Jack Shook

He was born Loren Shook in Decatur, Illinois, on 11 September 1910, and grew up in Kansas and Missouri. He started at WSM as a staff musician in 1934 and later in the decade headed the Missouri Mountaineers on the Opry, which in 1939 were among the first Opry acts on the NBC network broadcast, the Prince Albert Show. After army service in the 1940s he returned to Nashville.

In 1948 he made records for Bullet as the Jack Shook Quartet, among them “It’s the Truth” and “My Hillside Heaven,” and from 1949 he recorded for Coral with the pianist and bandleader Owen Bradley and the singer Dottie Dillard: “Blues, Stay Away from Me” (1949), “Wabash Blues” and “Written Guarantee.” Under his own name, with Paul Cohen producing at Castle Studio in 1950, he recorded “Birmingham Bounce,” “Mule Boogie,” “Goodnight, Irene” and “I’m Moving On,” and in October 1950 played guitar behind Dillard on “Blue Christmas.” In August 1951 he played rhythm guitar and sang on Hank Garland’s “E-String Rag.”

His session work at Castle Studio ran through the same years. He played guitar on Ernest Tubb’s records from January 1949, when they cut “Till the End of the World,” into 1953, with a later session in 1964. With Hank Williams he played rhythm guitar from March 1949, on sessions that included “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You),” “Howlin’ at the Moon” and “Hey, Good Lookin’” in March 1951, and on acoustic guitar at Williams’s last sessions in June, July and September 1952, which produced “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” “You Win Again” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” On 23 April 1951 he played guitar with Grady Martin on Bill Monroe’s session for “Highway of Sorrow,” and in September 1955, at Bradley Studio, he was with Flatt & Scruggs when they recorded “Randy Lynn Rag,” “On My Mind,” “Blue Ridge Cabin Home” and “Some Old Day.” He also recorded with Anita Carter for RCA. He retired from WSM in 1982 and died on 23 September 1986.