Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,David de Montseret
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 01:02 PM

I have recently discovered "Rain" by Greasy Medlin and I think that it is one of the most exciting finds for me. The rhythm is eclectic and a daily listen to this classic is delightful.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,David de Montseret
Date: 26 Sep 23 - 01:02 PM

I have recently discovered "Rain" by Greasy Medlin and I think that it is one of the most exciting finds for me. The rhythm is eclectic and a daily listen to this classic is delightful.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 05:57 PM

I'm sure the Cherokee Nation is much relieved ( - ;

Seriously though, I've known guys like Greasy, and when they see me they put on their poker face, give their friends a little wink, and go to work.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 08:25 PM

sharon sharpe is my name and he was white he is kin to me

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Pauperback
Date: 05 Jan 18 - 10:38 PM

Very interesting & fun: Free Show Tonite thanks for the introduction to Greasy, Phil.

Maybe leave a message here: Greasy Medlin stuff here

PS you need a better provenance, maybe a family picture with Julian holding the guitar, good luck.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jan 18 - 07:20 PM

What's a "wrb site"?

I'm completely unfamiliar with Greasy guitars, and most of us here play, but we aren't loaded with experts on instruments and their values these days.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Jan 18 - 07:02 PM

Firstly, no, I can't answer any question in this thread.

Now: softly! softly!
Consider that this thread was opened years ago;
those who added earlier posts to this thread,
Mudcat members and Guests alike,
may be around OR they may have moved on. It happens, and one can't take it personally.

No, this website is anything BUT fake, but that's only one member talking, me.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Phillip shealy.
Date: 05 Jan 18 - 06:18 PM

Is this a fake wrb site? If not why dont someone responding?

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Phillip shealy.
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 10:53 AM

My email is [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Phillip shealy.
Date: 01 Jan 18 - 10:50 AM

I would like to know how much it worth it could have been his dad guiter.if someone could respond would be appreciated thanks

Subject: Greasy,s guiter
From: GUEST,Phillip shealy.
Date: 27 Dec 17 - 06:36 PM

I have one of greasy guiters.my got it from his uncle at age 17.iv been told it was made in 1902.would like to get more info.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Tonia medlin
Date: 29 Oct 16 - 12:40 AM

He was my great Uncle on my dad's side he was my grandfather's brother and he is actually Cherokee Indian you can see him on the movie"last of the medicine show"hosted by Mr. Roy Acuff.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Greasy was my great grandfathers half brothe
Date: 16 May 16 - 07:23 PM

I would appreciate any info or pictures you would be willing to share. My email is tracy. [e-mail]

Thank you in advance!

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 16 - 11:36 AM

From Find A Grave. (Obit jpg)

See if this opens the whole Find a Grave page for the brothers: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=23638441

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,sharon sharpe
Date: 13 Feb 16 - 11:05 AM

He was my cousin

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Greasy's grandson
Date: 06 Jun 14 - 11:26 PM

I knew Greasy very well. The question was , was he white or black? Greasy was neither. He was a full blooded American Indian. I have dozens of photos, he had dark pecan tan skin. He wore his hair short and it was straight and grew straight up. I was told he was Cherokee. I was also told that he was born and raised on Harden street in five points where the Foodlion shopping center is. He lived in a house with a dirt floor. He had a brother named Alaska.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Sharon sharpe
Date: 28 May 14 - 12:54 AM

Greasy medlin was
My great great uncle i love to have a good bit about him my email is [e-mail] thanks

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Katrina Whitenack
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:16 PM

I met Greasy when I was about 10. My dad, Oliver Corley Crout played the piano with him at Shakey's and lived next door to him for a while in the late 70's in Lexington. When I visited my dad I used to love going over to see him and he would talk about the vaudville days and show me his props and if he was feeling ok he would sing. I treasured those memories. He was a great man.

Katrina Whitenack
Lexington, SC

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,Greg Laxton
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 12:48 PM

I came across Greasy in a rather odd way. I purchased a lot of old reel to reel tapes. Many of these contained a group called The Partyliners. One of the names on the box was Greasy.

A short search of the Internet and lots turned up. Found a few old pics as well of Greasy in blackface.

A relative of Greasy's posted on this list and if they would get in touch I'll be glad to forward what I have for the family.

The Partyliners played red-hot western swing. I have one live tape recorded an an Officer's Club on a base in SC (if I recall correctly, been a while since I listened to the tape). Greasy does vocals on a song called "Rain".

Written on the box was the name of another band member who went on to fame and fourtune. Bunky Keels played piano in The Partyliners. He later went on to be a member of Jim Reeves Blue Boys and did session work for just about everyone who played country music in the 60s and 70s.

The drummer of the band played for a short bit with Jim Ed Brown as well. Really great stuff!

Greg Laxton
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 01:41 AM

Biography by Eugene Chadbourne

This unusual artist [Greasy Medlin] has made several striking appearances as a vocalist and guitarist, particularly on tracks where he is the featured lead vocalist on the album 33 Years of Pickin' and Grinnin' by Snuffy Jenkins and Pappy Sherrill. Born Julian Leonard Medlin, the youngster's earliest memories were of banjos being strummed at all hours. Both his father and grandfather were banjo players and this was hardly the end of it all. Mothers, sisters, brothers, and anyone who might have wandered into the house all seemed to be carrying fiddles, guitars, or mandolins. The "greasy" kid started to play the latter, tiniest of stringed instruments, at the age of seven, soon picking up guitar, banjo, and bass.

