Key Figures in Knoxville’s Music History (A – J)

Roy Acuff (1903-1992)

A major figure in country music, Acuff often gets a mention in histories of pop and even rock ‘n’ roll: at a time when the orchestrated horn-based Big Band sound dominated radio, he raised the alternative of a small string-band with vocals that would be the basis of most pop music in the postwar era. Beginning in Knoxville in the mid-1930sÑoriginally with a trio he called the Three Rolling Stones—Acuff not only energized old ballad-based folk music, but also changed it, introducing new sounds and a new attitude. Born in Maynardville, just north of Knoxville, to a family with musical roots, Acuff was first more interested in sports. When his family moved to the north-side suburb of Fountain City, the teenager became famous as an athlete at Central High School. Disappointed not to break into pro baseball, he turned to small-time crime, occasionally arrested for bootlegging and gambling, and once wounded by gunfire at a bootlegging joint. Under the tutelage of a Fountain City mechanic, he learned fiddle, performing in public by the early 1930s. His aggressive style and showmanship made his bigger band, the Crazy Tennesseans, a local phenomenon on public stages and radio stations WNOX and WROL by 1935, attracting large crowds of mostly young fans. They introduced the little-known, Hawaiian-inspired Dobro, thanks to sideman Clell Summey. With an unusual hit called “The Great Speckled Bird,” Acuff and his band moved in 1938 to Nashville and WSMÕs Grand Old Opry, and that steel-guitar sound, along with Acuff’s own affecting, plaintive, distinctively unmodulated voice, would soon become a signature of mainstream country. (Former Knoxvillian Pete Kirby, aka “Bashful Brother Oswald,” soon replaced Summey on Dobro.) Both as a performer and a music publisher, Acuff had a major influence on both Nashville and the national popularity of country music.

Roy Acuff, “Wabash Cannon Ball”

Chet Atkins (1924-2001)

Born in Union County, Atkins learned guitar and fiddle before he gravitated to Knoxville to perform on live radio, especially WNOX. Traveling frequently to find audiences, Atkins was in and out of Knoxville over a period of a decade or more, performing here with Maybelle Carter and her talented daughters at public events until 1950. Later describing his unusual finger-picking style as his failed attempt to sound like Django Reinhardt—whose records were exciting other Knoxville musicians at the time—Atkins regarded himself as a jazz guitarist for much of his career (he also credited the influence of his Kentucky contemporary Merle Travis, as well as Black performers of the era). Still, he became one of the major producers who created the Music City mystique of Nashville. Atkins’ own “Nashville Sound” was a departure from old-time country, crossing it with jazz and pop, a smoother fusion that dominated Nashville’s hits of the early 1960s. He also produced and performed on the Everly Brothers’ early recordings, connecting to rock ‘n’ roll. Atkins performed the last full concert of his career at the Tennessee Theatre.

Chet Atkins, “Memphis Blues”

Chris Bell (1951-1978)

The original leader of influential Memphis-based rock band Big Star, Bell attended UT in the late 1960s. Although it was reportedly a frustrating time for him, he began writing his own songs here. Soon after they formed as a band, Big Star performed a concert at UTÕs student-center parking garage in 1971. After Big Star disbanded, Bell was pursuing a solo career when he was killed in a car wreck in Memphis at age 27. Hailed by many later alt-rock musicians as an inspiration, his band was the subject of a 2013 documentary, “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.

Keith Brown (b.1983)

Born in Memphis but raised in Knoxville, Brown is son of keyboardist Donald Brown, but has developed a reputation as a jazz-piano recording artist on his own. His Keith Brown Trio began performing at local clubs around 2004, and his group has since produced albums like the critically praised African Ripples (2021) while Brown also continues to work as a pianist with marquee stars like Jazzmeia Horn and others.

