Briarhopper, Homer

“I Am PRECISELY WHAT I Am” was the name of 1 of his popular single recordings, but it doesn’t seem to possess inspired one to get his name ideal. He was created Homer Lee Drye and utilized the professional name of Homer Drye until he became mixed up in early ’30s using the Briarhoppers, an old-time string music group originally designed for radio broadcasts on WBT out of Charlotte. He was one among many, many old-time and nation pickers and performers associated with this group, that was still an operating entity in the brand new millennium. But Drye was 1 of 2 early people of the group that absconded with something apart from several WBT royalty bank checks, as with the group’s name. He became Homer Briarhopper from then on, but regardless of the relatively visible of the group, a few of his recordings had been issued beneath the name of Homer Brierhopper, while additional recording businesses further mutated the name to Horner Brierhopper. Many of these variants will be the same person; the only person who is not really Homer Briarhopper may be the early nation musician Pappy Brierhopper, who was simply in fact a chap called Johnny Macalester. His name can be spelled John McAllister in a few Briarhopper studies which is assumed that Pappy Briarhopper was the true stage name he was attempting for, record firm typesetters notwithstanding. The initial studio photographs from the Briarhoppers screen a protracted Appalachian design string music group, including a mandolinist whose device is almost larger than he’s, two fiddlers, a guitarist, an upright bassist, a banjoist, and a woman who appears to be keeping a fife, though it may be the sawed off barrel of the shotgun. Creating a complete set of Briarhoppers associates was announced a statistical impossibility with the condition of NEW YORK and apparently determining who each one of the music artists in these picture is really as well. Various other associates out of this period consist of Clarence Etters, Jane Bartlett, Billie Burton, and Thorpe Westerfield. Ultimately, the lineup would become relatively even more consolidated behind the united states duo of Whitey & Hogan, who wandered in from close by Gastonia. Both of these players, Arval Hogan and Roy “Whitey” Offer, became closely from the Briarhoppers both in the first times and in a afterwards reincarnation, and in addition had their very own following being a duo. This is the program many early people of the group adopted, including Drye, who started his recording profession with different configurations from the Briarhoppers, after that continued to lower some single recordings for both Bluebird and Decca. His edges included tunes like the welcoming, fast-moving “Let’s Trip That Aircraft” and the stunning, “scentimental” “When the Roses Bloom.” Utilizing his broadcast encounter, Homer Briarhopper spent his old age as the sponsor of an early on morning Raleigh tv program, one of the charming if relatively corny NEW YORK performers of the ilk that also included Arthur “Boogie” Smith, Claude Casey, and Fred Kirby. Stashing his bald mind under a cowboy head wear, the chubby and friendly Drye still sang and performed acoustic guitar, but also offered as an emcee, guiding people of the music group and unique guests through their presented spots. These displays, although significantly less than valued at that time with the intelligentsia, are actually regarded as an important area of the early nation radio tradition where just spinning information or reading information broadcasts was hardly ever considered entertaining more than enough and live rings had been a normal feature. Both Drye’s present and the main one hosted by Smith had been shunted to the first mornings due to the major systems gobbling up increasingly more of their affiliate marketers’ time because of their own programming. Hence Homer Briarhopper & the Daybreak Gang discovered itself playing for an viewers of early risers and insomniacs. While old-time music scholars occasionally feel good pangs of guilt about such situations, it wasn’t actually that much unique of the real radio heyday when performers in cities such as for example Winston-Salem would stagger directly into host shows starting at six each day. The Daybreak Gang music group was sort of nation repertory business playing classics, obscurities, current strikes, and occasionally a gospel tune. The group also proved helpful frequently at gigs around the region, a typical place being a special event marking the starting of a fresh mobile home great deal. The group also worked well frequently at gigs around the region, a typical location being a special event marking the starting of a fresh mobile home great deal. In the ’70s, the display was finally canceled. Veterans of the production are the good alternative nation performer Phil Lee, the drummer with this music group of them costing only 12 years of age. Once from the air once and for all, Drye resided on another 10 years before loss of life in the first ’80s.