HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

Hillbilly Wade Mainer

Wade Mainer

Born in Weaverville, North Carolina, on 21 April 1907, banjo player Wade Mainer worked in cotton mills before joining his brother's band in 1934, that being fiddler, Joseph Emmett. Like Uncle Dave Macon, Mainer was a bridge between old mountain music and what would become bluegrass via Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs. He is relevantly known as the grandfather of bluegrass. Among Mainer's numerous compositions were such as 'He's Passing This Way' and 'God's Radio Phone' in 1951, 'Standing Outside' and 'I'm Not Looking Backward' in 1952, 'On the Banks of the Ohio' and 'My Home Is Down in Dixie' in 1961, and 'Don't Write to Mother Too Late' and 'No Place to Lay Your Head' in 1962.

Russell's 'Country Music Records' has Mainer's first session with Emmett's Mountaineers on August 6 of 1935 to put down eleven tracks in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning with 'Ship Sailing Now' / 'This World Is Not My Home' (Bluebird 6088) and 'Maple on the Hill' / 'Take Me In the Lifeboat' (Bluebird 6065). Emmett's Mountaineers in that session were Zeke Morris (guitar) and Daddy John Love (guitar). Mainer continued with the Mountaineers on numerous tracks to 1939. In the meantime he had begun recording his first name titles in duets shared with Zeke Morris in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 14, 1936: 'Come Back to Your Dobie Shack' (Bluebird 6551), 'Just as the Sun Went Down (Bluebird 6383), 'What Would You Give in Exchange' (Bluebird 8973) and 'A Leaf from the Sea' / 'Brown Eyes' (Bluebird 6347). Five more tracks went down with Morris the next day, including Part 2 of 'Maple on the Hill' (Bluebird 6293. Six more duets went down on June 15.

'Seven and a Half' Wade Mainer w Joseph Emmett Mainer's Mountaineers

6 Aug 1935 in Atlanta Matrix BS-94332-1

Bluebird B-6792 / Montgomery Ward M-7009

Fiddle / vocal: Emmett Mainer Banjo: Wade Mainer

Guitar: Daddy John Love Guitar: Zeke Morris

Composition: Emmett Mainer

'Going to Georgia' Wade Mainer (banjo / harmonica) w Zeke Morris (guitar)

15 Feb 1936 in Charlotte NC Matrix BS-99139-1

Bluebird B-6423 / Montgomery Ward M-4719

Composition: ?

October 12 of 1936 saw tracks in a trio with Homer Sherrill (fiddle). Come more duets on February 16 of '1037 before a trio with Steve Ledford (vocals) on August 2. It was Mainer's Smilin' Rangers on the same date, he and Morris variously joined by Robert Buck Banks (guitar), Morris Buddy Banks (vocals) and an unknown guitarist on four tracks including 'Ramshackle Shack' / 'Memory Lane' (Bluebird 7274). Four more titles went down the next day with the unknown guitarist out.

'I'll Be a Friend of Jesus' Wade Mainer (banjo)

12 Oct 1936 in Charlotte NC Matrix BS-02536

Bluebird B-6784 / Montgomery Ward M-7132

Fiddle: Homer Sherrill Guitar: Zeke Morris

Composition: Johnson Oatman 1922

Mainer married guitarist, Julia Brown, in latter 1937. She herself was a pioneer in the mountain music that would become bluegrass, performing as Hillbilly Lilly at WSJS Radio in Winston-Salem since 1935.

Julia Mainer

Source: Bluegrass Today

Julia became a feature of Wade's Sons of the Mountaineers which first session went down on January 27, 1938, with titles like 'Lonely Tomb' / 'All My Friends' (Bluebird 7424) and 'Pale Moonlight' / 'Don't Get Too Deep in Love' (Bluebird 7483). That grouping consisted of Steve Ledford (fiddle), Clyde Moody (guitar) and Jay Hugh (guitar). Julia Mainer (wife) sang 'Where Romance Calls' (Bluebird 7753). Ledford and Mainer led another session with Moody and Hugh on September 26 with Julia out and others uncertain to yield numerous titles like 'Farther Along' / 'She Is Spreading Her Wings for a Journey' (Bluebird 8023).

'Sparkling Blue Eyes' Wade Mainer (banjo) and his Sons of the Mountaineers

4 Feb 1939 at the Andrew Jackson Hotel in Rock Hill NC Matrix BS-032625-1

Bluebird B-8042 / Montgomery Ward M-7882 / Old Homestead Records OHCS-150

Fiddle / bass: Steve Ledford Guitar: Clyde Moody / Jay Hugh Hall

Composition: Billy Cox

'Old Ruben' Wade Mainer (banjo) and his Sons of the Mountaineers

26 Sep 1941 in Atlanta Matrix BS-071020-1

Bluebird B-8990 / County 404

Mandolin: Curley Shelton Guitar: Jack Shelton

Composition: Wade Mainer

In 1971 Old Homestead Records released 'Sacred Songs of Mother and Home' compiling Mainer's early period from 1935 to 1941:

'Sacred Songs of Mother and Home' Wade Mainer (banjo)

Compilation of early period from 6 Aug 1935 to 29 Sep 1941

See Old Homestead Records OHS OHCS-135 issued 1971

Mainer performed often for radio shows, increasing record sales, and was invited to play at the White House in 1942. In 1953 he moved with his wife to Flint, Michigan, where he took employment with General Motors from which he retired in 1973. A devout Christian, Mainer dropped out of the music business and stopped playing banjo, though he and his wife continued to sing gospel for church purposes. Eventually reconsidering that banjo was not really an instrument of sin, Mainer picked it up again in 1961, recording and touring with his wife as well.