Joe Maphis
Musician · 1921–1986 · Suffolk, Virginia
Best known for
Guitar
Songwriter
Joe Maphis was one of the flashiest country guitarists of the 1950s and 1960s, a dazzling multi-instrumentalist nicknamed “King of the Strings” whose double-neck Mosrite and blistering flatpicking made him a fixture of West Coast country and a busy Hollywood session man. With his wife, Rose Lee, he formed a beloved husband-and-wife duo, and together they co-wrote the honky-tonk standard “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music).”
Assisted by AI.
Spot something off? Help us fix it.
- Born Otis Wilson Maphis on May 12, 1921, in Suffolk, Virginia; his family moved to Cumberland, Maryland, in 1926 when his father, Robert, took a job with the B&O Railroad. He grew up steeped in string music and mastered guitar, fiddle, banjo, and mandolin.
- His first group was the Maryland Rail Splitters; he also played with a local Foggy Mountain Boys and the Sonnateers before hitting the road in 1939, eventually becoming a featured performer on the Old Dominion Barn Dance, broadcast live over WRVA in Richmond.
- He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, then worked WLS radio in Chicago before returning to the Old Dominion Barn Dance, where he met singer and rhythm guitarist Rose Lee Schetrompf of Clear Spring, Maryland. They married in 1953 and were billed as “Mr. and Mrs. Country Music.”
- His career took off in 1951 when Merle Travis and Johnny Bond invited him to Los Angeles. He became a band member and star soloist on the influential Town Hall Party radio and television program (later syndicated as Ranch Party), broadcast from the LA area throughout the 1950s.
- “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music),” written with Rose Lee and Max Fidler and recorded in 1953, became a lasting honky-tonk standard cut by Flatt and Scruggs, Vern Gosdin, Dwight Yoakam, Daryle Singletary, and many others.
- He recorded prolifically for Columbia and other labels, cutting flash-guitar showpieces such as “Fire on the Strings” and “Flying Fingers” that showcased his rapid-fire picking. His 1958 EP Swinging Strings paired him with his teenage protege Larry Collins of the Collins Kids.
- He played the famous double-neck Mosrite guitar built for him by luthier Semie Moseley, with two six-string necks, the shorter one tuned an octave higher; the instrument now resides at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.
- A first-call Hollywood session player, he backed Ricky Nelson on early Imperial hits including “Waitin’ in School,” “Be-Bop Baby,” and “Stood Up” (before James Burton took over lead duties), and recorded with the Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, Rose Maddox, Johnny Burnette, and Merle Travis, with whom he cut two albums.
- His guitar work reached the movies as well, contributing to film soundtracks of the late 1950s, and he remained a touring and television presence for decades, appearing on programs from the Jimmy Dean show to a 1984 Austin City Limits performance.
- Diagnosed with lung cancer in 1985, Maphis died in Nashville on June 27, 1986. He is buried in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in the Carter and Cash family plot. His flatpicking influenced generations of country and bluegrass guitarists, and his son Jody went on to play for Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Marty Stuart.
-
Grandpa JonesPlayed on recording with Grandpa Jones
-
Merle Travis and Grandpa JonesPlayed on recording with Merle Travis and Grandpa Jones
