J. T. Bryan

This year, we lost a great friend and musician, J.T. Bryan. When I was just barely a teenager...maybe...I met J.T. And, I'm not sure exactly where it was. J.T. and Joe Julian both lived in Paris and had a band. I think the name of it was "The Texas Playboys". "Play" as in playing Texas fiddle music! Another member of their band was Ross Whit from Honey Grove. That is probably how I came to first meet them. Ross lived just a couple of blocks from me in Honey Grove and played fiddle with J.T. and Joe. Somewhere along the way, they ask me to play banjo with them. I believe that I had my first FOUR STRING banjo at the time. Yes FOUR STRING! I had somehow learned to pick "five-string" banjo tunes on the "four", but it wasn't easy.

Before I knew it, I was playing with J.T., Joe, and Ross at county fairs and nursing homes. But, the most fun was traveling with them to places such as Bowie Texas (Jim Bowie Days) and several other towns that had fiddlin' contests at their local events. J.T. and Joe had a reputation for being some of the best accompanists in Texas when it came to playing Texas fiddle music. And I knew it first hand! I'm not sure how many times I've seen them accept "best" awards for their work with the fiddlers.

I remember driving to Paris as a teenager (got my hardship drivers license at an early age) and spending Saturday mornings at Frank Smith's filling station, just north of the square. There were always a handful of fiddlers and guitar pickers there for the Saturday morning jam. And after hearing every other guitar picker for MILES around, I know that J.T. was THE best rhythm player I've ever known.

In the recent years past, J.T. owned and operated the Paris Violin Shop. Some of my best memories will always be those of visiting J.T. on Saturday mornings and picking a few hours with the regulars who invariably dropped by to see him.

J.T. passed away on May 9 of this year. The music got a lot sweeter in heaven and went a little downhill here on earth...

In memory of J.T. Bryan
1927-2010

Musical Impressions

I was talking to Wade White and Donnie Williams of Paris a couple of weeks ago after a jam session we all had together. The jam included the Hard 2 Git band, Glen Evans (Wade's steel guitarist), Van Barton (dobro player for Simply Gospel), William Rogers (guitarist for the Cowboy Church band), and the Bolton Family. As we were leaving, we stood outside and talked for quite a bit. As we talked about other musicians we know, I felt compelled to tell Wade and Donnie about a couple of great players that made an impression on me when I was just a child of around seven years old. Some stories always bring a tear to my eye...

I've previously blogged about my grandfather and some of the musician friends he had around Selfs, Texas as I was growing up. Grandaddy and Grandmama would sometimes take me to a musical get-together they used to have at either Monkstown or Telephone...I can't remember which. My memory of what went on at these get-togethers has always been pretty vague. I was so young! But two people definitely made an impression on me back then, and it lasted for about 40 years. All I remember...is that I heard two different guitarist that I just knew had to be the best pickers in the world. For about forty years, I carried their names around in the back of my mind. Then, somewhere around 1996, a fellow church-goer invited me to attend a Men's Breakfast at First Baptist Church Blossom, just east of Paris. He asked me to bring along my banjo because there were some other musicians at the church that would enjoy playing some Gospel music after the breakfast.

So, I packed up my banjo and left for Blossom early that Saturday morning. When I arrived, my friend started introducing me to the other men at the meeting. All of a sudden he said, "Boyd, this is Roger Cato. He plays guitar." BANG!!! I can't describe the emotion that overwhelmed me at that instant...and I'm getting teary-eyed even as I type this. A name that had been hidden somewhere in the back of my mind for forty-some-odd years leaped out and became reality, standing right there shaking hands with me! This WAS the greatest guitar picker I had ever seen when I was growing up. When I was around seven years old, I probably knew who Chet Atkins was, and Brent Mason was probably about my age...maybe strumming on a ukelele like me...but THIS was the real-life HOT GUITAR PICKER that I still remembered after all those years!

