The Blue Sky Boys

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The Blue Sky Boys
General information
Genre (s) Old-time music , bluegrass , folk
founding Late 1930s
resolution 1975
Last occupation
Earl Bolick (November 16, 1919 - April 19, 1998)
Bill Bolick (October 28, 1917 - March 13, 2008)

The Blue Sky Boys , consisting of the brothers Earl and Bill Bolick, were an American old-time , bluegrass and folk duo with a 40-year career. They were the most successful duo of the 1930s and achieved huge record sales with their ballads.

Life

Childhood and youth

Born and raised in East Hickory, North Carolina , the brothers lived in poor conditions. They were the fourth and fifth children of strictly religious parents who brought them into contact with music at an early age. Together they sang old ballads or songs from the hymn book. A neighbor taught Bill to play the banjo and guitar. Earl learned to mandolin, but shortly afterwards the two brothers swapped instruments. As teenagers, they started performing as a duo. Bill also played in another band at the same time, the Crazy Hickory Nuts .

Beginnings

Bill made his first appearance with the Hickory Nuts in 1935 on a local radio station in Asheville. Shortly afterwards he founded the JFG Coffee Boys with his brother and the fiddler Homer Sherill , also a former member of the Hickory Nuts . In this formation, too, they continued to appear on local radio. Then they moved to Atlanta, where they founded the Blue Ridge Hillbillies and split from Homer Sherill. Now they only appeared as a duo and from now on called themselves The Blue Sky Boys .

Career

By chance they got a record deal with RCA . There they released their first records, which were great successes. Soon they overtook the Monroe Brothers , the Delmore Brothers or the Carlisle Brothers in popularity , all of whom had previously had record deals. In the following four years they recorded nearly 100 songs for RCA. In 1941, when the US entered World War II, the brothers were drafted into the army. The career was out of the question for the time being.

After they were discharged from the army, they began recording again in early 1946. Every now and then they played together with guest musicians like Sam Parker, Joe Tyson, Leslie Keith or Richard Hicks. In the period from 1946 to 1947 they were at the height of their careers. Their biggest hit, Kentucky , also dates from this period. But the Blue Sky Boys did not want to accept the changes in country music and were therefore sidelined by their record company. During this time, the honky tonk gained more and more the upper hand. Stars like Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams achieved great fame and electric guitars found their way into the previously strictly conservative hillbilly scene. They also declined the offer to add an electric guitar and smooth the sound of their songs a bit. So they did not record any more records until 1949. In 1950 they recorded their last session for RCA, in 1951 they withdrew completely from the music business for the time being.

Break and comeback

During the artistic break, the Blue Sky Boys went their separate ways; Bill was working as a post clerk in North Carolina, Earl at the Lockheed Aircraft Works .

In 1962 Starday Records released a best-of album by the Blue Sky Boys. A year later, Bill persuaded his brother to re-enter the music scene. They recorded the two albums Together Again and Precious Moments for Starday , which have now been made available to a wider audience because of their smoother sound. In addition, they occasionally played at folk and bluegrass festivals . In 1966 the album Presenting the Blue Sky Boys was released on Capitol Records .

In 1975 they recorded one last album for Rounder , after which the Blue Sky Boys finally retired. Bill settled in her hometown of East Hickory and died in 2008; Earl in Tucker, Georgia, where he died in 1998.

literature

  • Stambler, Irwin / Landon, Grelun: Encyclopedia Of Folk, Country And Western Music . New York / London: St. Martin's Press, 1969, p. 29f

Web links