Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson & More Featured On The Delmore Brothers Tribute Album: ‘Their Musical Innovation Influenced Almost Every Genre of Music’
Categoria: Musica
The project was spearheaded by songwriter-producer Jerry Salley and Athens State University’s Dr. Keith Ferguson.
Por Billboard | 02/10/2026
In the 1930s and 1940s, before the iconic sibling harmonies of duos including The Everly Brothers and the Louvin Brothers, two siblings from Elkmont, Alabama — Alton Delmore and his younger brother Rabon Delmore — formed The Delmore Brothers and became one of country music’s early influential brother duos, thanks to songs such as “Blues, Stay Away From Me” that showcased their harmonies and musical innovations. Songwriter-producer Jerry Salley, known for his work with artists including Reba McEntire and Lonesome River Band, calls the The Delmore Brothers’ “innovative chord changes and musical ability to infuse a bluesier sound into their country music, and their ingenious capacity to write songs that no one else was writing at the time” as key to the duo’s music. 100 years after The Delmore Brothers first began making music together, Salley teamed with Athens State University’s vp of university advancement, Dr. Keith Ferguson, to spearhead A Century of Strings, Stories & Songs: A Tribute to The Delmore Brothers , which released Thursday (Oct. 1) on Billy Blue Records. “They were really the first country artists to incorporate all of these creative elements into a sound like no one else,” Salley told Billboard in a statement. “They were putting 3 flats and 7 flats and other non-conventional chord changes in their original songs way before anyone else in any genre.” Alton and Rabon got their start performing at fiddle conventions, and later signed with Columbia, where they recorded the songs “Alabama Lullaby” and “I’ve Got The Kansas City Blues” in 1931. The duo joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1933 and quickly became one of its more popular acts. They went on to earn a No. 1 hit on a now-defunct Billboard country chart in 1950 with “Blues, Stay Away From Me,” which artists including Merle Haggard and Asleep at the Wheel would later cover. Another of their songs, “Brown’s Ferry Blues,” became an old-time music standard, covered by artists including the Louvin Brothers (who released a tribute album to the Delmore Brothers in 1960), Doc Watson and Billy Strings. For A Tribute to The Delmore Brothers: A Century of Strings, Stories & Songs , Salley and Ferguson welcomed an array of artists to lend their own musical visions to classic Delmore Brothers songs. Shenandoah’s Marty Raybon and the Statler Brothers’ Jimmy Fortune team up for “I’ve Got The Big River Blues,” while Trey Hensley and Del McCoury join forces on “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar.” Bradley Walker and Ricky Skaggs sing “Blue Railroad Train” (which the Delmore Brothers had written as a tribute to Jimmie Rodgers), while The SteelDrivers offer up “Brown’s Ferry Blues” and The Malpass Brothers put their own spin on “Put Me on the Trail to Carolina.” “The Wood Box Heroes’ recording of ‘Field Hand Man’ may be one of the most unique arrangements and recordings on the project,” Salley says. “And the day we recorded ‘The Fugitive’s Lament’ with the legendary Riders