Mother Maybelle (left) and the Carter Sisters (June, Anita, & Helen) performing at the Norfolk Municipal Auditorium in Norfolk, Virginia, February 12, 1956. They were the opening act for Elvis Presley that day. Photograph from the Raymond H. Pulley Collection.
Category: Photo of the Week
Photo of the Week: The Hill Billies
The Hill Billies, ca. 1928. Left-to-right: Elvis Alderman, Joe Hopkins, Charlie Bowman, and Al Hopkins. From the JEMF Collection.
Photo of the Week: Stuart Hamblen's Covered Wagon Jubilee
The stars of Stuart Hamblen‘s “Covered Wagon Jubilee” on KMTR Radio in Hollywood, California, ca. 1935. Standing, left to right: Darol Rice, Cliffie Stone, Jim Gummo, Joe Espetallier, Frank Liddell, “Herman the Hermit”, Vince Engel, and Stuart Hamblen. Kneeling: Wesley Tuttle and Skeeter Hubbard. From the JEMF Collection.
Photo of the Week: Five Aristocratic Pigs
Fisher Hendley (center) and his Aristocratic Pigs in a late-1930s promotional photo for their daily broadcasts on WFBC Radio in Greenville, South Carolina. The group was sponsored (and named) by Greenville’s Balentine meat packing company. From the JEMF collection.
Photo of the Week: Ed Haley
West Virginia fiddler Ed Haley (1883-1951), photographed ca. 1930s. Though a professional musician, Haley never made a commercial recording due his suspicion that record companies would take unfair advantage of his blindness. Home recordings made late in his life were issued on Rounder Records’ 1976 LP Parkersburg Landing and 1997 CDs Forked Deer and Grey Eagle. Photograph from the Guthrie T. Meade Collection.
Photo of the Week: Minnie Pearl
Comedian Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, aka “Cousin Minnie Pearl, The Gal From Grinder’s Switch” in a ca. 1940s WSM Grand Ole Opry promotional photo. From the John Edwards Memorial Foundation collection.
Photo of the Week: Molly O'Day
Singer Molly O’Day, photographed in 1974. From the John Edwards Memorial Foundation collection.
Photo of the Week: Dorsey Dixon
Musician and mill worker Dorsey Dixon, of the Dixon Brothers, photographed with his son Dorsey Jr. in 1934. From the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Collection.
Photo of the Week: Alan Lomax
Folklorist Alan Lomax (center, with his camera) at the 1979 Mississippi Delta Blues Festival in Greenville, Mississippi. Photo by Bill Ferris, from the William R. Ferris Collection.
Photo of the Week: Jo-El Sonnier
Jo-El Sonnier of Rayne, Louisiana, photographed ca. 1968. Two decades later “The Cajun Valentino” would score a top-ten country hit with a cover of Richard Thompson’s “Tear Stained Letter”. Photo from the Goldband Records Collection.