Max M. Fidler
Musician
Best known for
Songwriter
Max M. Fidler is the third name on the writing credit for “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music),” the 1952 honky-tonk standard registered to him alongside Joe and Rose Lee Maphis. The song has since been recorded by Flatt & Scruggs, Vern Gosdin, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Statler Brothers, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and many others, and is a fixture of the bluegrass repertoire.
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- Credited as co-author of “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)” with Joe Maphis and Rose Lee Maphis.
- Flatt & Scruggs cut the first commercial version in December 1952; Joe & Rose Lee Maphis released their own single in 1953.
- The song became one of the defining honky-tonk laments of the postwar era and has since become a bluegrass standard.
