Lonesome · Poison Love cover

Lonesome · Poison Love

Johnnie and Jack: The Tennessee Mountain Boys

Single · 1950 · RCA Victor

Johnnie Wright and Jack Anglin began performing together in the early 1940s and built their reputation through sustained work on the Southern radio circuit. Wright's connection to the Carter family tradition deepened when he married Muriel Deason — better known as Kitty Wells — in 1937, and the two families became professionally intertwined for much of the following decade. Johnnie and Jack worked on WSIX in Nashville, joined the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, and developed a following through their harmonically polished duet style, which drew on the brother-duet tradition while incorporating a more modern, rhythmically driven approach.

Their recording career took its most significant turn when they signed with RCA Victor. The 1950 single "Lonesome" backed with "Poison Love" represented an early entry in what would become their most commercially successful period. "Poison Love," in particular, became one of the defining hits of their career when it climbed the country charts in 1951, establishing them as legitimate stars and earning them a berth on the Grand Ole Opry. The record's success was built on the interplay of Wright's and Anglin's voices — a blend that was close enough to suggest a familial connection without sacrificing individual character — and on a band sound that incorporated the electric instruments increasingly standard in Nashville recording of the period.

Johnnie and Jack remained active recording artists for RCA Victor into the 1950s and continued performing on the Opry until Anglin's death in an automobile accident in 1963. Their catalog represents one of the most cohesive bodies of work in the postwar brother-duet tradition, marked by consistent vocal quality and a sure commercial instinct.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Lonesome
  2. 2 Poison Love alt version 2:20

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