| > Jethro Burns + Tiny Moore
>the album is called "Back to Back" I think (I only have a tape copy which I
>got from a friend), so I have no written information left). If I remember
>right, Jethro Burns used to play with Bob Wills' Texas Playboys back in the
>??ies - he plays accoustic mandolin (Gibson F-5). Tiny Moore plays a 5 string
>solid body electric mandolin - I have seen him once in concert, great show. I
>think this album was initiated by mandolinist David Grisman who plays on some
>tracks as well.
>
>Now, does anybody have more infos about these two musicians? album list?
Jethro Burns was one half of the C&W comedy/music act Homer and Jethro
(they did stuff like "I'm My Own Grandpa" and "Mama, Get The Hammer
There's A Fly On The Baby's Head"). Tiny Moore was the one who played
with Bob Wills (also Merle Haggard). "Back to Back" is indeed the
title, and it came out on either Flying Fish or Kaleidoscope. There is
also a Tiny Moore solo on Kaliedoscope in a similar vein. I recall a
Jethro solo but my memory is foggy on that one.
These guys are smoking. Tiny's mando sounds like a guitar and he plays
some hot jazz licks, saw him once at a festival up in Maine playing
standards and sounding like a million bucks. I think he passed away
recently (within the past year).
Anybody into the sort of jazz that Grisman, Tony Rice, etc. play should
give these guys a listen.
Brian
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| The late Steve Goodman and Jethro were great friends and Jethro appeared on a
number of Goodman's albums playing new Goodman tunes as well as older jazz
standards ("It's a Sin to Tell a Lie") which Steve loved so well. Though Burns
made his name as a country hick comedian, he was really a first class musician. As
noted before, if you like Grisman and Rice, listen to Burns.
Paul
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| BTW, Jethro Burns died not too long ago - maybe last year, I can't remember.
All the great young mandolinists said he was the greatest. He made probably
the only solo mandolin album - Tea for One, produced by David Grisman.
For your obsucre trivia collection: Jethro was Chet Atkins' brother-in-law.
Bob
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| Jethro was one of the inspirations for a lot of the younger players, including Grisman and Sam
Bush. He was a modest, assuming fellow. You may remember some of the 'hick' commercials that
he and Homer did during the '60's - for Kellogs Corn Flakes.
PBS ran a special on Jethro not too long ago - that featured some of those commercials, interviews
with Jethro, and a performance with the band he had at the time, and special guests, including
Chet Atkins, Steve Goodman, and his Son ("Robert?"). It's an absolute jem, and shows
not only Jethro's excellance as a musician, but as an entertainer he was truely without
peer. His humor and wit, the dialogue that he sustained with the crowd was really what
kept he and Homer on top of the scene.
One of the classics, now sadly out of print, is the show he and homer did in 1962 at the
country music awards banquet. Picture the scene: no tv, no cameras, so everyones getting
pretty loose. Homer and Jethros come on, and they spend more time talking to the crowd
than they do playing and it's a riot.
BTW, according to the booklet included in the last recording of Bob Wills and the
Texas Playboys, a two album set entitled "For the Last Time", that featured Merle Haggard
on two cuts, Merle never played with the Texas Playboys when they were still working.
He claimed so much inspiration for his style had come from Bob, that they allowed him to
do the first couple of tunes on that recording. FWIW, the title of that collection
happened because after the first days recording, Bob had a stroke from which he died a couple
of months later, and so in fact that days material was the 'last time' ever that Bob
was with the Playboys.
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