Mr. Cato and I eventually sat down and picked some good ole Gospel songs together...and to tell the truth...I don't remember much about that session...other than the fact that I had met the person connected to that 40-year-old name in the recesses of my mind. Months, or a few years later, I got to have some quality picking time with Mr. Cato at the Prestonwood Antique Mall in Paris. My memories were re-inforced...he was, and still is a GREAT guitar picker.

During one of those sessions at the antique mall, another guitar picker showed up. He was lightning fast on the guitar...and also played the banjo. Most of the time, I would show up at the mall and sit down to join the pickers already there. So, it wasn't until after minutes or hours of playing that Mr. Cato finally got around to introducing me to that lightning fast picker. BANG!!! Another memory from the past became reality to this 47 year old banjo picker...Joe Eddie Swint! I've since had the opportunity to play with Mr. Swint at his church and at some other get-togethers. Also, Mr. Swint is still a GREAT guitar picker. I later learned that he plays banjo and piano too.

I believe the impressions we make on children around us is very important, just like the impression Mr. Cato and Mr. Swint made on me...some 47 years ago! God bless them!

Banjo Boyd

Singing Strings

Happy New Year everyone! I want to tell you a little bit about my holiday project. My company always shuts down from around Christmas Eve until just after January 1. I always enjoy this time off from work and I usually embark on a project that requires a fair amount of un-interrupted time. Work is SUCH an interruption!

This year I spent the week of December 28 through January 1 working on a new CD. As I thought about my band, Hard 2 Git, I realized that everyone had a CD to offer except me! When Jonathan Perry played dobro for H2G, they recorded a couple of CDs, and Stuart Anderson has a banjo instrumental CD ("Banjo Solution"). But, I don't really have anything to offer as far as bluegrass music goes. OK, OK, I do have a Christmas CD, but there just isn't much interest in Christmas music throughout the bluegrass season! And that CD, "Merry Christmas", is a mixture of banjo, pedal steel guitar, dobro, and classical guitar music. I got to thinking that, as dobro player for Hard 2 Git, I should record a dobro instrumental CD! So, on Monday morning, December 28, 2009, I hit the floor running. By the following Saturday, with the help of my wonderful wife, Debbie, I had my first dobro instrumental CD!

Debbie supported me by listening to each song and providing valuable suggestions as I mixed down the final tracks. When we got around to designing the CD label, she had some great ideas for it. In the end, we were both pleased with the final product. If you haven't heard or seen the CD, let me give you a preview!

First, the music was inspired by my grandfather, John Henry Edelhauser. Grandaddy played the Hawaiian lap steel guitar. But, there wasn't much "Hawaiian" about it. As a child, the only music I heard coming from his instrument was good ole country and gospel. I eventually learned to play the lap steel also, and what do you think I played? Yep, good ole country and gospel! In case you didn't know, the lap steel and the dobro are usually tuned and played identically. The only difference is that one is electrified and the other is acoustic. Of course, they look different! So, when I started thinking about what music I should put on my first dobro CD, there was really no question. It had to be those great old gospel songs that Grandaddy played so often!

The design Debbie and I came up with for the label stems from the same theme. We recently had a revival at our church and I was tasked with coming up with a flyer that would be used to promote the revival. To make a long story short, one Sunday morning I walked outside to get the morning paper and the sky just looked absolutely beautiful. I ran back in the house and grabbed my camera for a few shots. I eventually superimposed a picture of our church on one of those photos and used it for the background of the revival flyer. Guess what! It would also work perfect for a gospel CD label! I then added a small picture of my Grandaddy to the CD, added the title, song list, and credits, and WA LA, "Singing Strings - Grandaddy's Gospel Favorites".

Where did I get that title?! Well, I'm not much of a singer, and like my Grandaddy, we both had rather let our strings sing to the Lord instead of trying to do it with our off-key vocal chords! (Actually, Grandaddy could sing pretty good. He lead music at Selfs Baptist Church for many years.) And, as a bonus track for the CD, I decided to add a little of my Grandaddy's playing. The recording you'll hear was made in 1968 at a family reunion in Selfs Texas (north of Honey Grove). That's where Grandaddy lived and where my musical roots started growing.

In Loving Memory of John Edelhauser - 1915-1982