Jim and Jessy and the Virginia Boys

The popularity of bluegrass music is spreading throughout college campuses all over the United States, and Arts Unlimited and Allied Arts have invited Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys to share their bluegrass experience with the Georgia College & State University campus.

“College students are rediscovering bluegrass music at the National level, and this group comes highly recommended,” said Randy Cannon, the executive director of Allied Arts. “Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys are a talented group to bring in. They are also quite well-known.”

The group is appearing as part of the Town and Gown Series on Friday, Oct. 26 in Russell Auditorium at 8 p.m. This performance is the first show of the Town and Gown Series.

“The Town and Gown Series is a collaboration between GC&SU and the local Milledgeville community. More specially, it is a collaboration between Arts Unlimited and the Milledgeville Baldwin County Allied Arts Organization. Allied Arts brings artistic events to Milledgeville,” said Dr. Peter Carrierre, assistant professor of English. “Arts Unlimited and Allied Arts pull our resources together so we can bring more expensive acts to town.”

Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys will perform traditional bluegrass music. Jim and Jesse McReynolds are brothers and have been performing together for around 30 years.

“They are known for their smooth-moving yet compelling vocal duet style,” said Tara Butcher, public relations coordinator of Allied Arts. “Jesse has a mandolin unique style that he is known for.”

“I have heard a lot of great things about them,” said Brian Renko, program coordinator of Allied Arts. “They were very receptive about coming to Milledgeville, and we were able to work it out.”

Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys have been one of the top bluegrass bands for almost 30 years, according to a website dedicated to the group. Bluegrass music became popular in the 1930s, when early country music was finding its way onto radio recordings and reaching wide audiences. In the community of Coeburn in southwestern Virginia, Jim and Jesse McReynolds were two of the most intense listeners of this music. They are now from Gallatin, Tennessee. Jim is 69 years old and was born on July 9, 1927; Jesse is 68 years old and was born on February 13, 1929.

“They are one of the top bluegrass bands in the country. They have a quality style of music, which made them attractive to us,” said Renko. “We wanted to bring them to Milledgeville because of their high quality and high standards.”

“They are one of the premiere bands that have been playing bluegrass music for many years,” said Cannon. “They set the standards by which bluegrass music is judged.”

According to their website, Jim and Jesse came from a family of coal miners and farmers who were also accomplished musicians and part-time performers of what was then called mountain music. Their grandfather Charles McReynolds was a fiddler who headed up a string band from the 1890s to the 1930s and recorded for RCA during the Bristol sessions in 1927. Their father, Claude Reynolds, was a fiddler who performed on the guitar and banjo with his brothers in his father’s string band. Their mother Savannah sang ballads and gospel songs and loved vocal harmony and taught it to her sons; she also played the banjo and harmonica.

By the early 1940s, Jim and Jesse were playing mandolin and guitar and singing together. Not too long afterward, they won a talent contest and began performing publicly, which lead to their professional musical career. Their diverse music allows them to still be popular today. In the early 1950s, Jesse developed a cross picking technique that added effect to his banjo playing. He also invented other techniques, such as the “split-string” technique, in which the “pinkie” finger frets only one of a double course of strings (the mandolin has eight strings arranged in four courses of two strings close together), according to a website on this group.

Also according to that website, in 1952 they signed a recording contract with Capitol Records and changed the name of their group to Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys. “The Flame of Love,” “Gosh I Miss You All the Time,” “Cotton Mill Man,” “Diesel On My Tail,” “Drifting and Dreaming of You,” “The Ballad of Thunder Road,” “Are You Missing Me” and “Paradise” are a few of the songs that made Jim and Jesse famous. They have received many honors, including their induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Walkway of the Stars, the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame and Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Hall of Fame. They have had TV guest appearances on “The Grand Ole Opry’s 60th Anniversary Special,”
“Nashville Now,” “New Country,” “Hee Haw,” and “Music City Tonight.”

According to the flyer for Arts Unlimited, the Series will also be presenting “Hasan David, the story of A.A. Burleigh, slave, soldier, and educator” in February; the Hot Atlanta Dixieland Jazz on Front Campus on Saturday, Nov. 10; the African-American Dance Ensemble on Friday, Feb. 1; the African-American Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday, Feb. 8; and The Alison Brown Quartet on Friday, March 1.

General Admission for this performance is $10, and $6 for senior citizens, non-GC&SU students, GC&SU faculty and staff, and free for GC&SU students with a valid ID. If you have any questions about the Town and Gown Series or Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys, please contact Dr. Carrierre at 445-5571 or Allied Arts at 452-3950.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 19 2001. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry