Grandpa Jones Sings His Greatest Hits (King 554), issued in 1958, gathers twelve of the sides Louis Marshall Jones had recorded for Syd Nathan’s King label in the 1940s and early 1950s. Jones was born in Niagara, Kentucky, in 1913. He had been “Grandpa” since 1935, when Bradley Kincaid gave him the name at twenty-two because he sounded so old and grouchy on an early-morning radio show. Cousin Emmy taught him clawhammer banjo, and he joined the Grand Ole Opry in October 1946.
The oldest track, “East Bound Freight Train,” was cut around December 1944 at King’s studio in Cincinnati, with Billy Strickland on steel. “Eight More Miles to Louisville” followed around March 1946, probably at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, with Merle Travis on electric guitar. “Mountain Dew” comes from a Nashville session in late March 1947, where Jones played banjo as well as guitar, backed by Hank Garland, Homer Haynes and Jethro Burns among others. That September at Castle Studio in the Tulane Hotel he recorded “Old Rattler” with Pee Wee King’s Golden West Cowboys. “I’m My Own Grandpa” and “Are You From Dixie” date from a December 1947 Cincinnati session with Louis Innis, Jerry Byrd and Ramona Jones.
The later titles, all recorded at King’s Cincinnati studio with Jones on banjo, are “Grandpa’s Boogie” (April 1949), “Uncle Eph’s Got the Coon” (April 1950), “Send in Your Name and Address” (December 1950) and “Fifteen Cents Is All I Got” (August 1951). Jones later joined the cast of Hee Haw in 1969 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978.
Tracklist
- 1 Old Rattler 2:49
- 2 Steppin' Out Kind (Reg. Title She's The Steppin' Out Kind) 2:41
- 3 Eight More Miles to Louisville alt version 3:33
- 4 I'm My Own Grandpa 2:39
- 5 Uncle Eph's Got The Coon 2:43
- 6 Fifteen Cents Is All I Got 2:48
- 7 It’s Raining Here this Morning alt version 3:37
- 8 Send In Your Name And Address 3:24
- 9 Are You From Dixie 2:37
- 10 Grandpa's Boogie 2:43
- 11 East Bound Freight Train alt version 3:06
- 12 Mountain Dew alt version 2:43
