Malcolm B “Mac” Wiseman dubbed “The Voice with a Heart” has recorded over 800 songs and was instrumental in the founding of the Country Music Association. He was born May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Va. As an infant he contracted polio and spent much of this childhood indoors listening to old country records on the family’s phonograph. After deciding to pursue a career in music, he attended the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Virginia with help from the National Foundation for infantile Paralysis, which would later become the March of Dimes. In 1946, Wiseman joined Molly O’ Day’s band, where he developed a love of classic country. In 1948, he joined Lester Flatt and Scruggs as a member of their Foggy Mountain Boys. In 1949, he joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys where he played the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. In 1949 he left the band for a solo career. In 1951, Mac released his first single, “Tis Sweet to be Remembered” which became a career-making song. He then went on to record other classics, including “Ballad of Davy Crockett.” Mac was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2014 he was inducted into Country Music of Hall of Fame in Nashville.
In 1926, talent scout Frank Walker recorded a group of musicians from the Atlanta area that have since been declared “Country Music’s First Supergroup”. Walker took the ever popular Gid Tanner from Dacula, Riley Puckett from Alpharetta, Clayton McMichen from Altoona and Fate Norris from the Dalton area, and dubbed them “The Skillet Lickers”. Each member filled a very important role in the group. Gid Tanner was the “cut up” or the entertainer of the group. McMichen was the polished musician while Puckett was considered a singer’s singer. Norris kept the rhythm steady. Other musicians such as Lowe Stokes, Bert Layne, Ted Hawkins and Gordon Tanner contributed to their early success, as well. The Skillet Lickers seemed to have struck a nerve with rural Americans. They recorded songs that were already known, many of which were already in public domain. The Skillet Lickers performed and recorded those old songs with an all-new energy that no one, even to this day, could match. For five years, the Skillet Lickers proved to be one of Frank Walker and Columbia Records’ biggest success stories for their “rural” or “hillbilly” classification of music. Their success also had an influence on other legendary musicians like Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, Merle Travis, Hank Williams and many others.
In 1924, Columbia Records Artist & Repertoire talent scout, Frank Walker, came to North Georgia asking himself, “who can I record from this area?”. Fiddlin’ John Carson’s recording of Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane with Okeh records was starting to sell in Atlanta and Frank wanted to get in front of the coming wave. Frank asked Gid Tanner, who was already a regional celebrity through live performances, if he would come to New York and record some songs. Gid replied that he would if he could bring along a blind guitar player by the name of Riley Puckett. Frank agreed and in March of 1924, Tanner and Puckett recorded numerous songs that proved to be successful.
Before this, there was no well-defined “country music” industry. Radio was still in its beginnings. WSB in Atlanta was only 2 years old. Nashville was just another city in the south. Record companies were recording orchestras and classical music as well as “big band” type songs. The music industry was still driven by sheet music and “tin pan alley” song pluggers.
Walker saw a new market, a market for a type of music he enjoyed. He wanted to record music that people already knew. He dubbed this brand of music as “familiar tunes old and new”. Once Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett’s recordings began to have success, he simply repeated the process, finding other popular artists in other areas to record and sell. This business model not only allowed him to discover some of Country music’s greatest pioneers, but also laid the foundation for the country music industry that is still intact today.
In 1926, Walker recorded a group of musicians from the Atlanta area that have since been declared “Country Music’s First Supergroup”. Walker took the ever popular Gid Tanner from Dacula, Riley Puckett from Alpharetta, Clayton McMichen from Altoona and Fate Norris from the Dalton area, and dubbed them “The Skillet Lickers”. Each member was already very popular in their respective hometowns as well as the entire region of North Georgia. Each member filled a very important role in the group. Gid Tanner was the “cut up” or the entertainer of the group. McMichen was the polished musician while Puckett was considered a singer’s singer. Norris, also an entertainer, never took much of a lead role, but kept the rhythm steady. Other musicians such as Lowe Stokes, Bert Layne, Ted Hawkins and Gordon Tanner contributed to their early success, as well. The Skillet Lickers seemed to have struck a nerve with rural Americans. They recorded songs that were already known, many of which were already in public domain. The Skillet Lickers performed and recorded those old songs with an all-new energy that no one, even to this day, could match.
