Grayson and Whitter: Going Down Lee Highway

Gilliam B. Grayson should be the most obscure of musicians. He was financially poor, had a large family, was nearly blind and lived in the remote mountain community of Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee. He earn­ed his living playing his fiddle where a crowd would offer a few pennies and nickles to hear the songs and tunes which had been passed to him by family and friends and those which he had written himself about local happenings.

But in 1927, promoter/guitarist Henry Whitter met Grayson at the Mountain City, Tennessee fiddlers convention and within a few weeks Grayson and Whitter made their first recordings for Gennett. During the next two years there were three additional trips to recording studios in Atlanta, Camden and New York. Most of the songs and tunes he consigned to shellac in this brief period have long been out of print.

They include Grayson's Tom Dooley, a family song which incorpor­ates a mention of Grayson's celebrated great-uncle, the Mountain Yankee calvaryman Major James W.M. Grayson, who captured Dooley (Dula) after the murderer fled from North Carolina to Tennessee to escape prosecution for the slaying of Laura Foster.

Grayson's Going Down Lee Highway was composed in the back seat of Whitter's Model T Ford as the car chugged down U.S. 11 (Lee High­way) on the way to the session where the tune was recorded. It is now well known to fiddlers as the Lee Highway Blues.

Grayson's reworking of Reuben to create his Train 45 has provided bluegrass banjo players with one of their favorite tunes. His very obscure recording of Old Jimmy Sutton is virtually unknown today, but his humorous version so impressed older musicians that they made his arrangement the standard one.

Barely two years after his first recording was made Grayson died in a freak accident at Damascus, Virginia. Much of his wide-ranging reper­toire was never recorded and many of the best songs and tunes he had recorded were soon out of print. This album includes the first issue of his My Mind Is To Marry, a song Grayson recorded in 1927. This re­cording is taken from a test pressing. The tune is the familiar one usually called Jack 0' Diamonds when sung or the Drunken Hiccups when played on the fiddle.

Grayson is the singer and fiddler on these recordings. Whitter played guitar and offers most of the spoken comments.

- - Joe Wilson

1. TRAIN NO. 45 This is Grayson's derivative of an old fiddle tune known as Reuben's Train. Grayson recorded this tune for both Gennett and Victor, the issue used here is the former and displays a much more intense feeling than does the later recording. Grayson's tune was recorded again in the mid 30s by J.E. Mainer's Mountain­eers from whence the daddy of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, derived his version which is so widely performed today.

ON THE BANKS OF OLD TENNESSEE This is a rather obscure song which has not yet found it's way to wide popularity. Grayson probably derived his version from an earlier recording by Mr. & Mrs. J.W. Baker waxed in Bristol, Tennessee a little over two years earl­ier than Grayson's classic version.SWEET

ROSIE O'GRADY An old gay-nineties tune which was quite popular in vaudeville circuits. The song found it's way into country repertoire in mid 1927 when it was recorded by Hugh Cross. It seems quite possible to me that Grayson may have learned this tune by way of his recording partner Henry Whitter, who had been active in the commercial recording industry since 1923.

I HAVE LOST YOU DARLING. TRUE LOVE Grayson's recording of this tune appears to be the only recording of it ever made. It is an old love song dealing with the theme of boy loves girl, girl loves boy's money, boy runs out of money and girl leaves for better pastures. Grayson's rich vocal and superb fiddling make it a bit more than just another old love song. The song was quite probably Grayson's composition.

NOBODY'S DARLING Another old mountain love song dealing with a very lonely man who is searching for a mate with no luck at all. Grayson achieves a melancholia in his performance that you'll find in none of the other recorded performances. The song was Grayson's first recording and was probably derived from that of Kelly Harrell issued about half a year before Grayson recorded it. The song had some popularity and was re-done by J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers in the mid 30s.

GOING DOWN THE LEE HIGHWAY Grayson composed this tune in the fall of 1929 while en route to a recording session in Memphis. The tune bears much resemblance to and is most probably a re­working of another "home-made" fiddle tune. "Home Town Blues", recorded by the Roane County Ramblers in mid 1928. Grayson's piece has much more drive and feeling of movement than does the Roane County Ramblers piece. Grayson's tune was revived in the mid 50s and has since gone into bluegrass tradition as "Lee Highway Blues." The fast and frantic performances of today's bluegrass mu­sicians just don't quite capture the rich beauty and subtlty achieved in Grayson's performance.

HANDSOME MOLLY A fine old mountain love song derived from Irish ancestry. Grayson was the first artist to preserve the mountain version on wax cutting it for both of the companies he recorded for. The version used on this record is the earlier, and more brilliant Gennett recording. 

SHOUT LULA Another Grayson gem . . this humerous composition has some fine fiddling and singing it it. A rather obscure tune, it was later picked up by Roy Acuff in the 30's.

THE RED AND GREEN SIGNAL LIGHTS A fine old time ballad dealing with the child of a railroad engineer. The song appears to be a Grayson composition and has been taken into country/western tradition through it's re-recording in the 50's by Hank Snow.

CLUCK OLD HEN This is a widely known and recorded fiddle tune of unknown authorship. One thing's certain, you'll never hear it like this anywhere else. Grayson's strong fiddling and singing is enhanced by Whitter's interesting guitar work.

TOM DOOLEY Grayson's famed ballad of the capture of accused murderer Tom Dula became world famous in the 50's when it was re-discovered by the folk group the Kingston Trio. Although Doc Watson also recorded it in the 60's with the more traditional flavor there's just nobody can perform the song as well as Grayson did. Grayson's composition was based on his family history, Dula having been captured by Grayson's grandfather.

SALLY GOODEN Another of the old fiddle tunes which has found it's way into a standard repertoire of just about all old-time and bluegrass fiddlers. The tune is also one of the first true country tunes to find it's way onto commercial record, having been recorded by legendary Texas fiddler Eck Robertson in 1922. Grayson's fiddling genius is aptly displayed in this showpiece.

MY MIND IS TO MARRY Grayson's splendid version of this old mountain tune commonly called "Drunken Hiccoughs" or "Jack 0' Diamonds" appears here for the first time on commercial record. Recorded in February of 1928 it was rejected for issue and the mas­ter destroyed a few weeks after the recording was made. Luckily one test pressing survived over the years and this fine performance was preserved for all to enjoy today!

OLD JIMMY SUTTON This fine old-time fiddle tune has been very under-recorded over the years. Grayson's lyrics for his splendid version would seem to suggest that the tune has it's origins during the days when runaway slaves were tracked down and slaughtered like animals. Of the few recordings of the tune these lyrics are prob­ably the way it started out. Other recordings, which do not include any commercial 78 RPM recordings, use different lyrics so it's diffi­cult to trace the present form of the tune to any one source.

. . . Frank Mare

February, 1977

All of Grayson's original discs are rare. Two reproduced on this album are from the only copies known to exist among collectors. The best collection of Grayson's recordings is owned by Frank Mare and these recordings are taken from Frank's collection.

We have been very conservative in the use of equalization in re-mastering this material as this process which cuts down the sur­face noise of the old recordings is equally efficient in cutting the high notes of the fiddle. We've attempted to reproduce these high notes as they were played. Most people have equalization (tone controls) on their phonographs and those who find too much surface noise can lop off the surface noise and highs if they prefer to do so.

But the main factor in re-issue sound quality is the condition of the original 78's. Going Down Lee Highway is taken from a mint condition 78, but for Old Jimmy Sutton we used the only known copy of the recording and it is worn. We feel this rare material is too important to be left out of circulation even though the existing recordings tend to be noisy and we hope you will agree.