West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Story Archives - Page 2 of 5

July 28, 1915: Polka King Frankie Yankovic Born

America’s Polka King, Frankie Yankovic, was born at Davis in Tucker County on July 28, 1915, to Slovenian immigrant parents. But just days after he was born, his father was caught bootlegging and moved the family to Cleveland.

Yankovic learned to play the accordion from lodgers at his home in Cleveland. By age 16, he was playing polka music regularly on a local Slovenian radio show.

After serving in World War II, he returned to the states and did more to popularize polka music than any other performer. He was the first polka artist to score a million-selling single, the first to perform on television, and the first to win a Grammy for Best Polka Album. His hits included “Just Because,” “Beer Barrel Polka,” “Too Fat to Polka,” and “In Heaven There Is No Beer.”

Although he’d lived in West Virginia for only a few days as an infant, he returned to the Mountain State frequently in the 1980s to perform at the Vandalia Gathering. Frankie Yankovic died in Florida in 1998. A decade later, he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

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July 21, 1962: Musician Maceo Pinkard Dies

Musician Maceo Pinkard died on July 21, 1962, at age 65. The Bluefield native attended Bluefield Colored Institute—now Bluefield State College—before becoming one of the most successful songwriters of the 1920s Jazz Era.

After graduating, he toured with his own band and ended up in Omaha, where he published his first song, “I’m Goin’ Back Home.” He also founded a theatrical agency. After moving to New York, he had his first hit with “Mammy o’ Mine.” Then, in 1922, he wrote the music for Liza, a pioneering Broadway show with an all-black cast that introduced a new dance, known as the Charleston.

Pinkard wrote popular tunes like “Here Comes the Show Boat” for the musical Show Boat and great jazz songs like “Them There Eyes,” “I’ll Be a Friend,” and “Sugar,” which were recorded by Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Billie Holiday, among others. He also helped set up Duke Ellington’s first recording session in 1923.

Pinkard is best remembered for writing “Sweet Georgia Brown,” which became the Harlem Globetrotters’ theme song.

Maceo Pinkard was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

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April 22, 2011: Old-Time and Bluegrass Musician Hazel Dickens Dies

Musician Hazel Dickens died in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 2011, at age 75. Oftentimes called the “Voice of West Virginia,” Appalachian music matriarch Hazel Dickens was a pioneer of old-time and bluegrass music, known for preserving the traditional vocal styles of West Virginia

And songs like “Black Lung,” “Mannington Mines,” and “They’ll Never Keep Us Down” demonstrated her commitment to working people and labor unions. Many of her compositions, such as “Mama’s Hands,” recalled her West Virginia youth. Perhaps her most famous song is this endearing tribute to her native state, “West Virginia, My Home.”

Dickens was featured in a number of movies, including Matewan and the Oscar-winning Harlan County, USA. She was honored with the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor given to folk artists. Hazel Dickens also was in the inaugural class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Rock And Roll And W.Va. Music Hall Of Fame Legend Bill Withers Dies

American soul singer legend and West Virginia native Bill Withers has died at 81 of heart complications, unrelated to coronavirus, according to the Associated Press. In a statement released to the AP, Withers’ family said he died Monday in Los Angeles.

“Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me” and “Lovely Day” were just a few of the hits Withers wrote and sang during the peak of his career in the 70s and 80s — songs that have stood the test of time, most recently with people referencing “Lean On Me” as an anthem for hope during the coronavirus pandemic.

Withers was a three-time Grammy Award winner and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

“I’m not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don’t think I’ve done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia,” Withers told Rolling Stone in 2015.

He was born in 1938, the last of 6 children, in the coal mining town of Slab Fork in Raleigh County. In some ways his childhood was similar to many West Virginians, with his family historically working in the coal mines, but in other ways it was much different.

“My family lived right beside the railroad track, and so all the white people live on one side of the railroad track and all black people are on the other side of the railroad track,” Withers said in an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting in 2007.

Withers said much of his music was inspired by his childhood and his time spent growing up in West Virginia.

“You know, I think we all become the composite of the places we’ve been and the people we’ve met,” he said. “And I think wherever you grow up, you know, you can go somewhere else but you never really leave that place.”

The song “Grandma’s Hands” was about his grandma, who he said he remembered sitting on the porch, singing gospel songs and clapping her hands.

“She was the most encouraging person in my life,” he said. “When you’ve got people all around you telling you, ‘you can’t do nothing,’ you need somebody who tells you can.”

The song “Lean On Me” was also heavily influenced by Withers’ childhood in West Virginia. The song includes the lyrics, “Lean on me when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend.”

“I remember we had a phone and the people across the street had a refrigerator, so they gave us ice and they used our phone,” Withers said about his neighborhood in West Virginia. “Just the economics made people kind of share and and help each other

After 14 years in the music industry, Withers abruptly departed in 1985 upon disagreements with his label Columbia Records, who he was with for nine years after a rocky relationship with his first label Sussex Records. He entered into an early retirement, focusing his time on his family, never returning to the industry.

However, he did give one spoken-word performance in his retirement at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2007.

“Bill has become a beacon and an icon – not just because of his music but for his dedication to caring about people,” according to a Facebook post from the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. “To that end, “Lean on Me” is an anthem whose time has clearly come again. Very few need to be reminded of his contributions to American music, and I have no doubts that you will continue to hear his magical songs many, many times in the future.”

