Search - The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover :: On the Radio 1952-1953

The Lilly Brothers were, along with a handful of other brother acts, largely responsible for bringing a particularly unique close harmony duet style into bluegrass music. Additionally, after relocating from their native West Virginia to the Boston area in the early 1950s, they and their disciples, including, at various times, Joe Val, Herb Applin, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, the Charles River Valley Boys, Dave Dillon, and Peter Rowan sustained a vibrant traditional bluegrass scene a thousand miles from the music's origins. Their few but now legendary recordings, radio shows, and many personal appearances including Carnegie Hall and the Newport Folk Festival influenced a whole generation of folk music listeners. This disc consists entirely of previously unreleased radio transcriptions of the Lilly Brothers from the early 1950s, which beautifully reflect the purity, charm and impact of these major figures in early bluegrass. "One day in early 1952 a friend of mine in high school in Boston told me to tune in WCOP on my radio and listen to a show called The Hayloft Jamboree. I tuned in one night and he was right. I had never heard anything like it. The music jumped out of the radio.... All I knew was that this music was real and good, and that I loved it." -Jim Rooney