The winner is Andy Bing
MARCH 11, 2022 TRIVIA QUESTION
Brother Acts – Where Were They From?
There have been a heck of lot of “brother duets” in hillbilly music. Focusing on the ones particularly known in bluegrass, let’s see if you know what state they were “from”. Bill Monroe always took care to mention what state each of his Blue Grass Boys was from, during band introduction on stage.
1. The Monroe Brothers, Bill & Charlie___________________________
2. The Stanley Brothers, Carter & Ralph__________________________
3. The Lilly Brothers, Everett and Bea____________________________
4. Jim & Jesse McReynolds_____________________________________
5. The Louvin Brothers, Ira & Charlie_____________________________
6. The Osborne Brothers, Bob & Sonny____________________________
7. Punch Brothers_____________________________________________
8. The McCoury Brothers (both sets), Del & Jerry, and Ronnie and Rob_____
9. The Case Brothers, Martin & Gibson_____________________________
10. The Blue Sky Boys, Bill & Earl Bolick___________________________
The answers are:
1: Kentucky
2: Virginia
3: W. Virginia
4: Virginia
5: Alabama
6: Kentucky
7: Not really brothers — they’re from all over
8: Pennsylvania
9: New York
10: N. Carolina
Additional Bowden Comments
Well I’m not gonna gloat, but I finally got one little step up on Andy Bing. ALL FOUR McCourys were born in Pennsylvania. Del and Jerry were born in York PA. Bill Monroe persisted in introducing Del as “the boy from North Carolina”, which is where Del’s PARENTS were indeed from. Del was born right after the family moved to PA. His younger brother Jerry was also born in PA. (Their older brother GC is probably the N. Carolina native.)
The Punch Brothers is an avant garde bluegrass group led by Chris Thile, along with Chris Critter Eldredge (Ben’s son) on guitar, Noam Pikelny on banjo and I can’t remember the fiddler and bass man. As the ol’ Road Hog would say “They is purty high-falutin’.”
Bill Monroe was always big on introducing a band member “and what state he is from”. I’ve enjoyed tapes of Monroe introducing guitarist Roland White “he is from the State of Maine and he’s a real TROUPER!” Since Maine is my home state too. Monroe had his own way of pronouncing some states. I-o-way. O-hi. Westconsin. No’th Cuhlina.
Thanks Andy for playing!!
Here’s a hint for #9. The Gibson Brothers and the Feinberg Brothers are from the same state as the Case Brothers.
What?!?!?!? No entries as of Tuesday Mar 22? Come on now, take a stab at it, even if you only know a few, or care to guess. We cannot have a Bluegrass Trivia column dud! I know the weather’s nice and all that, and it’s light much later into the evening, but throw me a bone folks! And especially after Lynn came up with such a nice photo for the top of the column…
Monroes-Kentucky
Stanleys-Virginia
Lillys-West Virginia
Jim&Jesse-Virginia
Louvins-Alabama
Osbornes-Kentucky
Punch-who’s that?
McCourys-Del&Jerry North Carolina; Ron & Rob Pennsylvania
Case Brothers-New York
Bolicks-North Carolina
Thanks for straightening me out on the McCourys senior. Who would have thought Bill Monroe would have been less than entirely honest about Del’s birthplace? Hmmmm….