AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Grandpa Jones

Artist:Grandpa Jones
Song:Mountain Dew
Album:28 Greatest Hits





Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones was probably best known for his comedy shtick on the long running TV series Hee Haw and as a long time member of the Grand Ole Opry. Of course there's much more to him than that especially his banjo picking. He was born Oct. 20, 1913 in Niagra, KY the youngest of ten children. His parents were sharecroppers. His father played fiddle and his mother sang. Jones loved old time country and gospel songs and especially The Singing Brakeman Jimmie Rodgers. That got him into yodeling and on 1929 he appeared on the radio as the Young Singer of Old Songs. Then he moved to Chicago and teamed with Bashful Harmonica Joe on the Lum and Abner Show. In the mid-30s, he worked a morning show with Bradley Kincaid. Jones was so grouchy in the morning, Kincaid called him Grandpa. And Jones liked the gimmick so much, he started wearing makeup to look like Grandpa Jones. Then he learned to play the banjo at a time when the banjo was not popular. So Jones was a big part of popularizing the banjo. His stage act was old time country on the banjo and comedy. Jones worked for WLW in Cincinnati in 1942. That's where he met Merle Travis. They started working together first as part of the Brown's Ferry Four and then both signed with King Records. After serving in the US Army during WWII, Jones married Ramona Riggins in 1946 and she was an accomplished fiddle player so she toured with him and Travis. So that was a great band. Jones recorded Mountain Dew in 1947. Though today Mountain Dew is a soft drink, this song about moonshine was written by lawyer Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928. He defended moonshiners. When his friend Scotty Wiseman of Lulu Belle and Scotty were looking for a song to record, Wiseman rewrote the lyrics and recorded it in 1935. Jones popularized the song in 1947. You can get the original version of Mountain Dew on this comp CD. Jones moved to Nashville to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. In the 50s, he recorded for RCA and Decca. And then in the 60s, he recorded for Monument and had his only top ten country hit with T For Texas in 1962. Then he joined Hee Haw in 1969. And that's where most people would know about him. Grandpa Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He continued to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. And it was after a January 1998 Opry performance that Jones suffered two strokes and he died on Feb. 19, 1998 at age 84. Here's Grandpa Jones performing Mountain Dew on the Pet Milk Grand Ole Opry 1961.