Subject: THE LOUVIN BROTHERS From: The Sandman Date: 18 Sep 16 - 04:36 AM Intersting singing here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJrKke0sf0s The brothers adopted the name Louvin Brothers in the 1940s as they began their career in gospel music. Their first foray into secular music was the minor hit "The Get Acquainted Waltz", recorded with Chet Atkins. Other hits included "Cash on the Barrelhead" and "When I Stop Dreaming". They joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and stayed there until breaking up in 1963.[1] Their songs were heavily influenced by their Baptist faith and warned against sin.[citation needed] Nevertheless, Ira Louvin was notorious for his drinking, womanizing, and volcanic temper.[2] He was married four times; his third wife Faye shot him four times in the chest and twice in the hand after he allegedly tried to strangle her with a telephone cord [3] Although seriously injured, he survived. (Faye is reported to have said, "if the bastard don't die I'll shoot him again!"). When performing and drinking, Ira would sometimes become angry enough on stage to smash his mandolin when he was unable to tune it—and when sober glue it back together. His style was heavily influenced by Bill Monroe, and his brother Charlie, who had a tempestuous relationship with Ira, considered him one of the top mandolin players in Nashville [4] In his New York Times review of Charlie's biography Satan Is Real, Alex Abramovich said, "Ira Louvin was a full head taller than his younger brother, played the mandolin like Bill Monroe and sang in an impossibly high, tense, quivering tenor. Charlie strummed a guitar, grinned like a vaudevillian and handled the bottom register. But every so often, in the middle of a song, some hidden signal flashed and the brothers switched places — with Ira swooping down from the heights, and Charlie angling upward — and even the most careful listeners would lose track of which man was carrying the lead. This was more than close-harmony singing; each instance was an act of transubstantiation."[5] In 1963, fed up with Ira's drinking and abusive behavior, Charlie started a solo career,[2] and Ira also went on his own. Ira died on June 20, 1965, at the age of 41. He and his fourth wife, Anne Young, were on the way home from a performance in Kansas City when they came to a section of construction on Highway 70 outside of Williamsburg, Missouri where traffic had been reduced down to one lane. A drunken driver struck their car head-on, and both Ira and Anne were killed instantaneously.[6] At the time, a warrant for Ira's arrest had been issued on a DUI charge. Charlie died of pancreatic cancer in January, 2011 at age 83. |
Subject: RE: THE LOUVIN BROTHERS From: Will Fly Date: 18 Sep 16 - 05:55 AM Part of a tradition of brothers playing country music - the Delmore Brothers before them and the Everly Brothers after them. In fact I have a CD somewhere called "The Louvin Brothers play tribute to the Delmore Brothers" - or something like that - in which the Louvins used the Delmores' original instruments and recreated some of their hits. The Everlys also swapped high and low harmonies in a similar way - not as simple as a first listening might tell you. |
Subject: RE: THE LOUVIN BROTHERS From: MikeL2 Date: 18 Sep 16 - 06:13 AM Hi Will <" not as simple as a first listening might tell you"> Too true. a mate and I did an Everly bothers "act" for some time. We spent a lot of time trying to get the harmonies right. We did do some Louvin Brothers stuff. Paid the rent for a few months when we decided to split. Cheers Mikel2 |
Subject: RE: The Louvin Brothers From: GUEST,Guest Date: 17 Nov 16 - 07:07 PM When Charlie was touring Europe in the 1990-ies together with Charles Whitstein as tenor, I had the pleasure, together with my wife, to be support act at one of those occasions. What a sweet, genuine man Charlie was. While not really murdering the songs we did, we weren't up to the level we're playing at today. Yet he insisted on us joining him in the encore that eventually turned into a complete extra set. Playing banjo and dobro for Charlie Louvin: Performing never was the same again after that. I still remember him when we're doing 'My baby's gone'..... |
Subject: RE: The Louvin Brothers From: Thomas Stern Date: 17 Nov 16 - 08:46 PM The Complete Recorded Works: 1952-62 (6CD) Box set - available at a bargain price - produced in the UK where the recordings are PD. Complete Louvin Brothers https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KGFGM1K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Thomas. |
Subject: RE: The Louvin Brothers From: Ebbie Date: 18 Nov 16 - 04:30 AM While growing up in Virginia, the Louvin Brothers were my favorites for many years. Along with, of course, other favorites like Web Pierce, Ray Price, Mac Wiseman, Reno and Smiley, Kitty Wells, Jeanie (sheesh- I've forgotten her last name!), Ernest Tubb, and many more... I had a lot of favorites. :) |
Subject: RE: The Louvin Brothers From: Sir Roger de Beverley Date: 18 Nov 16 - 08:53 AM I picked up a copy of "Satan is real - the ballad of the Louvin Bothers" (which was Charlies take on their story) in a bookshop on Bainbridge Island WA. Cost me just $3 a few years ago and was a real interesting read even though I found the born again stuff hard to take. Made me go out and get a few of their tracks when I got back to the UK R |
Subject: RE: The Louvin Brothers From: Brian Peters Date: 23 Nov 16 - 01:54 PM I was lucky enough to see Charlie Louvin give a talk about his life in music, illustrated with songs, at the Swannanoa Gathering in 2010, shortly before he died. Despite serious ill health, Charlie was highly entertaining, very funny, and in pretty good voice, performing with an excellent young Nashville guitarist who was clearly hanging on his every word. Tales of folks crowding into the only house in the valley that possessed a radio, to her the 'Grand Ol' Opry', and of Bill and Charlie Monroe fighting with baseball bats. His son, Charlie Jr, informed me as I bought the T-shirt that the figure of the Devil used for the 'Satan is Real' photoshoot had been made from the baseboard of his model railway set. "I got home one day, and my Uncle Iry had cut up my train board." The blazing rocks were simply soaked in kerosene and set alight! I don't know about 'born again', but by all accounts, at the age of 82 he still aspired to be quite the roguish ladies' man. Unforgettable. |
Subject: RE: The Louvin Brothers From: GUEST,jim bainbridge Date: 23 Nov 16 - 02:19 PM Thomas- the CD set you mention was the 'complete works' up to 1962- they did record after that.... |
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