The winner is Andy Bing
DECEMBER 16, 2022 TRIVIA QUESTION
While there aren’t a lot of Christmas songs written and recorded by bluegrass artists, there are “some”. I don’t mean bluegrass artists singing standard Christmas carols. I mean Christmas songs written by (or for) bluegrass artists to record first.
So here’s your trivia question. Which of these “founding bands” of bluegrass never recorded a Christmas song?
A. Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys
B. The Stanley Brothers & the Clinch Mt. Boys
C. Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mt Boys
D. Reno & Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups
E. Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mt Boys
F. None of the above
Additional Bowden Comments
Good job Andy. For all the records Flatt & Scruggs made, good and bad, they never made one for Christmas.
Monroe’s big Christmas song leads the entire pack, “Christmas Time’s a’ Coming”. Fiddler Tex Logan rewrote an old fiddle novelty piece called “Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over” into a new song for Monroe. Tex was invited to play on Monroe’s Decca recording session, but he got a premonition about the trip and declined to go. He phoned Nashville and played the fiddler parts over the phone for Bill’s Blue Grass Boy fiddler at the time, Gordon Terry. Monroe didn’t even share “author” credit with Tex on the release.
The Stanley Brothers’ best known Christmas record is “Christmas Time is Near”. On the 45 rpm release, it was backed with an old banjo instrumental known as “Wild Horse” which the record company retitled “Holiday Picking”. An “almost-was” Christmas number was a composition by the dying Carter Stanley, dedicated to his wife, titled “Mary, Merry Christmas”. He didn’t live to record it for her. But a few others have cut it.
Reno & Smiley had a good Christmas single in the late 1950s “Christmas Reunion” backed with “Christmas Doll” which was an old Jim Eanes composition. In the early 1960s their record label had them make an entire LP for Christmas — the first bluegrass Christmas LP. Don Reno was a prolific songwriter as well as banjo player. He could really crank out songs.
Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys’ first well known Christmas record was “An Old Fashioned Christmas”. It included a heartfelt recitation by Jimmy reminiscing about his boyhood Christmas experiences with his family in East Tennessee. In later years of his career Jimmy churned out a fair number of Christmas songs.
Although many, many younger bluegrass artists have put out bluegrass records (even the heart-rending “Call Collect at Christmas” by a young Del McCoury, which his record company decided not to release in the early 70s, although it escaped later), there’s always room in bluegrass for more Christmas songs written for our genre.
l should have added, you can listen to all these songs (and more) on YouTube.
Let’s have a big hand for Lynn’s great work with all the graphics that accompany these trivia questions — especially this new one on Christmas songs! Well done!
Well, you do such an amazing job of challenging all of us, the least I can do is find a good graphic for the Trivia Question!!!
Thank you Lynn — your work does not go unnoticed !
That would be C—Flatt & Scruggs never did a Yuletide tune.
I don’t know the answer, but wanted to get my two holiday cents in.
1. The above picture of the snowman holding the guitar is from the Christmas card Martin Guitars sent to me.
2. Here’s a nice collection on my site thanks to Ken Landreth..
Christmas on the Radio 1958
https://frobbi.org/audio/landreth/Christmas1958
3. I had the joy of recording these two versions of a that was written by
Tex Logan…”Christmas Times A’Comin”
– Performed by the Bluegrass Academy for Kids at Grey Fox 2015
https://youtu.be/ENOUU-sr6HE
– Performed by the writer himself…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRL5hTWidk4
Dick, thanks, as always, for your dedicated musicianship, band leadership, and a a tireless bluegrass historian.
4. This has been around for a while, and thought you’d enjoy it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGuSRpg1EI8
I had forgotten that the snowman graphic came from Martin Guitars. I chose a different picture first and then….suddenly that cute one popped up on my screen. It was a no-brainer at that point.
Thanks, Fred, for sending it to me (whenever that was) and for refreshing my memory (which is not the best).
l should have added, you can listen to all these songs (and more) on YouTube.