“Brown’s Ferry Blues” was written by Alton and Rabon Delmore and recorded by the Delmore Brothers in late 1933, released the following year. Its title is generally said to refer to an old ferry crossing on the Tennessee River, near the country the brothers came from.
The song became one of the Delmores’ best-loved numbers — a bright, fast, lightly bawdy piece driven by their tightly interlocked guitars. That guitar-forward sound proved influential well beyond the brother-duet tradition, feeding into the country and rockabilly playing that came after.
“Brown’s Ferry Blues” has long been a favorite of flatpickers and old-time players. The banjo player Tony Trischka recorded it on his 2024 album Earl Jam, a project drawing on the music of Earl Scruggs, placing the old Delmore song in the company of the bluegrass tradition it helped shape.
