Georgia Yellow Hammers

• Clyde Evans
• Elias Meadows

The Georgia Yellow Hammers were an American string band from Gordon County, Georgia.

Career

As of 1926, the hard sound of Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers for each record company seemed to be profitable and many string bands emerged in the music scene, but disappeared just as quickly. The Yellow Hammers, however, in the 1920s were an established group whose singles sold themselves well.

The beginnings of the Georgia Yellow Hammers go back to 1924, when the two friends and musicians Bud Landress ( banjo) and Bill Chitwood (fiddle ), on a train to New York City went up in November in Resaca, Georgia, where she found her first twelve pieces grossed. The 42 -year-old Landress came, just like Chtitwood, from the Gordon County and mastered a variety of stringed instruments. Chitwood, at that time 33 years old, was already known in Gordon County as a talented singer and bass singers. Occasionally he played with Landress and the banjo and harmonica player Fate Norris.

The other two musicians, members of the Georgia Yellow Hammers should be, were Charles Ernest Moody (* 1891) and Phil Reeve ( 1896). Moody had studied music and worked as a songwriter since 1916 very successfully ( Drifting Too Far From The Shore, Kneel At The Cross). Phil Reeve organized from 1925 on radio programs for the station WSB in Atlanta.

The first session of the Georgia Yellow Hammers took place in 1927. In a second session in Charlotte, North Carolina, the same year the band was supported by the African-American musicians Andrew and Jim Baxter. This session produced among other things, the G Rag, and their biggest hit The Picture on the Wall. In contrast to the Skillet Lickers, the repertoire of Yellow hammer consisted of a broad spectrum including gospel, blues, pop, Sacred Harp songs and of course, old - time music. They also sang in a quartet and not like most old-time bands of their time with a soloist.

In 1928, the band with Picture on the Wall / My Carolina Girl their biggest hit. The record sold alone in her Year over 60,000 times. By 1929, the Georgia Yellow Hammers for Okeh Records, Victor Records and Brunswick Records kept from further sessions. The world economic crisis of 1929, the group hit hard and soon after they broke up. Except for Bud Landress all members of a regulated labor turned to. Phil Reeve died in 1949, Bill Chitwood 1961, Bud Landress 1966, Ernest Moody 1977.

Discography

Discography is not complete.