Keith Brown, “African Ripples”

Carl Butler (1927-1992)

Born in Knoxville, Butler was performing on local radio as a teenager and developed a reputation as a successful songwriter by age 24, when his “If Teardrops Were Pennies” was a hit for Carl Smith. Butler married Nashville native Pearl Jones Butler (19271988) and they performed as a duo for many years, often on WROL. By the late 1950s, they were performing with teenaged Dolly Parton, with whom they became close. The Butlers moved to Nashville in the early 1960s, known as Carl Butler and Pearl; their biggest hit, Knoxville songwriter Penny Jay’s “Don’t Let Me Cross Over” (1962), was successfully covered by Jerry Lee Lewis and Jim Reeves.

Carl Butler and Pearl “Don’t Let Me Cross Over”

Ashley Capps (b.1955)

First known as a public-radio announcer specializing in shows about jazz or innovative rock (one of his WUOT shows was called “Unhinged” another, “Unradio”), Capps began booking and promoting jazz shows in downtown venues in the early 1980s. In 2002, his company, AC Entertainment, was behind the enormous new music festival known as Bonnaroo, near Manchester, Tenn., about 140 miles southwest of Knoxville. At its height, AC was organizing shows and festivals across a multi-state region, as Capps traveled the world to make connections with promising musical talent. He launched Big Ears, a more personal annual project, in 2009.

Bill Carlisle (1908-2003)

Often called “Jumpin’ Bill Carlisle” for his onstage gymnastics, he was from Kentucky, but frequently performed on WNOX during its heyday. He was best known for his early (1933) hit, “Rattlesnake Daddy.” Often with his brother, Cliff Carlisle, and sometimes with Chet Atkins, he was performing on WNOX by 1939, developing the comedic persona of “Hot-Shot Elmer.”

Bill Carlisle, “No Help Wanted”

Samarai Celestial (1954-1997) ­

Born Eric Walker, the innovative Savannah-born percussionist for the groundbreaking Sun Ra Arkestra, Celestial first came to Knoxville with RaÕ’ group, who performed here frequently in the 1980s. Celestial settled here in 1987, performing and recording with local jazz musicians like Donald Brown, becoming well known in local venues, especially in the Old City.

Samarai Celestial, “Isis Sun”

Jerry Coker (1932-2024) ­

A saxophonist originally from Indiana, Coker joined Woody Herman’s famous orchestra in 1953, and later played with Stan Kenton and others. He began teaching jazz in the 1960s, and in 1975 came to Knoxville to teach at UT, eventually launching the university’s famous jazz program. While in Knoxville, he wrote several books about jazz theory, history, and improvisation.

Ida Cox (1896-1967) ­

Born in rural North Georgia, Cox spent much of her youth on the road, singing in vaudeville shows. By the 1920s, she was recognized as one of America’s great blues vocalists and recording artists, known for singing her own songs, including “Fore Day Creep” and “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues.” She performed in Knoxville at least occasionally during that period. A high point of her career was her performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1939, accompanied by Lester Young and James P. Johnson. When a stroke ended her career in 1945, she moved permanently to Knoxville, where her daughter was working as a schoolteacher. By most accounts she did little singing here except in the choir of the Patton Street Church of God. But she was living here when she went to New York in 1961 to record her only full album, Blues for Rampart Street, with the Coleman Hawkins Quintet. She died in Baptist Hospital, across the river from downtown, in 1967. She’s buried at New Gray Cemetery on Western Avenue.

Ida Cox, “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues”

Clifford Curry (1926-2016)

­ Raised in suburban Bearden, Clifford Curry was writing songs as a teenager, as his versatile talent bridged several genres. His early recording, “Mr. Moon,” a hit in some northern markets, was in the doo-wop tradition. He later became lead singer for a rare integrated rock ‘n’ roll band, the Fabulous Six, in 1957, and made some records with them. His own group, Clifford Curry and the Midnighters, were a locally popular R&B band by 1964. He scored a minor soul hit, “She Shot a Hole in My Soul” in 1967. After his recording career, he became a familiar performer in Myrtle Beach, but returned to Knoxville in his later years.

