Search - Grayson & Whitter :: The Recordings of Grayson & Whitter

Listening to Grayson & Whitter is like getting behind the wheel of one of Henry Ford's original model Ts. Their sound might not be as polished as we're accustomed to in the digital age, but these men were true pioneers of the bluegrass sound. Blind since early childhood, G.B. Grayson used music to support his wife and six children. In search of bills and coins, he showcased his nasal vocals and his high-lonesome fiddling on street corners, in storefronts, and in roadhouses before he met guitarist Henry Whitter at a fiddler's convention in Mountain City, Tennessee. Part songsters, part entertainers, and part storytellers, Grayson & Whitter appeal to history buffs as well as to avid bluegrass listeners who want to explore the genre's late-1920s roots. With only two years' worth of recordings, the duo combined their Appalachian musical roots with the oral tradition to give us several enduring song-stories such as "Going Down the Lee Highway," "Tom Dooley," "Handsome Molly," "Train Forty-Five," and "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee"--all of them country standards. Their performances resound with authenticity, reinforcing their status within country lore. --Andrew Scales