McMichen Talking: "The Corn Licker Still was Bert Layne and my idea. We had a brother-in-law down there in Georgia that did actually make liquor."

According to Mac, Wilber C. "Bill" Brown, an A&R man with Columbia Records, took the idea and wrote our scripts for the band members. Another contributor was recording engineer, part-time vocalist Dan Hornsby, who appeared as Tom Sly. Frank Walker, head of the division, also had a hand in the scripts.

Corn Licker Still in Georgia became the Skillet Lickers biggest selling series, reportedly selling over a million units. Not only were the skits funny with great music but they were crafted on personal experience. Clayton McMichen and Bert Layne were two of the Skillet Lickers who actually made money from running moonshine. It must have been doubly funny to them.

According to Juanita McMichen Lynch (Clayton's daughter) it was a family operation; her uncles would make it and Clayton would help with the supplies and sell it. Bert Layne told Stephen Davis in an interview, "Me and Mac would go out there (to the still) and buy it, you know. We'd give him $4 for a gallon and we'd take it to Cartersville and sell it for $8." On one trip Clayton was forced to carry two one-gallon jugs to Cartersville under his sister's large overcoat. One jug went to a restaurant and another to the 5-and-10 cent store!

According to Juanita, "Clayton used to even sell moonshine to the policemen. But they always had to worry about revenuers." Bert Layne said one day their car, which was loaded with moonshine, slipped off the road and was stuck in the mud. A revenue officer happened by and Clayton, fearing the consequences of getting caught, lifted the car right out of the mud- by himself. Later Clayton remarked, "My boot tracks was in that clay for six months afterwards!"

Here is an example of the dialogue found on the skits:

As the routine opens, Riley Puckett is leading a few of the Skillet Lickers in an old lament called "Rye Whiskey." A sharp knock at the cabin door brings the music to an abrupt halt. " Hear, hear! We can't have all that fuss around here," protests fiddler Clayton McMichen. "If we're going to make this liquor, why, let's make it and get through with it. You go up there on the hill and bring that thumper keg down here and bring that rye paste with you."

After the still has been assembled, the distilling begun, a customer satisfied, and a few fiddle tunes played, the inevitable happens. "All right, you boys, stick 'em up, there, we got you covered!" a revenue officer barks. "Who's running this place?"

"I'm running it myself," McMichen answers in a slow, sly drawl. "What kind of a run you got started?" "We got about five hundred gallons done run off."

"I'm sorry," says the officer, "we'll have to bust you up and take you down to Gainesville."

But the wily McMichen is ready for him. "Well, looks like there's some way to get out of this," he says, offering the officer a taste.

Though he refuses at first, the revenuer is finally obliged to comment, "Well, that is pretty good liquor, I'll admit that! What's all these instruments doing around here?"

"All right boys, come on play him a little tune," McMichen exhorts. "Whoop it on up. It's either play or go to jail." After more product demonstrations and a rousing rendition of "Pass Around the Bottle," the officer is won over.

"Tell you what I'm going to do, Mac," he proposes, "I'm going to let you off this time if you'll give me about ten of those cans. Can you do that?"

"I'll give you a hundred if you want," McMichen replies happily.

"I want you to keep quiet from here on," the officer warns. "Good luck to you boys!" Of course, the narrow escape calls for a celebration and the band strikes up the old fiddle tune "Katie Hill."

The next time they come in contact with the law, the moonshiners aren't so lucky, and for a while they find themselves on the chain gang. Nevertheless, a public letter-writing campaign gets the popular string band paroled.

"Now you boys go home," the warden tells them, "and remember, don't make any more corn liquor."

"We're through for good," McMichen promises. Back home in the mountains, however, the musical moonshiners distill some potent economic theory. "We got about five, six hundred bushels of corn out yonder in the crib that's going to ruin if we don't do something with it, " McMichen observes.

"I don't think there's no use to try to farm no-how as long as Prohibition's in effect," banjoist Fate Norris comments.

"What's the use to try and sell corn for two dollars a bushel in the ear when you can get $20 for a can?" asks Riley Puckett.

More to come,

Richard