IBMA is proud to announce two inductees to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame for 2007: Howard Watts (also known as “Cedric Rainwater,”) the bass player in the classic 1945 version of Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys, and Carl Story, often billed as the “Father of Bluegrass Gospel Music.”
Howard Watts began his career performing on radio station WDBO in Orlando, Fla. in 1932. He adopted the comedy stage name, “Arizona Slim” while performing in a string of regional bands that played Western music in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. After moving to Nashville in 1941, Watts took a job playing guitar with Paul Howard’s Arkansas Cotton Pickers, again doing comedy as Arizona Slim. Toward the end of 1943, Chubby Wise—the fiddler with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and a friend Watts had played music with on a Georgia radio station years before—secured an audition for Watts as bassist for Monroe. At this point he changed his stage name to “Cedric Rainwater,” but kept the comedy routine.
Watts played bass in February, 1945 on Monroe’s first Columbia session in Chicago, followed by additional sessions in 1946 and 1947 for the same label. He went on to play a major role in the development of what was to later become known as bluegrass music by his presence in the version of Monroe’s band that created what most historians label the “classic bluegrass sound.” He sang baritone and bass parts, and his 4/4 “walking bass” technique became an integral part of the band’s music, imparting a fuller sound and driving energy that laid a solid groundwork for the other superb musicians in the band. Because of family health problems, Watts twice took leaves of absence from the Blue Grass Boys, departing finally around March, 1948 after his third stint in the band. He then joined Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs’ newly-formed Foggy Mountain Boys, traveling and recording with the group until the spring of 1950.
Prolific songwriters, Watts and his wife, Alice ended up selling the rights to many of their gospel songs to pay medical bills. Two songs on which they retained ownership are “Remember the Cross” and “I’ll Be Going to Heaven Sometime.” During the remainder of his career Cedric Rainwater worked with a number of Nashville-based stars, most notably as a member of Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys from mid-1950 through late 1952. Watts also performed with Ray Price, Hank Snow, Bill Carlisle, Ferlin Husky, Hank Williams, Jr. and played on numerous recording sessions, including the Jimmy Martin/Osborne Brothers six-song session for RCA in 1954 and Jimmy Martin’s first and second Decca sessions in 1956. In 1959 and 1960 Watts was the bass player and comedian with the Johnnie & Jack/Kitty Wells show.
Born Howard Staton Watts on February 19, 1913 in Monticello, Fla., he died January 21, 1970 at the age of 56 as a result of a heart attack.
Often billed as “The Father of Bluegrass Gospel Music,” Carl Story’s career as an entertainer spanned more than six decades, from 1934 when he formed his first band until his death March 31, 1995. Initially a fiddle player, he worked with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys from late 1942 (when he replaced the drafted Howdy Forrester) until October, 1943, when he was drafted into the U.S. Navy.
Following his discharge, Story reorganized the Rambling Mountaineers at WWNC in 1945, and then moved to WNOX’s Mid-Day Merry-Go Round in Knoxville. Carl recorded for Mercury Records from 1947-1952, then signed with Columbia Records in 1953, and went back to Mercury in 1956. His Mercury recordings of both secular and sacred material released in the ‘40s sold well, inspiring countless future bluegrass stars. Songs from Carl Story’s repertoire that influenced the work of Jim & Jesse, Bill Monroe, Reno & Smiley, Flatt & Scruggs and later bluegrass artists include songs like “I’ve Found a Hiding Place,” “He Will Set Your Fields on Fire,” “If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor (Then You Don’t Love God,)” “My Lord’s Gonna Lead Me Out,” “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies,” “Gone Home,” “Are You Afraid to Die?” “Everybody Will Be Happy Over There,” “Echoes from the Burning Bush,” “Mocking Banjo,” “I Didn’t Hear Nobody Pray,” “Lord Lead Me On,” “Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan,” “Paul and Silas” and “Old Time Religion.”
Musicians who came to prominence in Carl Story’s band include Jack and Curley Shelton, Hoke Jenkins, Claude Boone, Bobby Thompson, Bud and Willie Brewster, Tater Tate, Red Rector, Fred Smith, Johnny Whisnant and Ray Atkins.
In 1958 Mercury released the first bluegrass gospel music LP, a Carl Story album entitled Gospel Quartet Favorites featuring a collection of his earlier singles. Classic Mercury cuts like “Light at the River,” “Family Reunion” and “My Lord Keeps a Record” exemplify Story’s raw-edged, “mountain style” of bluegrass singing defined by his distinctive high baritone harmony part. Story and his band went on to record more than 10 bluegrass gospel albums for the Starday label from the late 1950s through the early ‘70s, influencing urban artists during the “Folk Boom” when bluegrass records were scarce.
During his prime years Carl Story and his Rambling Mountaineers hosted radio and TV shows in several southeastern states, including a 10-year affiliation with WNOX’s Tennessee Barn Dance in Knoxville. The band became fixtures on both Carlton Haney’s and Bill Monroe’s festival circuits, and Story continued to perform after he entered semi-retirement in Greer, S.C., where he worked as a disc jockey. When he died in 1995 at age 78, Story had recorded more than 2000 songs and 55 albums. Born in Lenoir, N.C., a section of NC Highway #18 passing through the town was named in his honor in early 2006.
These inductions will be one of the high points of this year’s International Bluegrass Music Award Show, slated for October 4, 2007, at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn. Tickets may be purchased online at www.ibma.org or by calling 1-888-GET-IBMA or (615) 256-3222.
The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (formerly known as the Bluegrass Hall of Honor), is housed in the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Ky.