Although
Louis Marshall Jones
was only around 30-years-old when he cut his first acetate for
Syd Nathan
's fledgling Dayton, Ohio-based
King Records
in 1943, he was already known as
Grandpa Jones
, earning the nickname because he supposedly sounded like an old man when he spoke on the radio (over his half-century career,
Jones
grew into the physical aspect of the name, as well). This interesting collection,
Steppin' Out Kind
, gathers the best of the surviving acetates
cut for
Nathan
during his initial nine-year run with
King
, and these sides will be revelatory for those who are only familiar with the latter-day
through his appearances on the
Hee Haw
television show in the early '70s. Most of what is here falls into a kind of stripped-down and swinging
country
boogie style, helped along by the presence of
' good friend
Merle Travis
(who plays jaw-dropping electric guitar on some half dozen cuts), the steel guitar lines of
Billy Strickland
, and the fiddle, mandolin, and bass playing of the versatile
Ramona Riggins
, who would eventually become
' wife. By the end of the '40s,
was featuring his own flailing banjo style more frequently, and he began to sound increasingly like the second coming of
Uncle Dave Macon
on songs like the breakneck
"What'll I Do with the Baby-O"
and
' signature tune,
"Old Rattler."
Check out cuts like
"It's Raining Here This Morning"
or
"Grandpa's Boogie,"
though, to hear
' earlier, slicker sound, or his wacky, raucous take on
"Mule Train"
to get a sense of how much the
banjo character was exactly that, a character, albeit one
nurtured and milked for well over fifty years. ~ Steve Leggett