Jethro Burns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_C._Burns

Kenneth C. Burns (March 10, 1920 – February 4, 1989) was an American country musician, comedian, and mandolin player. He was better known by his stage name Jethro from his years with Henry D. Haynes as part of the comedic musical duo Homer and Jethro beginning in 1936.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_and_Jethro

Biography

Burns was born Conasauga, Tennessee on March 10, 1920. His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee when he was three. In 1936, he auditioned for a talent contest at Knoxville radio station WNOX where he met Henry Haynes, also 16. The two formed a duo and WNOX program director Lowell Blanchard gave them the stage names Homer and Jethro after forgetting their names on the air.

Burns was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II and reunited with Haynes, who had served in the Pacific, in Knoxville in 1945. By 1947, the duo moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and were working at WLW on the station's Midwestern Hayride. They signed with King Records, where they worked as a house band and recorded singles on their own, and two years later signed with RCA Records. The pair were fired along with other stars by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, Missouri and performed on KWTO with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson.

In 1949, they moved to Chicago, Illinois and played at the Chicago Theatre. Between shows, they would go to WLS to appear live on National Barn Dance. While performing on WLS, Burns met and married his wife, Lois Johnson, who he called Gussie. Her sister Leona was married to Atkins.

In 1959, they won a Grammy for the best comedy performance in 1959 for "The Battle of Kookamonga", a parody of Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans".

Burns was a highly-influential mandolin stylist, preferring clean single-note jazzy melodies and sophisticated chords over the dominant bluegrass stylings of Bill Monroe, and since he performed mostly in a country music setting, introduced many country mandolinists to sophisticated jazz harmonies and improvisational techniques, as well as standards from the songbooks of Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and Cole Porter.

By the 1970s, Burns' influence had spread to a younger generation of bluegrass and "new-acoustic" musicians, most notably New Grass Revival mandolinist Sam Bush. His participation in Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns, an independently released album produced by promoter Hank Deane, was reportedly at Bush's suggestion. During that same decade, Burns' acquaintance with erstwhile bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman led to Burns' writing a number of music/humor columns in the Grisman-published journal Mandolin World News. Grisman also produced a 1978 duet album on Kaleidoscope Records, Back to Back, featuring Burns and Western swing electric mandolinist Tiny Moore. Although Burns and Moore were approximately the same age and were among the few of their generation to make their reputations playing jazz and swing mandolin, the two had never met prior to the production of the album, its liner notes report.

After Haynes died in 1971, Burns's regular musical partner was guitarist Ken Eidson, with whom he co-authored an influential mandolin method tome (Mel Bay's Complete Jethro Burns Mandolin Book, still in print), and they continued to perform as Homer and Jethro. After the partnership ended, Burns continued to play, most notably with Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman. He appeared on several of Goodman's albums and also toured nationally with him. At times he appeared in the Million Dollar Band on TV's Hee Haw with Atkins and swing fiddler Johnny Gimble. He also became a master teacher of mandolin jazz. He died in 1989 from prostate cancer in Evanston, Illinois.

In 2001, Burns and Haynes were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Recordings

Some of Burns' most influential recordings (in order of recording):

Bear Family BCD-15728AH Jazz From the Hills, Country All Stars (reissue of sessions from 1952–1955); with Jerry Byrd, Chet Atkins, Henry D. Haynes, Dale Potter

RCA Victor Playing It Straight (1962), Homer and Jethro; reissued on CD by RCA Japan

RCA Victor It Ain't Necessarily Square (1965?), Homer and Jethro; reissued on CD by RCA Japan RCA Camden Down Yonder and Other Old-Time Favorites (1967) by Wade Ray and the Country Fiddlers.

