"Brown's Ferry Blues"

Rabon Delmore never learned to drive a car, so it was always his older brother Alton behind the wheel as they tooled between gigs in the early days of their career during the Great Depression.That routine played a big part in The Delmore Brothers’ prolific songwriting life. As he later described it in his autobiography, Truth Is Stranger Than Publicity, Alton would hum melodies while he drove and he and Rabon would harmonize on new verses as they occurred to them.Riding shotgun, Rabon acted as the editor and scribe. He wrote down the words on the fly, adding, deleting and refining the lines to fit the duo’s signature syncopated rhythm.Because of this practice, the Delmores’ songs were well polished by the time they got to a recording studio to preserve them for later generations of fans. It also gave them an edge in other ways too.Brown’s Ferry DebutFor instance, while “Brown’s Ferry Blues” wasn’t released on record until 1934, the song had began developing in their minds four or five years earlier, and it served as their secret weapon at a crossroads moment in Athens, Alabama: the February 1930 Limestone County Fiddlers’ Convention at the Old Athens Agricultural School. The poverty-stricken brothers arrived carrying their guitars in makeshift cases that their mother had sewn out of cotton picking sacks on with their names were painted in pokeberry juice. Facing stiff competition — including a tie-breaker with three heavily favored local girls — their well-honed tune sealed the win.“We had ‘Brown’s Ferry Blues’ down pretty pat,” Alton wrote in his memoir. “In fact, we could play it then just as good as we ever did... When we did it, the people really went wild and we won that contest without any question or any doubt. And that started us on our way to the Grand Ole Opry and the big record companies.” Whither Brown’s Ferry?The title of the tune, incidentally, was inspired by Alton and Rabon’s deep roots in northern Alabama, named after an old ferryboat that crossed the Tennessee River about 30 miles south of their home in Elkmount, Ala.Alton’s book noted the old crossing was a place he and Rabon loved to visit when they were growing up in their lean years as a tenant farmer’s sons.By the way, decades later that peaceful river spot of the 1920s underwent a massive transformation. In 1973, the Tennessee Valley Authority opened the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant on that exact site, turning the idyllic old-time ferry landing into one of the largest nuclear power facilities in the country.Song LegacyThe song “Brown’s Ferry Blues” was a milestone in establishing Alton and Rabon as one of the most influential duos in early 20th century American music history.In December 1933, the Delmores traveled to Chicago for their first recording session with RCA Victor’s budget label, Bluebird. “Brown’s Ferry Blues” was recorded on the first day and sales quickly made the number a hit.The pair soon became the most popular act on the Grand Ole Opry. Starting in the mid-1930s, they recorded more than 80 sides for Bluebird.The shadow of “Brown’s Ferry Blues” followed them. In 1943, when Alton organized an all-star gospel quartet at WLW in Cincinnati alongside Merle Travis and Grandpa Jones, they chose as the group’s name “The Brown’s Ferry Four.” Flooding the FerryDave Peyton, Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen used to play this tune back in the 1970s when the band was just getting started at the Bowen Bashes.But the song only recently has come back into the Floodipshere. Here it is from a recent rehearsal, featuring Danny Cox’s guitar and Jack Nuckols’ fiddle. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com