Bert Layne

Bert Monroe Layne (born December 14, 1889 in Arkansas , † October 22, 1982 in Covington , Kentucky ) was an American old-time musician . Layne was a member of the popular string band Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers as well as musical partner Clayton McMichens .

Life

Childhood and youth

Born in Arkansas, Bert Layne learned to play the fiddle as a child . His father played the banjo , but in his spare time he was more interested in dancing at barn dances . Some of his relatives also played the banjo or fiddle. At the age of 16, Layne left his home in Arkansas and moved across the country. At times he lived in Colorado and worked in mines , as a warehouse worker, or did other small odd jobs.

Career

Hoping to find a place to stay, Layne moved to California with his sister and brother-in-law at the age of 20 , but traveled back to Toledo , Ohio a short time later . In 1925 Layne met the fiddler Clayton McMichen . Through him he quickly became part of the vibrant music scene that peaked around Atlanta , Georgia in the 1920s and 1930s. With McMichen, who was married to Layne's sister-in-law, he formed the McMichen-Layne String Orchestra with guitarists Slim Bryant and Riley Puckett , which recorded titles such as Little Blue Ridge Girl and The Dying Hobo .

From 1926 Layne became a member of the Skillet Lickers, arguably the most popular old-time group of the 1920s. With band leader Gid Tanner and McMichen, Layne created the "wild, rough" sound of the Georgia string bands and thus played a key role in the success of the Skillet Lickers. Layne spent the rest of the decade mostly recording records and touring the Skillet Lickers. On one of these tours, the fiddler and good friend Laynes Lowe Stokes was shot and his hand had to be amputated. Layne, who was working as a mechanic at the time, constructed a prosthesis that would allow Stokes to learn to play the fiddle again. In 1930 Layne was under contract with Stokes and musicians such as Hoke Rice , Claude Davis and Clayton McMichen at Brunswick Records , where he recorded more than a dozen songs with this group under various names, some of which were influenced by jazz . Layne's last recordings were made in 1931 with Johnny Barfield and Slim Bryant for Champion Records .

Layne was after the end of the Skillet Lickers in 1931, a member of the McMichens bands and toured with him. In 1933 the two played together in Chicago at the World's Fair and in the same year got engagements in the WLS National Barn Dance . Layne was also a talented songwriter, because hits like My Carolina Home , Down on the Old Ozark Trail and On the Banks of the Ohio were all or part of his pen. After McMichen moved to Cleveland , Layne formed his own band, Bert Layne's Mountaineer Fiddlers , with whom he performed at WSB, WGST and WLW in Cincinnati . The group consisted of Pop Eckler , Rolin Gaines, Rod McQueen, Arnal Stanley and Johnny Barefield. The group quickly became known in Ohio and managed to become a member of the Brown County Jamboree .

In his later years Layne settled in Covington , Kentucky , but remained true to his passion for music. At the age of 80 he organized a reunion in Arkansas of the old Atlanta musicians with whom he had played in the 1920s. He spent his final years with his niece Juanita McMichen Lynch in Louisville , Kentucky, where he died in 1982. Layne was inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame for his contributions to old-time and country music .

Discography

year	title	#	Remarks
Brunswick Records
1930 (?)	Sparklets Waltz / Night of Gladness Waltz	502	as Lane's Melody Boys
1930 (?)	Give Me Your Heart / I Ain't Got No Sweetheart	582	as Lane's Melody Boys
Unpublished titles
1930	Night of Gladness Waltz (old version) Sailing on the Robert E. Lee Caroline Train	Brunswick

Web links

• Entry in the All Music Guide
• Bert Layne's Melody Boys and Bert Layne's Mountaineers on Hillbilly-Music.com