Description
DESCRIPTION
The Delmore Brothers adapted their style with the times. At the start of their career, their then innovative approach, superseded many pioneer country artists. Toward the end of their career they adapted to the sounds of the 1940s and '50s, arguably pioneering the rockabilly sound. Alton usually took lead vocals, but they could switch high and low parts between them. Their influence on The Monroe Brothers is undoubted. Apart from harmony singing, their recordings are characterised by clear diction and clean-cut guitar playing. Born in Alabama in the early 20th century Alton and Rabon were sons of tenant farmers. Seeking better land, they moved to Tennessee. Their fortunes did not improve. The family worked on other farms as day laborers. These tough experiences would re-emerge in Delmore songs. Alton later said that the shadow of poverty never quite left them. But their mother could play and read music. She taught Alton and, settling on guitar, he became a fine musician. He also attended gospel singing schools. The early interest in gospel music was later reflected in their use of sacred material which continued throughout their career. Later, in the 1940s and early 1950s, even when they had a string of nationwide hits, they insisted on recording gospel material. By 1926 The Delmores were already working on their harmony singing and instrumental work. At some point Alton had bought a tenor guitar. Taught by Alton, Rabon could play it by the time he was ten - apparently using banjo chords. Alto chose the tenor guitar - smaller than the standard six-string guitar and having only four strings - after he'd seen a vaudeville double act use one. It was an example of their willingness to step outside rigid country traditions. By the end of their careers (Rabon died from lung cancer in 1952) the brothers had been Opry stars (and fallen out with the Opry) and written over 1000 songs including Freight Train Boogie - a key link in the Rock 'n' Roll story.
Ain't Got Nowhere to Travel
Smokey Mountain Bill and His Song
Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar
Lonesome Yodel Blues
Brown's Ferry Blues
I'm Mississippi Bound
I've Got the Big River Blues
The Girls Don't Worry About My Mind
Bury Me Out on the Prairie
The Frozen Girl
Lonesome Jailhouse Blues
Blue Railroad Train
When It's Summertime in a Southern Clime
Blow Yo' Whistle Freight Train
Down South
Brown's Ferry Blues- Part 2
I Got the Kansas City Blues
Alabama Lullaby
The Fugitive's Lament
I'm Going Away
I Long to See My Mother
Lorena, the Slave
The Nashville Blues
The Lover's Warning
I'm Worried Now
Take Away This Lonesome Day
Promise Me You'll Always Be Faithful
Don't You See That Train
It's Taken' Me Down
That Yodelin' Gal- Miss Julie
I'm Gonna Change My Way
Happy Hickey- the Hobo
Lonesome Yodel Blues-No.2
Put Me on the Trail to Carolina
My Smokey Mountain Gal
Take Me Back to the Range
No Drunkard Can Enter There
Southern Moon
False Hearted Girl
The Budded Rose
The Blind Child
Are You Marching with the Saviour
No One
Lead Me
I Need the Prayers of Those I Love
I've Got the Railroad Blues
The Weary Lonesome Blues
Heavenly Light Is Shining on Me
Wonderful There
Singing My Troubles Away
They Say It's Sinful to Flirt
Till the Roses Bloom Again
When We Held Our Hymn Books Together
Hi de Ho Baby Mine
Goodbye Booze
Careless Love (Bring My Baby Back)
In That Vine Covered Chapel in the Valley
The Cannon Ball
15 Miles from Birmingham
Where Is My Sailor Boy
Just the Same Sweet Thing to Me
A Better Range Is Home
Don't Let My Ramblin' Bother Your Mind
Wabash Blues
Go Easy Mabel
Over the Hills
The Dying Truckdriver
Scatterbrain Mama
Happy on the Mississippi Shore
Rainin' on the Mountain
See That Coon in the Hickory Tree
The Storms Are on the Ocean
Back to Birmingham
The Eastern Gate
God Put a Rainbow in the Clouds
There's Trouble on My Mind Today
Silver Dollar
Old Mountain Dew
In the Blue Hills of Virginia
Make Room in the Lifeboat for Me
When It's Time for the Whip-Poor Will to Sing
Will You Be Lonesome Too?
Broken Hearted Lover
I Now Have a Bugle to Play
Baby Girl
Gospel Cannonball
Honey I'm Ramblin Away