Clifford Curry, “She Shot a Hole in My Soul”

Don Gibson (1928-2003)

Raised in Western North Carolina, Gibson moved to Knoxville in the late 1940s for the radio opportunities, and lived here for about 15 years as he developed as a singer and songwriter, a familiar figure on WNOX throughout the 1950s. He’s credited with writing major crossover hits “Sweet Dreams,” which he claimed he wrote in 1955 backstage at the WNOX auditorium in Whittle Springs (Patsy Cline’s version climbed the charts after her death in 1963), “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (Ray Charles made it a hit in 1962; Gibson’s authorship of that song has been challenged), and “Oh, Lonesome Me,” (Johnny Cash’s version and Gibson’s own both went to the Top 20). Unlike most country performers, Gibson remained in Knoxville for several years after achieving national success, living in a comfortable house in suburban West Hills. When he left around 1965, he was facing serious personal problems with depression and addiction.

Don Gibson, “Sweet Dreams”

Jennifer Higdon (b.1962)

A leading contemporary orchestral composer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2010, Higdon grew up in nearby Seymour. She developed her composing career elsewhere, but was living here when she trained herself to play the flute and percussion at Heritage High. She returns to her home and Knoxville occasionally, as in 2023 when she worked with the KSO on a production of her well-known “Cold Mountain Suite” at the Tennessee Theatre.

Jennifer Higdon, “Cold Mountain Suite”

 

Howard Armstrong (1909-2003)

Growing up in a musical family in LaFollette, Tenn., Armstrong specialized in fiddle and mandolin, performing on the streets of Knoxville by 1919. He connected to several other musicians here, especially Carl Martin, with whom he formed blues/jazz string bands known by several names. His combo the Tennessee Chocolate Drops performed on live radio WROL and in local clubs, making their only records at the St. James Hotel in 1929-30. They moved to Chicago in 1931. In 1970, Martin and Armstrong combined with Ted Bogan, another associate from Knoxville days, to form Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong, an offbeat revivalist band that stirred up new interest in 1920s-style string jazz. After Martin’s death, he was the subject of two popular PBS documentaries, “Louie Bluie” and the later “Sweet Old Song.” He returned to Knoxville several times late in his career, appearing at the 1982 World’s Fair, and in interviews enhanced our understanding of early street jazz. His extraordinarily long career, which began before radio, ended with some live Internet podcasts.

Howard Armstrong, “Vine Street Rag”

Maynard Baird (1894-1965)

Knoxville’s best-known jazz-age bandleader, Baird was a multi-instrumentalist who specialized in the banjo, occasionally attempting to invent new instruments, like the stringed oddity the Baird-ola. Born in Clarksville, he moved to Knoxville around 1915, working as a motion-picture projectionist. In 1921, he formed his orchestra, the Southland Serenaders. Fluctuating between 10 and 30 instruments, with Baird on banjo essentially providing percussion, it was a popular up-tempo jazz band, drawing listeners both on the radio and at dances across the Southeast and occasionally in cities in the Midwest, where he nurtured a fan base. After, his foray into jazz/pop recordings in 1929 and 1930 was disappointing; he appears to have drifted away from music by the late ’30s. Some of his recordings appeared on the 1990s CD series, Jazz the World Forgot.

Donald Brown (b.1954)

The Memphis-raised pianist, once a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, has a global reputation. He moved to Knoxville in the late 1980s to teach at UTÕs jazz program, recording several well-received albums during his time here, including People Music (1990) and Piano Short Stories (1995). He has remained in touch with national performers, as both a performer and producer, working with Donald Byrd, Kenny Garrett, and others. Turning more toward the bass in recent years, he remains a frequent performer on Knoxville stages and can sometimes even be spotted performing without fanfare in local restaurants.

