Saturday, August 13, 2011

Homer & Jethro


Another comedy country Lp from the charity shop the other day. I have featured Homer and Jethro before but happy to share this side which is a compilation of some of their best from the 50's and 60's on RCA.

Wikipedia says -



"Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. Haynes (1920–1971) and Kenneth C. Burns (1920–1989), popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs. Known as the Thinking Man's Hillbillies, they received a Grammy in 1959 and are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.


Haynes and Burns met in 1936 during a WNOX-AM audition in Knoxville, Tennessee when they were both 16 years old. Known as Junior and Dude (pronounced "dood'-ee"), the pair was rechristened Homer (Haynes) and Jethro (Burns) when WNOX Program Director Lowell Blanchard forgot their nicknames during a 1936 broadcast. In 1939 they became regulars on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio program in Dayton, Ohio.

They were drafted into the US Army during World War II but served separately; they reunited in Knoxville in 1945, and in 1947 they performed on WLW-AM's Midwestern Hayride in Cincinnati. They sang exaggerated hillbilly-styled versions of pop standards as their comedic hook, with Haynes on guitar and Burns on mandolin. They originally recorded for King Records, where they also worked as session musicians backing other artists until a dispute over song credits with label owner Syd Nathan led Nathan to release them from the label. The duo and other stars were fired by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, Missouri and performed on KWTO-AM with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson."



Tracks are as follows -

1. Daddy Played First Base
2. What Have You Done For Me Lately
3. Gone
4. Ballad Of Davey Crewcut
5. We Did'nt Make It Through The Night
6. Please Help Me I'm Crawling
7. Sink The Bismark



Homer & Jethro - Side One

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