For five years, the Skillet Lickers proved to be one of Frank Walker and Columbia Records’ biggest success stories for their “rural” or “hillbilly” classification of music. Their success also had an influence on other legendary musicians and superstars that would follow across all genres of Country music. People like Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, Merle Travis, Hank Williams and many others were influenced and followed the path these men had cut before them.
Over 90 years later, the Skillet Licker name, music, and tradition has been handed down and continues to live on through four generations of Tanners. Gid’s grandson, Phil and great grandson Russ have kept the name, as well as the music, going for almost a century, and show no signs of slowing down.
While enrolled at Warren Wilson College in the mid-1970s, she met David Holt and began a lifelong friendship with her mentor. Laura began playing and performing with Holt and numerous other players around the Asheville area. In 1984 she took over David Holt’s chair in the Luke Smathers Band. She learned the mountain swing style that the Smathers brothers created after hearing swing music on the radio in their formative days. Laura has also played music with Josh Goforth, with whom she has toured extensively in the US and Scotland as well as David Holt and the Lightning Bolts and the Midnight Plowboys. Laura has recorded numerous solo albums and is instrumental in maintaining the tradition of shaped note singing from the Christian Harmony in workshops at MerleFest and Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week at Mars Hill University and annual singings across the region. Proficient in instruments including banjo, guitar, and autoharp, she also teaches multiple instruments and offers vocal coaching. She has vast experience teaching residencies in Southern Mountain Music to public school children of all ages. In her role as Executive Director of the Madison County Arts Council she helps administer the Junior Appalachian Musician program to elementary and middle school students in Madison County, NC.
Don Gibson was one of the most influential forces in the country music industry from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Few people around the English speaking world fail to remember Don’s two best known compositions, “Sweet Dreams” which became one of Patsy Cline’s most indelible hits, and the Ray Charles classic single “I Can’t Stop Loving You”. His third unforgettable country classic, “Oh, Lonesome Me” was later a crossover to rock and rockabilly band playlists. Don’s own recordings of these songs and over 510 others were enormously accomplished and successful. Don once said “I consider myself a songwriter who sings rather than a singer who writes songs.” That perspective is affirmed by the staggering evidence of his cross genre appeal and relevance which continues to this very day. Don Gibson, the Sad Poet, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973, an honor he shares with the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffet and Johnny Cash. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
Phil Jamison is nationally known as a dance caller, old-time musician, and flatfoot dancer. He has called dances, performed, and taught at music festivals and dance events throughout the U.S. and overseas since the early 1970s, including close to forty years as a member of the Green Grass Cloggers. For eighteen years (1992 – 2009), he served as the Dance Stage coordinator at MerleFest. Phil's flatfoot dancing was featured in the film, Songcatcher, for which he also served as Traditional Dance consultant. Over the last thirty years, Jamison has done extensive research in the area of Appalachian dance, and his recently-published book Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press, 2015) tells the story behind the square dances, step dances, reels, and other forms of dance practiced in southern Appalachia. Phil teaches mathematics as well as Appalachian music and dance at Warren Wilson College, in Asheville, North Carolina, where for twenty-five years, he coordinated the Old-Time Music and Dance Week at the Swannanoa Gathering.
Phil Jamison is nationally known as a dance caller, old-time musician, and flatfoot dancer. He has called dances, performed, and taught at music festivals and dance events throughout the U.S. and overseas since the early 1970s, including close to forty years as a member of the Green Grass Cloggers. For eighteen years (1992 – 2009), he served as the Dance Stage coordinator at Merlefest. Phil's flatfoot dancing was featured in the film, Songcatcher, for which he also served as Traditional Dance consultant. Over the last thirty years, Jamison has done extensive research in the area of Appalachian dance, and his recently-published book Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press, 2015) tells the story behind the square dances, step dances, reels, and other forms of dance practiced in southern Appalachia. Phil teaches mathematics as well as Appalachian music and dance at Warren Wilson College, in Asheville, North Carolina, where for twenty-five years, he coordinated the Old-Time Music and Dance Week at the Swannanoa Gathering.