@jpwarren58: Yup, Jimmie Rodgers is considered the founding father of Country music, and the Carter Family the first family of Hillbilly. When Johnny Cash first crossed paths with June Carter, he considered her "royalty" ;-) . In 1990 Rounder Records issued a series of LP’s of Jimmie’s earliest recordings. I have First Sessions 1927-1928 and The Early Years 1928-1929, along with The Best Of The Legendary Jimmie Rodgers.
By the way, June’s daughter Carlene (her pa was Country singer Carl Smith) was for a time married to Nick Lowe, after which she was with Howie Epstein, Tom Petty’s second bassist. Howie produced a couple of albums for John Prine, and played bass on recordings of some of my favorite artists, including John Hiatt. Howie unfortunately developed a taste for heroin, which cost him his life.
It’s ironic that after a lifetime of playing drums in Garage bands, Frat bands (while in high school I played a lot of gigs in the frat houses of Stanford University. Before moving up to San Francisco, Jerry Garcia did some busking on the campus of that rich-kids school), Blues bands, Country-Rock groups, Jump Blues/Swing bands, Singer-Songwriters, New Wave bands and singers (Pearl Harbor, who had three albums on Stiff/Columbia Records, married to Clash bassist Paul Simonon, sweet girl), Instrumental combos (Surf, Lounge, etc.), backing Oldies acts (Don & Dewey, the 1950’s Specialty Records Rock ’n’ Roll pioneers), Power Pop masters (Emitt Rhodes, John Wicks of The Records), and the one-and-only Evan Johns (he was a bandmate of the guitarists-guitarist, Danny Gatton. Vince Gill nicknamed Danny "The Humbler" ;-) , and I end up loving Bluegrass---drum-free music, as jp correctly points out!
Here’s a Bluegrass story: In the Fall of 1971 I was entering a San Jose band just as it’s bassist and drummer were leaving. The drummer was starting a band with Dave Shogren, who had just been kicked out of The Doobie Brothers. The bassist was going to focus on mandolin, and was going up to Marin to study (okay, take lessons ;-) with David Grisman. David advised Todd (Phillips) that there were plenty of great mandolin players, but a dearth of upright bassists.
Todd took David’s advice, got himself an upright (he had been a Fender P Bass player), and carved out a very nice career for himself. He even ended up playing in bands with David! Todd also worked with everyone’s (including the late Art Dudley) favorite flat-top acoustic guitarist, the great Tony Rice. Not bad for a kid from San Jose. Yeah, but I still have my hair, and Todd is bald ;-) .
I last saw Todd ten years ago, when we played music together for about an hour. I heard the sound of his 19th Century bass in the flesh, and can use my memory of it’s sound when I listen to Todd on recordings. My Rythmik/GR Research OB/Dipole Subs are fully up to the task of reproducing that sound..