Bye, Bye, Love - RIP Phil Everly

The Everly Brothers while never considered by anyone to be cutting edge were at the confluence of two remarkable movements in country music. While the brothers were generally considered to be pop singers their father was one of the most innovative guitarist in the business. Ike Everly and fellow coal miner Mose Rager developed the world famous Muhlenberg County, finger picking style that was popularized by first Merle Travis, then Chet Atkins, and then by the underrated Jerry Reed whom Atkins referred to as the best guitarist ever. Travis who, parenthetically, knew a little bit about coal mining, as did everyone else in Muhlenberg Country wrote Sixteen Tons that was recorded and taken to the top of the charts by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Tiny Muhlenberg County with a population of about 31,000 that has remained the same since the early 1900's is the birth place of Don Everly, James Best (Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane of the Dukes of Hazzard), guitarist Kennedy Jones, actor Warren Oates, and Merle Travis. It is the location of John Prine's famous Paradise written about a town that had the misfortune to be built over a rich vein of coal and was eventually demolished and mined. It probably has more guitar pickers per square mile than any location in the country. Merle Travis credits Ike Everly with his home made guitar in the video below.

Eventually Ike Everly quit coal mining and managed to transition into a musical career. He had a radio shows at both KMA and KFNF in Shenandoah, Iowa. The brothers learned to perform as guests on his show. With Chet Atkins as a personal friend of their father the Everly Brothers found doors opened for them in Nashville but their success was earned and they had the extreme good fortune to become affiliated with the greatest country music song writing team in history, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant who constituted a movement all by themselves with such later hits as Rocky Top and You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma. Up until they met the Everly Brothers the Bryants had enjoyed modest success but their association with the Everly Brothers launched a career that would sell over 300 million songs world wide. Their first offering to the Everly Brothers, Bye Bye, Love had been rejected by 30 acts but the Brothers took it to number 2 on the pop chart.

Boudleaux Bryant (wearing glasses) with The Everly Brothers

 "Wake Up, Little Susie" and "All I Have to Do Is Dream" both charted at No. 1 in all three categories, pop, country, and R&B. Bird Dog went to the top of the pop chart but only managed to get to number 2 on the other charts. A very fortuitous partnership!