Emerald Butler

It was a pleasure talking with Joseph Mosman at The Pulse about Saturdays Sun Tribute Show at The Woodshop! Check out the article at the link below!

Celebrating 74 Years Of Sun Records At The Woodshop This Saturday This Saturday, January 3rd, The Woodshop travels 74 years back in time with a tribute show and celebration of Sun Records, the Memphis-born label that was founded by Sam Phillips in February of 1952, ushering in some of the greatest ...

On Saturday, November 28, 1925, WSM radio anouncer George D. Hay invited a 77-year-old fiddle player, Uncle Jimmy Thompson, to play for an hour. Thompson was the uncle of an established pianist at WSM. This was just over a month since WSM made their first broadcast, and it was just a couple of weeks after a rollicking benefit show at the Ryman Auditorium. Letters, telegrams, and phone calls began pouring in at National Life’s headquarters. People from rural communities loved it, and they wanted more. Uncle Jimmy Thompson was invited back to play the next week. In the following weeks, Hay started brainstorming an idea to create WSM’s own barn dance program. He thought that it would do well because, quote, “the people were real and genuine and the people really were playing what they were raised on.”

Just a tiny little sample of a project I’ve been working on. Today the Grand Ole Opry is celebrating 100 years of hillbilly music being broadcast over the radio airwaves. Country music would not be what it is today without the Grand Ole Opry, and it all started with a fiddle player. 🎻 Just sayin….