Seven Foot Dilly & His Hot Pickles

The names of old-time string bands that recorded in the ’20s and ’30s have a tendency to be pretty ridiculous, a few of them composed by corny disc jockeys or promoters. This group may possess the most severe name from the bunch, predicated on both surname and elevation of bandleader guitarist John Dilleshaw, a historic old-time acoustic guitar picker whose elevation was close plenty of to seven ft to match the reasons of old-time music group naming. The Dill Pickles included employed guns from between the area’s greatest fiddlers, like the one-handed Lowe Stokes, aswell as novices such as for example Harry Kiker, who became thinking about old-time music when Dilleshaw began courting his sister, Opal, as the timid guitarist would frequently bring his whole band along to aid using the passionate atmosphere. The first choice was known for his traveling, bluesy acoustic guitar playing, which combined with the sound from the bowed bass and tenor banjo, performed by the daddy and son group of Green Lindsey, provided this group a truly distinct sound. As is certainly typical from the genre, significant amounts of laughter was interspersed using the music, and in the way of Western golf swing bandleader Bob Wills, Dilleshaw (or Dilly) would occasionally talk right within the soloing or ensemble playing of the various other musicians. Skits regarding various associates of the group had been no doubt performed in imitation from the broadly well-known Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers, which acquired also utilized Stokes. The group documented in 1929 and 1930, as well as the monitors have got all been reissued on the Document Compact disc. The monitors include “Poor Lee Dark brown,” probably an ancestor of Jim Croce’s “Poor, Bad Leroy Dark brown,” the rollicking “Bibb State Break down,” the two-part “Fiddler’s Tryout in Georgia” (a combined mix of music and movie theater), as well as the traditional “Pickin’ Off Peanuts.” Several sidemen in the group continued with musical activity. Lindsey do a few periods for Bluebird that highlighted Shorty, and perhaps Dilleshaw aswell, although no one present can acknowledge this. Shorty also performed tenor banjo on some recordings by fiddler John Carson. Kiker was the just player out of this ensemble who survived in to the calendar year 2000, and in those days was still playing, mainly in his personal kitchen, with an ex-violinist from your Atlanta Symphony.