The Cold Mountain Singers: “Violet Hill”

{This is the third in a series. The first part can be found here, the second part here.}

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The Cold Mountain Singers, brothers Tom and Jim Gilhooley, parted in 1949, on the eve of their 33rd birthday. The reasons for their split are still unknown, although Jim’s marriage to a minor Hollywood actress is generally believed to have driven a wedge between them. Others have suggested that Jim was planning on going solo. Whatever the reason, it would be almost fifteen years before they played together again.

Jim went to Nashville, where his stellar - but short-lived - success and subsequent alcoholism are well documented. We will look at his career later. Tom Gilhooley, however, returned to Hatchenchubee, to tend the family farm and look after their aging mother. She was to die only eight months later.

“Violet Hill” was recorded solo by Tom around this time. The song and the recording are informed by his isolation and feelings of loneliness and abandonment. It was never released in his lifetime.

“Violet Hill” is the first fruit of our ongoing project to reconstruct some of the damaged or degraded recordings left by the Cold Mountain Singers. After months of work (paid for by the tax payer, due to our on-going legal dispute with Coldplay) we are now able to post a NEVER BEFORE HEARD RECORDING by this legendary country act. Enjoy.

December 05 2008 | Church History and Did you know!? and Music | 1 Comment »

The Cold Mountain Singers: “Fix Y’all”

Then, the USA went to war, and so did The Cold Mountain Singers. They returned to performing upon their return, but they were different men, older and wiser, with a new found urgency to spread their message. Their repertoire had changed too, to incorporate original compositions.

Jim Gilhooley said about the inspiration for Fix Y’all: “Darned if ah don’t know where it came from. I was huddlin in some darn trench with my brother, German shells a-flying over our heads. Then all of a sudden, there comes this strange silence, an all the guns quit shellin, and the sunshine began to break through the clouds and smoke. The tune, the words, everything, began to play in ma head, and I had to rush to git everything writ down in time. It was like it was being channelled through me, comin down from the Most High. I looked up to the sun, and instead ah saw a bright glowing face, with short and curly mousey hair and big blue eyes. He had no beard, and when he spoke it sounded a darn site more english an middle-class than ah reckoned for. He said that it would all make sense one day. Before he disappeared he said “Make Trade Fair.” Ah guess ah didn’t know what to make of that.”

This track was recorded live in Nashville in 1948 during a successful month-long residency. Their star was still in its ascendancy, but a darkness had entered their act. It was only a matter of time before they were to be torn apart.

April 19 2008 | Church History and Did you know!? and Music | 9 Comments »

The Cold Mountain Singers: “Yeller”

Tom and Jim Gilhooley (AKA The Cold Mountain Singers) were born on Cold Mountain Farm, Hatchenchubbee, Arkansas, in 1916, the twin sons of an itinerant Polish railroad labourer and an alchoholic seamstress of Scottish extraction. They were raised by both parents on their run-down farmstead until the depression began to bite, and their father left in 1931, never again seeing his boys.

Their mother struggled through, scraping a meagre existance from the dusty soil, supplimented by occasional sewing jobs. Tom and Jim learned to amuse themselves with bible reading and by singing traditional songs, accompanying themselves on guitar and banjo. They were soon a popular turn at the Waverley Saloon, and began to attract attention from the city.

By 1938, the boys were a successful act, playing to audiences throughout Arkansas, and begining to make a name for themselves. This track is believed to have been recorded in 1939, and is one of a mere handful of tracks that are known to have survived.

{The distinct similarity of some of these songs and the work of the contemporary group Coldplay is currently the subject of a major legal proceeding, and I am unable to comment further at this time.}

April 18 2008 | Church History and Did you know!? and Music | 2 Comments »