on the logistics to get these two guys
together...
and it happened...We recorded music
history.
We met in Wheeling West VA, Hag and Slim
talked for over an hour
on camera about the Singing
Brakeman...
On Dec. 7th of 2008...Slim Bryant will
be 100 years old...just talked to
him on the
phone on June 7th Les Paul's Birthday. Slim died shortly
after his
100th birthday. I was working to get him and Les Paul
together, in that Les told me Slim inspired him to play the guitar.
Slim mentions Les in the video on the
right of the page...
A very special time in Wheeling
West Virginia at the Capital
Theater with these two
Slim
and Merle sing "Mother, Queen of My Heart" during
our interview session with them...a historic day. The song
was written by Slim and
Jimmie Rodgers and Haggard recorded
it.
Slim played guitar on the Jimmie Rodgers cut...Norm Stephens
is in the middle and played with Lefty Frizzell,
who recorded a t
ribute album to Jimmie Rodgers in 1951
At Hag's
concert he invited Slim on stage and you can
just see the
admiration that he has for this great picker...
Slim grew up hearing
important local country acts such as Fiddlin' John Carson and Gid
Tanner's Skillet Lickers (with McMichen on fiddle) yet didn't decide to
play guitar until entering the electrical trade after high school. Sixteen months
studying with renowned Atlanta jazz banjoist-guitarist Perry Bechtel
gave him a broad musical palette
and a jazzman's soul.
His guitar heroes were jazz
pioneer Eddie Lang and pop singer Nick Lucas. Of Lucas, he says,
"I
never heard anybody who could sing and then play a chorus. I copied his
accompaniment
because he was better than country music. I helped
introduce this into country music." Others
agree. In his book "Country
Music U.S.A.," historian Bill Malone points out that Bryant "began
playing single-string solos and 'sock' rhythm a percussive
closed-chord style] long before most
guitarists."
" I've played with Joe Negri,
Tex Ritter, Jimmie Rodgers, and the singing cowboy Gene Autry,'' Slim said.
Mr. Bryant called the
legendary Mr. Autry a "generous, wonderful man. I got to know him real
well. When he came to Pittsburgh we'd eat
Downtown. He recorded my song, 'If You'll Let Me Be Your
Little Sweetheart.'
