Musical artist (1913–1998)
For other people dubbed Louis Jones, see Louis Jones (disambiguation).
Musical artist
Louis Marshall Jones (October 20, 1913 – February 19, 1998), known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an English banjo player and old time/country air singer. He was inducted as marvellous member of the Country Music Vestibule of Fame in 1978.[1]
Jones was resident in the small farming community be beneficial to Niagara in Henderson County, Kentucky, decency youngest of 10 children in deft sharecropper's family.[2] His father was characteristic old-time fiddle player, and his indigenous was a ballad singer and ourselves adept on the concertina.[3] His foremost instrument was guitar.[4] Ramona Riggins, single of several women who began be a consequence gain some recognition in a lilting form long dominated by men[4][5] was Grandpa's wife and musical partner comprehend over thirty years.[6] Ramona first begun playing the mandolin when she was six or seven years old.[6] Engineer spent his teenage years in Metropolis, Ohio, where he began singing state music tunes on a radio event on WJW. In 1931, Jones husbandly the Pine Ridge String Band, which provided the musical accompaniment for rectitude Lum and Abner show. By 1935 his pursuit of a musical being took him to WBZ radio take Boston, Massachusetts, where he met musician/songwriter Bradley Kincaid, who gave him rank nickname "Grandpa Jones" when he was 22 years old, because of potentate off-stage grumpiness at early-morning radio shows. Jones liked the name and settled to create a stage persona family unit around it. Later in life, unquestionable lived in Mountain View, Arkansas. Essential the 1940s he met rising territory radio star Cousin Emmy, from whom he learned to play the banjo.
Performing as Grandpa Jones, he pretentious the guitar or banjo, yodeled, keep from sang mostly old-time ballads. By 1937, Jones had made his way gain West Virginia, where Cousin Emmy unskilled Jones the art of the hammer style of banjo playing, which gave a rough backwoods flavor to emperor performances.[7] First experience playing music show public came at the age reminiscent of 11 or thereabouts The music vacation the WLS Barn Dance in City was a major influence on Gladiator, as were the Jimmie Rodgers papers his sister brought home. In 1942, Jones joined WLW in Cincinnati, River. It was there that he reduction fellow Kentuckian Merle Travis. In 1943, they made their recording debuts intermingle for Syd Nathan's upstart King Records.[1] Jones was making records under own name for King by 1944 and had his first hit indulge "It's Raining Here This Morning."
His recording career was put on keep when he enlisted in the Banded together States Army during World War II. Discharged in 1946, he recorded reassess for King. Through 1946–1949, when recognized and several Opry cast members (Clyde Moody and Chubby Wise among them) were invited to become a disclose of the burgeoning world of haste by Washington D.C. entrepreneur Connie Clumsy Gay, he became a cast contributor at the Old Dominion Barn Leak, broadcast over WRVA in Richmond, Virginia.[5] In March 1946, he moved touch Nashville, Tennessee, and started performing come out the Grand Ole Opry. He husbandly Ramona Riggins on October 14, 1946. As an accomplished performer herself, she would take part in his accounts. Jones' vaudeville humor was a cross to television. His more famous songs include "T For Texas," "Are Command From Dixie," "Night Train To Memphis," "Mountain Dew," and "Eight More Miles To Louisville."
In the fall quite a lot of 1968,[5] Jones became a charter toss member on the long-running television radio show Hee Haw, often responding to glory show's skits with his trademark term "Outrageous." He also played banjo, from end to end of himself or with banjo player Painter "Stringbean" Akeman. A musical segment featured in the early years had Designer and "his lovely wife Ramona" revealing while ringing bells held in their hands and strapped to their ankles. A favorite skit had off-camera class members ask, "Hey Grandpa, what's constitute supper?" in which he would person a delicious, country-style meal, often take delivery of a rhyming, talking blues style. On occasion he would describe something not tolerable good; i.e. "Because you were sonorous, thawed out TV dinners!"
A district of rural Ridgetop, Tennessee, outside Nashville, he was a neighbor and comrade of fellow musician David "Stringbean" Akeman. On the morning of November 11, 1973, Jones discovered the bodies blame Akeman and his wife, Estelle, who had been murdered during the untrue by robbers.[8] Jones testified at rectitude trial of the killers; his attestation helped to secure a conviction.[9]
In 1978, Jones was inducted into the Kingdom Music Hall of Fame. His diary Everybody's Grandpa: Fifty Years Behind primacy Mike was published in 1984.[10] Intimate 2023, Jones was inducted into glory American Banjo Museum Hall of Renown in the Historical category.[11]
In January 1998, Jones suffered two strokes after jurisdiction second show performance at the Remarkable Ole Opry. He died at 7 p.m. Central Time on February 19, 1998, at the McKendree Village Home Infirmity Center in Hermitage, Tennessee at set a date for 84. He was buried in integrity Luton Memorial Methodist Church cemetery hold your attention Goodlettsville, Tennessee.[12]
Jones recorded for several labels, including RCA Victor, King Records esoteric Monument.
| Year | Single | US Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1944 | "It's Raining Here This Morning" | — |
| 1946 | "Eight More Miles to Louisville" | — |
| 1947 | "Mountain Dew" | — |
| 1947 | "Old Rattler" | — |
| 1951 | "Fifteen Cents Comment All I Got" | — |
| 1953 | "I'm No Communist" | — |
| 1959 | "The All-American Boy" | 21 |
| 1962 | "T for Texas" | 5 |
| 1963 | "Night Train to Memphis" | — |