Donald Brown All Stars

Kenneth “Jethro” Burns (1920-1989)  

Half of the talented musical comedy duo Homer & Jethro, Burns grew up in South Knoxville’s Vestal community, where he was known as “Dude.” His father was a self-taught dulcimer player; the younger Burns taught himself mandolin. By the time he was 16, he was performing with a group called the Musical Paper Hangers. He and his friend Henry Haynes formed the musical-parody group Homer & Jethro when the two were about 18, debuting the duo to delighted crowds at WNOXÕs “Mid-Day Merry Go-Round” in early 1939. By the late 1940s, they had become nationally famous for their parodies, and released more than two dozen albums on RCA Victor. Departing from humor occasionally, they made well-received jazz instrumental albums in 1962 and 1967. After Haynes’ death, Burns focused on jazz mandolin, while sometimes playing in the Chicago folk scene along with Steve Goodman.

Home & Jethro, “The Battle of Kookamonga”

Archie Campbell (1914-1987)

Originally from Bulls Gap, Campbell arrived in Knoxville penniless in 1935, with dreams of making it on local radio. Taken in by a family of Greek restaurateurs who allowed him to sleep in their café, he became known on WNOX mainly as a comedian, beginning with the Grandpappy character he created for Knoxville radio in 1936, when he became a popular regular on “Mid-Day Merry-Go Round.” During that early period he was also a vocalist who made some serious recordings, the first of them in a Knoxville studio. A familiar face at public events, the outgoing Campbell remained in Knoxville for several years, launching in 1949 the radio show, “Country Playhouse,” which spawned one of the nation’s early country-music TV shows, “Country Capers.” When it closed in 1958, Campbell moved to Nashville. Though in his mid-40s, he broke into the recording business, making several successful records. He later became familiar as a comedian on the nationally popular TV show “Hee-Haw.”

Guy Carawan (1927-2015)

The California-bred guitarist, singer, songwriter, and social activist Carawan moved to Tennessee in the 1950s to lead the Highlander Center, the racial-justice-oriented institution at which music has always played a role. (The “folk school” was based in Knoxville for most of the 1960s.) Carawan is credited with reframing and popularizing the hymn/anthem “We Shall Overcome,” teaching it to activists in 1960. Based mainly in nearby New Market since the 1970s, Carawan and his wife, Candie (b. 1939), were familiar performers on Knoxville stages for decades. Their son, Evan, is a noted master of the hammered dulcimer.

Guy Carawan, “We Shall Overcome”

Kenny Chesney (b.1968)

Born in Knoxville and a resident of the suburban Halls community, Chesney attended Gibbs High School, where he was a baseball standout and a choral singer. He began performing solo in public in Johnson City, as he attended East Tennessee State University. The Knoxville News-Sentinel profiled him in 1989; in 1993, he opened for Patty Loveless at the Tennessee Theatre, but was the headliner there a few months later in 1994, the year of his breakthrough solo album. One of the most popular country recording artists of his era, four-time winner of the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award, he’s one of the few musicians who have filled Neyland Stadium, as he did in 2003.

Kenny Chesney, “In My Wildest Dreams”

Bertha Roth Walburn Clark (1882-1972)

One of the few women in American history who founded and conducted a full symphony orchestra, Bertha Roth was a Cincinnati conservatory-trained violinist who came to Knoxville in 1902 to work as a professional musician. Performing at big venues like Staub’s, she was quickly accepted as one of the city’s finest instrumentalists. When the large Atkin Hotel opened in 1910, she led a quartet that performed nightly in the lobby. By the 1920s, she was performing with a larger combo at the Farragut Hotel, one she called her Little Symphony. In 1935, she founded the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, serving for several years as its first conductor. She remained conductor for 10 years, retiring in her mid-60s, but remaining in the orchestra as cellist.

