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SFR-DU-33009
SUNSET MEMORIES
THE PERRY COUNTY MUSIC MAKERS
1 I’M SAD AND BLUE (N. Presson) 3:01
2 GYPSY RAG (N. Presson) 1:21
3 MAUDALINE (N. Presson) 3:03
4 ON THE BEACH 2:38
5 BY THE COTTAGE DOOR (N. Presson) 3:25
6 DOWNFALL OF PARIS 1:09
7 IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE 2:33
8 EVALINA WALTZ 1:11
9 LEXINGTON 1:02
10 TAKE ME TO LINCOLN (N. Presson) 4:01
11 HAWAIIAN NIGHTS 1:12
12 TRUCKDRIVER’S SONG (N. Presson) 2:25
13 SILVER BELL 1:45
14 BLACK SATIN 1:39
15 SUNSET MEMORIES (N. Presson) 3:09
16 TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (N. Presson) 1:16
Just west of Linden, Tennessee, near the Tennessee River, is the community
of Pine View. Pine View lies in a beautiful and unspoiled area of the
state, a region full of deep hollows, fresh little streams, and virgin
timber stands. Pine View is not on many road maps, but it is distinguished
by two of its citizens, Nonnie Presson and Bulow Smith. For Nonnie and
Bulow, along with their niece Virginia Clayborne, comprise one of the
most unique of the traditional Tennessee string bands, the Perry County
Music Makers.
For over fifty years Nonnie and Bulow have been making music-music of
a rare and special quality. Two things make it so. One is the fact that
Nonnie uses as her main instrument a large, custom-built zither; the other
is the haunting harmony which Nonnie, Bulow, and Virginia lend to both
traditional folk songs and Nonnie’s original compositions. In fact, Nonnie
is probably the only person in the country who plays the zither in old-time
style. Around the turn of the century, zither societies were not uncommon
in northern cities with German-Austrian populations, but then zithers
were played Austrian style, using Austrian melodies. There are very few
instances of the zither being integrated into native American folk music.
Nonnie’s zither playing calls to mind the autoharp of a Maybelle Carter
or Pop Stoneman rather than a European zither stylist.
Until recently, the name “Perry County Music Makers” was known to scholars
of folklore and historians of country music from the faded labels of two
rare old 78 records made for the Vocalion company in 1930. Various experts
had guessed that the group was from Arkansas, Kentucky, or even Mississippi;
for several years, the identity of the group, and of the strange instrument
heard on the scratchy old records, was a mystery. But anyone around Linden
or Pine View, Tennessee, could have cleared the mystery up in no time;
the band was “Nonnie and Bulow,” a brother and sister whose family had
been in the county for generations. Some of their fans knew them as the
Perry County Music Makers, the name they used early in their career in
the late 1920s: others know them a “Nonnie and Bulow, the Melody Pair,”
the name they used while broadcasting from Nashville in the the 1930s.
When “rediscovered” by reaserchers recently, the pair had not played much
together for some years. But at the urging of friends, relatives and fans,
Nonnie and Bulow began to work up some of their old numbers. Nonnie’s
zither, its strings rusted and broken, was taken out of the closet and
painstakinly repaired by Bulow. The words to songs long forgotten were
remembered and jotted down; Bulow’s trusty J-45 was taken out and retuned.
Soon the creative instincts of two fine natural musicians were reawakened,
and the results are found in this album.
About 1905 Nonnie’s father, himself a music teacher and author, brought
home an old zither given him by a part-German neighbor. “I heard that
and like to have had a fit,” Nonnie recalls, “He wouldn’t let me fool
with it a first, but everytime he’d get out of the house I’d slip around
and go to working with it.” Soon Nonnie was playing the instrument, and
by the time she was ten years old had composed her first song, “Trail
of the Lonesome Pine,” which concludes this album. When brother Bulow
came along he began to play banjo and later guitar. Nonnie and Bulow learned
a lot from their father, and a lot from an old local banjo player named
Will Warren. Soon they were playing dances—both “round and square”—and
in the late 1920s went to Nashville and began broadcasting as the Perry
County Music Makers for WTNT. While there they met Henry Bone, a harmonica
player from Bakersville, Tennessee; Bone became the group’s manager, and
soon landed them a recording contract for Vocalion records. In 1930 they
journeyed to Knoxville to cut four tunes, three of which, I’M SAD AND
BLUE MAUDALINE, and BY THE COTTAGE DOOR are presented here in new versions.
