Earl Taylor and His Bluegrass Mountaineers

Taylor, born at Rose Hill in Lee County, Virginia, in 1929, had led the Stoney Mountain Boys in the Baltimore area and played Carnegie Hall with them in April 1959. Soon afterwards he moved to Cincinnati, where he worked clubs, radio and television until 1965, and there he put together a new band, the Bluegrass Mountaineers. On 30 January 1963, probably at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Ken Nelson recorded the band for Capitol in two sessions of six songs each. Taylor sang and played mandolin, Frankie Short sang and played guitar, Hensley, from the Stoney Mountain Boys, played banjo, with Vernon “Presswood” McIntyre Jr. on a second banjo on some tracks, Vernon “Boatwhistle” McIntyre sang and played bass, and Martin played fiddle.

The twelve tracks mix “Uncle Pen” and “Panhandle Country” with older songs such as “Little Maggie,” “Jesse James,” “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” and “Cabin Home on the Hill,” the country songs “We Live in Two Different Worlds” and “I’ve Lived a Lot in My Time,” and the instrumentals “Earl’s Breakdown,” “Foggy Mountain Chimes” and “Shuckin’ the Corn.” Capitol issued the album as Bluegrass Taylor Made; it was later reissued on a ten-inch LP in Japan.

The Bluegrass Mountaineers name did not last. In 1964 Taylor played mandolin and harmonica at the Stanley Brothers’ King sessions, in 1965 he rejoined Jimmy Martin briefly and then spent about fifteen months with Flatt & Scruggs, and when he returned to Cincinnati he re-formed the Stoney Mountain Boys, recording with Jim McCall for Rural Rhythm and later for Vetco.