Mary Costa (b.1930)

Born in Knoxville of partly Italian descent, Mary Costa grew up attending First Baptist Church, where her voice was drawing attention when she was still in grade school. By the 1940s she was a familiar figure at church and school functions and countless weddings. She performed frequently at Knoxville High School until age 17, when the family moved to Los Angeles for her to further her voice study. She soon broke into show business, eventually as the singing voice for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959). By then she was also working as a coloratura soprano for New York’s Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and London’s Royal Opera House. She always considered Knoxville home, and returned in the 1970s to help found the Knoxville Opera, and has since been a prominent supporter.

Mary Costa, “Once Upon a Dream”

John Cullum (b.1930)

Raised in South Knoxville’s Island Home, Cullum was both a tennis champ and a popular actor known at UT for his baritone voice. By 1960, he was singing on Broadway, a member of the original cast of Camelot, later earning two Tonys (among five nominations) for other roles. He returned to Knoxville during the 1982 World’s Fair to perform the lead in several weeks of performances at the Tennessee Theatre, in an original musical called Drumright, before returning to his career in Hollywood known as Holling the saloonkeeper in “Northern Exposure” (1990-1995) and on Broadway, where he was still singing lead roles in his 80s.

John Cullum, “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”

Everly Brothers ­

Don Everly (1937-2021) and his younger brother Phil Everly (1939-2014), with their Kentucky-bred parents, had been known as a family singing group on radio in Iowa. They came to Knoxville in the early 1950s to perform on Cas Walker’s show on WROL. With live radio on the wane, their father, renowned guitarist Ike Everly, quit show business to become a barber. The brothers attended West High School, better known then as athletes. Here they began performing as a duo, having discovered rock ‘n’ roll via a Bo Diddley record at Dugout Doug’s offbeat record shop on Cumberland Avenue, and worked it into their act. By the end of 1955, they were in Nashville, at the behest of Chet Atkins, whom they had met at Knoxville’s Tennessee Valley Fair. Several of their early hits were written by professional songwriters, but the duo wrote several of their own, including their biggest hit, “Cathy’s Clown,” about a failed romance at West High. Their example inspired countless major performers, including the Beatles, as seen in testimonials inscribed at Everly Brothers Park on Kingston Pike.

Everly Brothers, “Cathy’s Clown”Everly Brothers, “All I Have to do is Dream”

Henry “Homer” Haines (1920-1971)

Born near Knoxville and just 9 when he was performing on Hawaiian instruments with his sister, Nora, on WNOX in early 1930, Haynes became well known for playing guitar. When he was 18, he and his friend Kenneth “Jethro” Burns formed the musical comedy act, “Homer and Jethro,” while also playing in the more straightforward quartet the String Dusters. (“Jethro” was Kenneth Burns.) With multiple albums, most but not all of them comic parodies of pop and classical music, Homer and Jethro were nationally popular for about 25 years.

Arpad Joó (1948-2014) ­

Claimed to be the youngest orchestra conductor in American history, the 24-year-old Hungarian immigrant represented a sharp departure from the retiring David Van Vactor in 1972. Leading the KSO for half a decade, Joó became more prominent later, conducting internationally praised recordings, including a full set of the works of Bela Bartok, before returning to liberated Budapest, where he spent his final years.


 

PHOTO CREDITS
Every effort has been made to identify photographic sources. Thank you to all of the following:

Howard Armstrong (Carpet Bag Theatre / Peggy Mathews), Chet Atkins, John Cullum (KHP),  Archie Campbell, Ida Cox (Tennessee Archive of Moving Images & Sound) Carl Butler & Pearl (Bradley Reeves, Smoky Mountain Radio & Archives), Ashley Capps (InsideofKnoxville.com), Bertha Walburn Clark (McClung Historical Collection), Everly Brothers, Don Gibson (Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill),

Wikipedia Images

Roy Acuff (Walden S. Fabry, Ross Photos); Chris Bell (Groovindays), Bill Carlisle (Radiobroadcast), Mary Costas (S. Hurok); Guy Carawan (Heather Carawan); Kenny Chesney (Larence Fung); Clifford Curry (soulwalking.co.uk), Jennifer Higdon (CTV Santa Cruz County); Homer & Jethro.