Banjo players - and fans of Jimmy Martin - know Chris Warner for his driving style and hard hitting approach to the five string. Chris worked twice for Martin as a member of his Sunny Mountain Boys, from 1967-69, and again in the late 1980s.

During that second stint with Martin, Chris recorded two albums for Webco, All Original and Chris Warner & Friends, released as LPs and now out of print. He has recently compiled them both as a CD, Back Again, with 24 tracks featuring Warner as both banjoist and vocalist.

The tracks from All Original have Chris singing all lead vocals, with Del McCoury on tenor, and those from Chris Warner & Friends, have singing duties shared among Warner, Dudley Connell and Audie Blaylock.

But don’t think that banjo tunes get short shrift here. Chris knocks out 11 instrumentals mixed with 13 vocal tracks.

Newly minted bluegrass fans may not be aware of Warner’s top flight picking - and even long time listeners may not know him as a vocalist. Kudos to Chris for making this material available again, and to Pinecastle Records for their assistance in making it happen.

Audio samples for each track and online ordering are enabled on the Tom Adams web site, where Tom addresses the rumor that he and Chris are starting a band.

“With no official band name, no dates booked, and a disagreement over whether or not to wear matching shoes, I’d have to say yes, I believe there is a rumor that Chris and I are starting a band.”

I guess that settles that.

Veteran fiddle and mandolin player Vernon Derrick passed away on Friday morning (1/4) at the age of 74.

He performed with both The Stanley Brothers and Jimmy Martin during the 1960s after gaining some exposure during a brief stint with Flatt & Scruggs. A memorable contribution to the bluegrass repertoire is his instrumental Arab Bounce, originally recorded by Martin and The Sunny Mountain Boys in 1970, and re-cut dozens of times by other artists since.

Country music came calling as well, and Vernon spent time with artists as varied as Lefty Frizzell, Merle Travis and George Morgan to Hank Williams, Jr. It was with Hank Jr. that Derrick saw his greatest prominence, playing fiddle on #1 hits All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down and Country Boy Can Survive.

Vernon had been in poor health this past few years, and suffered from both renal and congestive heart failure. He underwent surgery in December and though he came home briefly after Christmas, he was hospitalized again earlier in the week.

Funeral arrangements can be found on The Arab Tribune web site, which also published a comprehensive overview of Vernon Derrick’s career some time ago.

Another pioneer lost…

This Christmas memory comes from Paul Williams, one of bluegrass music’s true legends - both as a songwriter and a tenor singer.

The year was 1957, November… I had just gone to work for Jimmy Martin in Detroit, Michigan. I had been released from active duty in the U.S. Air Force in October, and received a phone call from “The King” to come and work for him.

That Christmas, 1957, Jimmy asked me to go with him and his family to Sneedville, TN to spend Christmas. It had only been about seven weeks since I had been home with my parents, so I accepted Jimmy’s offer and went along with him. I got to meet his family - his brothers and sisters, his mother and his step-father.

It was a snowy time, cold, and I noticed how much these folks enjoyed being together, exchanging gifts, great food and so much joy all around. That’s what prompted me to write a Christmas song that we later recorded. Old Fashioned Christmas was a big seller, very popular on the radio and juke boxes. It still brings in a few royalties today, and that will be fifty years ago come 2008.

Five years later I married Jimmy’s youngest sister and we celebrated our 45th anniversary this past year.

God has truly Blessed our lives. We have one son, four granddaughters, and a wonderful daughter-in-law. Merry Christmas to everybody.

Tom Adams has just published a new book of banjo transcriptions taken from his playing on Audie Blaylock’s Trains Are The Only Way To Fly CD. The book contains tabs for all Tom’s breaks and multiple backup sections in this 34 page spiral bound volume.

Adams came to the attention of the bluegrass world as a member of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys in the 1980s - which is also where he first met Audie Blaylock, who was on mandolin with Martin at the time. The two mens’ paths would continue to cross as Adams and Blaylock later worked together with both Lynn Morris and Rhonda Vincent.

Tom describes his picking on the Trains CD as emblematic of the style he used when he played with Jimmy Martin - aggressive and hard-driving - with much of the material coming from the Martin repertoire.

The book is available from Tom’s Adams County Banjo web site, along with his three other banjo tab books.

Listen now: (IE users click to activate)

Our guest this week on The GrassCast is bluegrass legend Paul Williams. Paul has a historic career in bluegrass. He’s well known for his singing but many fans may not be aware of his contributions to the music through songwriting. During the interview Paul talks about songs he wrote and then cut with Jimmy Martin. He also talks about the process of writing songs and how he got started writing bluegrass songs.

The interview is a long one so we’ve decided to split it in two. This week is part one and focuses on Paul’s history and how he got started as a songwriter. Next week we’ll continue it and see how Paul is continuing to be a vibrant songwriter who still gets cuts, while at the same time fronting his own band.

Direct Download: ep53_paul_williams.mp3

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