The records were good, but the Depression hit and knocked the bottom out
of the record industry; had the band recorded three years earlier, it
might have established itself as a major recording influence. As it was,
Nonnie and Bulow packed up a few copies of their records, and took their
own show on tour. But they ran into the dust bowl, and audiences who loved
their music didn’t have the price of a show, “Toby’s Comedians (“though
it really sold more candy then medicine,” recalls Bulow) and played over
WSIX in Nashville as “the Melody Pair.” Their repertoire was enormous,
and ranged from genuine traditional songs learned in the hollows of their
native county and in the medicine show, to old-time vocals learned from
old cylinders, to fiddle breakdowns, even to popular songs like the Kay
Kyser hit, MY LITTLE PLAYMATE.” Nonnie says, “In our prime, we could do
three 90-minute shows in a row and not repeat one number.” And by no means
least of the songs they did were Nonnie’s own compositions; “she has,”
commented one friend,” the knack to write a song on day and sing it the
next and it somehow sounds as old as the hills—even though you know it’s
just been written.” Listening to SAD AND BLUE or TRUCKDRIVER’S SONG on
this album will certainly bear this out.
By the 1940s both Nonnie and Bulow had retired from the music business,
and were back in Perry County. Like so many semi-professional musicians
of the golden days of old-time music, they gave up their careers to marry
and settle down; family ties were, and still are, paramount in their lives.
Though they have not played professionally much recently, Nonnie and Bulow
often get together to sing in their homes, and on many of these occasions
they are joined by Virginia Clayborne, their niece, “Ginny” knows and
loves the old songs, too, and fits right in with the vocal style on Nonnie
and Bulow. Thus, when it came time to record an album, it was only natural
that Virginia add her voice to the vocal harmonies. The result is a full,
rich robust sound that represents old-time singing at its finest.
The zither Nonnie uses on this record was custom built for her by Nashville
guitar maker Grady Moore in the 1930s; it is much larger than the traditional
zither (“so I could make myself heard at these dances,” says Nonnie),
and has 54 strings, where the Austrian zither has 34. It can take several
days to tune the instrument. On this record, Nonnie gets a softer sound
in the lower bass strings because she uses guitar strings instead of regular
zither strings.
THE SONGS
IM SAD AND BLUE is perhaps Nonnie’s most famous song. Originally recorded
in 1930, it is becoming popular with bluegrass groups today. The original
1930 recording is available on County LP 520, and makes an interesting
comparison.
GYPSY RAG - - - a rare instrumental original by Nonnie.
MAUDALINE another number first recorded in 1930, was written for a friend
of Nonnie and Bulow’s who had had an unhappy love affair.
ON THE BEACH a popular Hawaiian number Nonnie learned off of an old cylinder
record when she was a young girl. “It was the first Hawaiian music I’d
ever heard.”
BY THE COTTAGE DOOR was written after a hard winter of touring in an old
unheated car; “it was a warm day in March and I was working in the house
and I stepped out and the warmest breeze hit me and the song just came
to me,” recalls Nonnie.
DOWNFALL OF PARIS is an old traditional American melody which the couple
learned from a Nashville fiddler named Frank Sims in the 1930s.
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE was learned in medicine show days and later used
with success in concerts in the 1930s.
EVALINA WALTZ Nonnie: “It was well over 50 years ago I learned this; my
father put on a concert in a little country school house over in the head
of the next hollow, and this man and his son, John Deer and Jimmy Deer,
played this on the violin and piano and my mother and I played this piece
with them with French harps.”
LEXINGTON also popular in the mid-Tennessee area as “Love Somebody,” was
learned from Will Warren, the old banjo player. The Weems String Band
from Perry County also played this piece, and also called it LEXINGTON.
It seems musically related to the more popular SOLDIERS’ JOY, and was
a much-requested dance number for Nonnie and Bulow.
TAKE ME TO LINCOLN was written as a farewell present to the people of
Lincoln, Arkansas; Nonnie and Bulow and their troupe had been stranded
there in the summer of 1930.
HAWAIIAN NIGHTS was learned from an old player piano roll Nonnie heard
many years ago.
TRUCKDRIVER’S SONG despite its old-time flavor, is a relatively new composition
by Nonnie. She and Bulow liked to do a number they called ROADHOUSE IN
TEXAS which was an oral variant of the country and western composition,
TRUCK DRIVING MAN. When we suggested that TRUCK DRIVING MAN might be too
“modern” a song for the album, they agreed. But two weeks later Nonnie
played this one for us, saying, in jest, “You wouldn’t let us use our
first truck driving song, so I wrote us another one.” This song seems
far truer to the spirit of traditional music than the other.
SILVER BELL is a traditional instrumental classic, recorded as early as
1925 by artists like Clayton McMichen and Pop Stoneman.
BLACK SATIN is another piece learned from Will Warren. Nonnie and Bulow
hadn’t rehearsed this piece, but got to playing with it after the session
was over. Fortunately, the tape was still rolling and this impromptu rendition
was thought exciting enough to include.
SUNSET MEMORIES is Nonnie’s personal favorite of her own compositions,
and reveals the finest hallmarks of the PCMM style.
TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE is a short, perfect zither solo by Nonnie.
Recorded August 10, 1974 in Pine View, Tennessee
Produced by STEVE DAVIS and CHARLES WOLFE
Liner notes – CHARLES WOLFE
Special Thanks to: Roberta O’Guin, Ronnie Henson, Larry Burke, and Ralph
Hyde