And The Skillet Lickers

And The Skillet Lickers

• Shrink-wrapped

Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers was probably old time country music s best known string band of the 1920s - they almost certainly had the biggest sales in the '20s and'30s. Their first visit to the recording studios was in April 1926. <br><br>Two regular members of the band were Gid Tanner himself and guitarist/vocalist Riley Puckett who had already made records together. The success of those discs encouraged Columbia to form the Skillet Lickers as a studio band.<br><br>A real innovation was the inclusion of three fiddle players in the line-up - prior to this twin fiddles had been the maximum. The three fiddle format would become a regular feature on Skillet Lickers records - adding to their distinctive sound.<br> <br>Their first issued sides by the group were released in June 1926 and sold over 207,000 copies. At this time, sales of 30,000 were considered a success. The Skillet Lickers (and Old Timey music in general) were on the map.<br><br>The band would evolve to feature rustic comedy sketches which developed into series and exploited the imagined characteristics of country folk. Several of those sides are included here.<br><br>Here's Old Timey music in its leaping, laughing, lively youth featuring some of its most expert exponents. If you want to know more about country music's origins it's essential.