FRC-653-CD "The Puritan Sessions" with swing fiddler Keith Coleman; cut originally for Puritan label in 1975, but not issued until 1998

Flying Fish Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns (1975)

Acoustic Disc ACD-60 Back to Back (originally 1979 on Kaleidescope), with Tiny Moore, Eldon Shamblin, Shelly Manne, Ray Browne

Acoustic Disc ACD-15 Swing Low Sweet Mandolin (1987); with Don Stiernberg

Acoustic Disc ACD-29 Bye Bye Blues (1987); with Don Stiernberg

The two RCA Victor albums showcased Homer and Jethro as jazz musicians rather than comedy kings. They didn't have wide commercial appeal, so the studio gave them a free hand to select material, arrange and improvise.

The RCA Camden LP was a budget release by a studio group with Wade Ray (overdubbed fiddles), Sonny Osborne (banjo) and Homer and Jethro. Burns played jazzy interpretations of old-time fiddle standards.

Back to Back paired Burns with Western swing giant Moore and an all-star jazz rhythm section.

The two ACD were recorded by Burns after his cancer was advancing; he and Stiernberg worked in an intimate setting to put as many of Burns' musical ideas on high-quality recordings for future generations to enjoy and for aspiring swing mandolinists (and guitarists) to learn from.

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During the course of a career that lasted more than 50 years, the late Kenneth "Jethro" Burns was given many nicknames and accolades. Mandolin players called him "The Legend," "The Great One," "Mr. Mandolin" and the "World's Greatest Mandolin Player."

Certainly he was a major influence on many of today's leading players. His ever evolving style, a blend of clean single note lines, sophisticated harmonies, and ground-breaking chord melody arrangements for solo mandolin, emphasized the melody and loose swinging rhythm.

Born in rural north Georgia on March 10, 1920, Jethro and his folks moved to Knoxville Tennessee when he was 3. His brothers all played music and they got plenty of support and understanding from their father, who worked on the medicine show circuit as a tap dancer and comedian. It was from his father that he got a firsthand view of music and comedy together. Jethro later credited him saying, "Because of him, I always had a good understanding of exactly what I was doing as an entertainer."

As anyone who ever saw Jethro perform will attest, he had very good understanding indeed. His wacky cornball humor was always "note perfect," and his Mandolin playing was as entertaining as it was soulful.

For 39 of those 50 years in show business, Burns performed with Henry Haynes as the musical comedy duo known worldwide as "Homer & Jethro." Their collaboration yielded 35 albums, a Grammy award, regular appearances on national television and radio shows such as Johnny Carson, Dean Martin and Jimmy Dean. A series of outrageously successful, and just plain outrageous commercials for Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

Most of their comedy songs were Jethro's parodies of hit pop and country tunes. Their brilliance as comedians threaten to overshadow their virtuosic musicianship, although two instrumental albums displayed their pioneering string jazz sound.

Henry Haynes died suddenly in 1971, but that painful loss didn't thwart Jethroís musical evolution. He began teaching and teaming with Chicagoan Ken Edison for three Mandolin instruction books published by Mel Bay. The two of them also performed regularly as "Homer & Jethro."

Once Burns met singer-songwriter Steve Goodman at a Chicago folk club, another legendary mandolin and guitar duet began. Their tours, and Goodman's albums, introduced Jethro to a new generation of fans.

In later years, Jethro appeared regularly on the television program "Hee Haw." He also played with his brother-in-law Chet Atkins and the "Million-Dollar Band," and returned to his live radio roots on a "Prairie Home Companion." He wrote a regular monthly column for the publication "Mandolin World News," and performed club dates with his "Jethro Burns Quartet," which included two mandolin's, a guitar, and a bass. The members included rhythm guitarist John Parrott, bassist Neil Seroka, and Don Stiernberg on mandolin.

Steve Goodman once said of Jethro, "I never heard him play or say anything that wasn't the very thing that everyone else in the room wished they had played or said." How did he do it? His special skill was to mix equal parts mischief and genius. (While keeping his tongue firmly in cheek at all times!). A large part of his appeal can be summed up in his philosophy of "No matter where you go, there you are!"

Jethroís humor, mandolin playing, and musicianship remained undiminished, even in the final stages of the cancer that took his life on February 4, 1989.