Cliff Carlisle
Musician · 1903–1983 · Taylorsville, Kentucky
Best known for
Songwriter
Cliff Carlisle was a Kentucky-born country singer, blue yodeler, and pioneering Hawaiian steel-guitar player who helped bring lap-steel technique into commercial country music in the early 1930s. His recordings — often laced with double-entendre — and his early advocacy for the steel guitar made him a touchstone for the brother-duo and honky-tonk acts that followed.
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- Born May 6, 1903, in Taylorsville, Kentucky.
- Began performing locally at sixteen with cousin Lillian Truax; soon teamed up with guitarist Wilber Ball, with whom he toured vaudeville and circus venues through the 1920s.
- Made his radio debut on WHAS Louisville in 1930; later that year cut his first sides for Gennett and Champion.
- Recorded with Jimmie Rodgers in 1931 and absorbed Rodgers’s blue-yodel style; helped popularize the Hawaiian steel guitar in commercial country recording.
- Signed to ARC in late 1931 and held radio slots at WBT Charlotte, WLS Chicago, and other stations through the 1930s.
- Brother Bill Carlisle joined as his guitarist in 1934 after Wilber Ball left the act.
- Worked at WMPS Memphis through much of the 1940s before retiring from full-time music in the 1950s.
- The Rooftop Singers’ 1963 cover of his “Tom Cat Blues” brought him back briefly; he and Ball reunited for shows and a Rem Records session.
- Died April 2, 1983, in Lexington, Kentucky, at age 79.
