I first heard of the Louvin Brothers when I was on vacation with friends in Tennessee. We rented a cabin in a mountain town called Monteagle. It was a small town halfway between Chattanooga and Nashville. It was a quiet town with little to do but sit on your porch overlooking the mountains.
But there was one cool place in town.
The Smokehouse
Jim Oliver’s Smoke House Restaurant was like a local Cracker Barrel complete with all types of doodads and souvenirs you could buy, artwork and crafts from the locals, plus great homemade BBQ.
Jim Oliver’s Smokehouse Restaurant, Monteagle, Tenn
On weekends they had music with acoustic musicians on their way to Nashville and on their way back to Atlanta or someplace.
Tucked in one of the corners in the place was a little room dedicated to the Louvin Brothers with pictures and books and other “merch” about the brothers.
Me and my friends had a good laugh thinking these guys were some local boys who made good and they wanted to pay tribute. We had never heard of them, and we were all music junkies and musicians.
We went to the Smokehouse other times on our way to Nashville to visit our daughter. We always had a good laugh when we saw the shrine to the Louvin Brothers.
Next time I heard of the Louvin Brothers was on a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. One of the exhibits was about them and told a little bit of their history — a little interesting but I still didn’t get it. Old country “old timey” music didn’t really seem that interesting to me.
But maybe there was more to these brothers then what I first thought.
When I Finally Got It
Then there was this podcast I heard by a guy named Tyler Mahan Coe who has a great website/podcast about country music called Cocaine and Rhinestone. Tyler is a music historian who goes and researches some aspect of country music and then does a podcast about what he learns. it’s really well done and worth listening to. Tyler thanks for letting us use your podcast on UMR.
Anyway…
As I listened to the podcast I began to realize just how cool these guys were. Not only did they write great songs but they literally invented these vocal harmonies that would influence musicians all over the place — you can hear their influence in the Everly Brothers, and many others of the great country and bluegrass groups.
Of course the fact that they were brothers was important.
There’s something about siblings singing together that just takes a vocal harmony to another level.
Gram Parsons got it and took one of their songs to sing with Emmy Lou Harris. That song was on the Byrds album Sweethearts of the Rodeo. I bet you know it. It’s called “The Christian Life.” .
Of course this is all talk until you hear what I’m talking about.
Watch the videos and listen to the podcast if you want to not only hear some great singing but learn some very intersting musical history about a couple of important and very innovative “creators” of the great American roots music from the heartland of our country.
This is truly the music musicians love and learn from — and gives them the inspiration to create their own great music.