Withers is survived by his wife, Marcia and children, Todd and Kori.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1xQv6GhNSs&feature=emb_title

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

March 4, 1924: Blues Musician Nat Reese Born in Virginia

Blues musician Nat Reese was born in Salem, Virginia, on March 4, 1924. When he was young, his family moved to Wyoming County and then to Princeton in Mercer County. He grew up listening to a variety of music, including jazz, blues, and country. And he learned to play the guitar, piano, organ, bass, and string harp.

Reese worked in local coal mines while going to high school. For two years, he played jazz and blues on Bill Farmer’s Saturday night radio show on WHIS in Bluefield. He also was part of a dance band that played jazz, polkas, and blues throughout the southern coalfields.

Nat Reese was honored with the 1995 Vandalia Award and was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2009. He died in 2012 at age 88.

Mountain Stage’s Larry Groce to be inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

Larry Groce, host and artistic director for Mountain Stage for 36 years, will be inducted into the 2020 Class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Groce, a native of Dallas, Texas, moved to Phillipi, Barbour County, in 1972 when he was an NEA-sponsored musician-in-residence, for Barbour, Tucker and Randolph counties. Since then, Groce has had a profound impact on music and the arts in his adopted state, co-founding the nationally syndicated West Virginia Public Broadcasting/NPR show “Mountain Stage” in 1983. Mountain Stage is heard weekly on more than 220 NPR stations and has recorded more than 900 episodes.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame,” Groce said. “To be included in the company of Bill Withers, Charlie McCoy, Billy Edd Wheeler, Hazel Dickens, Little Jimmy Dickens, Kathy Mattea, Tim OBrien, Johnnie Johnson, George Crumb, Bob Thompson and the like is truly overwhelming. I’ve worked with many of them on Mountain Stage and have listened in awe of their talent and wisdom.

“I chose West Virginia as my home 47 years ago and have made my music career and raised my family here,” Groce added. “I love this state and appreciate what Michael Lipton and the board of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame have done to recognize the many and very diverse artists who have made their mark on music culture. Every kid growing up in the Mountain State should listen to Bill Withers when he tells them that no one anywhere else in the world has something they don’t have: ‘no matter what your circumstance is right now, if you work on yourself every day and try to hold on and learn what you can, you might not only surprise some other people, you might surprise yourself.’ ”

“I am continually surprised at how fortunate I’ve been to have a life in music,” Groce said.

Chuck Roberts, executive director and CEO of WVPB, said he is thankful for Groce’s 36-year commitment to Mountain Stage and that his induction into the Hall of Fame is beyond well deserved.

“We at West Virginia Public Broadcasting have been proud to bring the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame induction ceremonies to the public in our great state,” Roberts said. “When it airs this time, it will have even more significance because Larry Groce’s name is added to the hallowed halls of great musicians.

“His talents as a musician, his knowledge of artists past and present, and his love for our state all make him a valued Mountain State commodity. His induction is well-deserved, and it is an honor to call him our Mountain Stage host and a lifelong friend,” Roberts said.

In addition to his Mountain Stage career, Groce has served as the director of Charleston’s music, art and dance celebration, FestivALL and his projects have been diverse and speak to his appreciation of all facets of the arts. For example, he owned and operated The Morgantown School of Ballet; starred in the West Virginia feature film “Paradise Park” (and recently wrote the songs for the musical of the same name); was co-publisher of the statewide alternative newspaper Graffiti; produced, directed and composed music for an audio version of “Gauley Mountain”— a collection of 81 historical poems by the late West Virginian Poet Laureate Louise McNeill; and produced a three-hour audio version of five short stories written by McNeill’s father, G.D. McNeill.

Groce is a noted singer and songwriter and has recorded albums of original songs, hymns and a number of LPs for Disney Records. Four of his Disney albums were certified gold and two were certified platinum. One was nominated for a GRAMMY in the “Best Recording for Children” category.

In 1976, his satirical novelty song “Junk Food Junkie” charted in the Billboard Top 10. The song was once sung by Michael Jackson and led to appearances on “The Tonight Show,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” “American Bandstand” and “The Midnight Special.”

Groce has recorded more than two dozen LPs, scores of singles, EPs and collections for RCA/Daybreak, Warner-Curb, Disneyland/Walt Disney Records and independent labels, ranging in style from singer/songwriter Americana to gospel hymns to children’s music.

Additional inductees in the 2020 Class of the West Virginia Hall of Fame are Ethel Caffie-Austin, West Virginia’s First Lady of Gospel; Honey & Sonny Davis (The Davis Twins), a brother-sister country-rockabilly duo; Mayf Nutter, an eclectic singer, songwriter and actor; and The Hammons Family of Pocahontas County (Edden, Pete, Maggie Hammons Parker, Sherman, Burl, Lee and Currence Hammons).

Michael Lipton, director of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, said it is the Hall of Fame’s mission to recognize outstanding artists who were born or raised in the Mountain State and that the inductees for 2020, the eighth class, honors unique and diverse West Virginia artists who have made lasting contributions to the music of their home state and American music.

“These inductees all come from humble beginnings and, with passion and determination, have succeeded on their own terms,” Lipton said. “We want to send a message to young people in West Virginia that, no matter where you live and no matter what your circumstances are, you can follow your dreams. And, in some ways, it’s easier in West Virginia than other places.”

For more information and bios on all of the inductees, visit www.wvmusichalloffame.co