He began performing on the medicine tent and vaudeville circuits, his music frequently used as part of the enticement to buy all manner of patent medicines. When Greasy performed, he wasn't just playing music, he was also aiding the cure of fallen arches, dandruff, coughs, or insomnia. Gigs were never one-nighters, but the length of stay in one community was generally determined by the golden rule; i.e., the show would stay until they got run out of town by an angry mob. The lively sense of humor that is an essential part of his vocal style was thus possibly developed as a defense mechanism. Although obviously influenced by black music, Greasy's main music teacher was Rusty Lee, a white medicine show performer. In the old days, Greasy would perform in blackface. He later switched to clown makeup. He first joined up with Jenkins and Sherrill in the early '40s, becoming an essential part of some of the group's stage routines. This band was known as the Hired Hands, and eventually cut its first full-length album in 1962, re-released on Folklyric and once again in the '70s on Rounder, the latter time under Jenkins' name. Greasy also worked as a country & western sideman, performing in the bands of Eddy Arnold and Hank Williams, among others.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 01:20 PM

When I was a teenager in the early 70's I worked at Shakey's in Dentsville. Greasy and Snuffy provided entertainment on the weekend. I remember them as very kind and funny entertainers. They did a great job playing the Orange Blossum Special.

Mark Fair
San Antonio, Texas

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Nov 09 - 07:17 AM

I knew Greasy Medlin in the early '60's. He was a white man but did a vaudville blackface comedy act. Sang with a deep voice. He was on Carolina In The Morning TV Show on WIS-TV in Columbia, SC with Snuffy Jenkins, Pappy Sherrill and The Hired Hands plus "The Reece Sisters". He was a wonderful person.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,walton s tissot
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 10:19 AM

Julian "greasy" Medlin

Here is a '83 doc;
http://www.folkstreams.net/film,68

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: Michael S
Date: 26 Jul 08 - 03:19 PM

Pat Ahrens, a lovely woman active in Columbia, South Carolina bluegrass and old-time music circles, has written two short, self-published "books" (booklets, really) about the careers of Snuffy Jenkins and Pappy Sherrill. As far as I can tell, they're not available presently in any public sales venue. (Perhaps Guest, T'Burg, above, knows her). In the late 1930s, early 40s, the two toured as part of a band called The Hillbillies. Of Greasy Medlin, who was white, Ahrens writes:

"In 1941, a delightful 'clown' with a colorful history in medicine and tent shows joined the Hillbillies. Julian Leonard Medlin, otherwise known as "Greasy," was born in Richland County, Dentsville, South Carolina, on September 18, 1910. He is the son of Leonard Julian and Eliza Parker Medlin. He got his first guitar when he was only eight years old, ad he began playing for local dances until he was thirteen. He then joined Dr. H.E. Foxworth's medicine show. Dr. Foxworth was from Dallas, Texas. This was April on 1931. The show traveled extensively ... Greasy also worked tent shows with Dr. Marshall {and others]. He also performed, accompanying himself with guitar, in vaudeville and with various country bands."

Ahrens says Medlin performed with The Aristocratic Pigs in 1944 and 1945. He later worked again with Jenkins and Sherrill in The Hired Hands. With this band, the trio (plus others) recorded an album for Folk-Lyric Records in 1962 title Carolina Bluegrass.

Medlin died on July 15, 1982. Ahrens' book contains a photo of his gravestone, which gives his first name as "Julin," perhaps an unfortunate spelling error. The inscription reads, "A Man Loved By All Mankind." (My wife says my own inscription will read, "He was crabby only some of the time.")

That's what I know (or, it's what Pat Ahrens writes, actually).

--Michael Scully
--Austin, TX

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,TBurg
Date: 26 Jul 08 - 02:17 PM

Greasy in later years (very early 70s) played banjo along with a piano player named "Slim" at Shakeys Pizza Parlor on Airport Blvd in West Columbia SC.    The two wore red and white vests and derby hats and played songs such as "Roll Out The Barrell" and sing along for the customers. the words were put on the wall for those wishing to sing to. During their breaks, they would show old Laurel and Hardy silent movies.
   My father played trumpet and used to go in to play with them on weekends (tho my dad wasn't hired by the pizza place they liked him coming in).   I have many fond memories of that place and the three of them.   Greasy was a talented musician (self taught for the most part) and also MC and added lots of humor to their show. I only wish I had pictures of that.   Greasy also had a relative (brother I think) named Irvin Medlin who also used to come to Shakeys (on rare occasion) and after a few beers, used to join them and sing "The Lonesome Whipporwill"    All of this at Shakeys was well after his performing with "The Hired Hands" which I really don't remember, tho I did see pictures of Greasy in both black face and clown attire and again... thanks to finding these posts, it has brought back many fond memories.    Thanks

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GLoux
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 12:14 PM

He sang Room Two Hundred and Two, with Snuffy Jenkins and Pappy Sherill, which I tried to decipher his words, but one line continues to escape me. Here's a link to that thread...

-Greg

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,tsteagal
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 11:41 AM

Greasy Medlin was a white man. Later on he wore face paint of white. He also did the subway comercial back in the 70's for the subway resturants. He was a fabulous funny wonderful man. He loved his family and he played the banjo like nobody else could.

Subject: RE: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: GUEST,tsteagal
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 11:39 AM

Greasy Medlin was my great uncle.

Subject: Who knows 'Greasy Medlin?'
From: Jeep man
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 08:48 PM

Medlin was a performer with Snuffy Jenkins and I believe he portrayed a "black face" comedy act. The only picture I have is on the cover of Snuffy's CD. He had a good bass voice and was very good on the Talking Blues type song.

Just like to know a little more about him. Was he black or white? What happened to him? Jim