Roy Acuff (1903 to 1992) was the singer and fiddler who led the Smoky Mountain Boys on the Grand Ole Opry from 1938 until his death, a run of 54 years. He co-founded Acuff-Rose Music in 1942 and became the first living member of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1962. For fiddlers, he matters for one more reason: he put his name and his Opry stage behind the Grand Master Fiddler Championship from its first contest in 1972.
Why Acuff matters
Acuff started as a fiddler and never stopped thinking like one. He kept a hot fiddle in his band for decades, with Howdy Forrester in the chair from 1951 until Forrester’s death in 1987, and he made fiddle tunes part of an Opry show built around a singer. When Perry Harris wanted a national fiddle contest on Opry ground, Acuff helped draw up the invitation list, emceed the event, and put the champion on his Saturday night Opry segment. Every Grand Master champion since Vernon Solomon has played the Opry because of that.
Life and career
Acuff was born on September 15, 1903, in Maynardville, Tennessee. His father was a Baptist preacher and a fiddler, and his mother played piano. The family moved to Fountain City, near Knoxville, in 1919. Sports were his first love. He tried out for the Knoxville Smokies baseball team in 1929, but sunstroke ended that hope, and a breakdown in 1930 kept him home. He spent the recovery on the porch with his father’s fiddle and a stack of records by Fiddlin’ John Carson and Gid Tanner.
In 1932 Dr. Hauer’s medicine show hired him to draw crowds through the mountains of Tennessee and Virginia. He left the show in 1934 and formed the Tennessee Crackerjacks with guitarist Jess Easterday and Hawaiian guitar player Clell Summey. A Knoxville radio announcer renamed them the Crazy Tennesseans. In 1936 they recorded for the American Record Corporation, and the session included Wabash Cannonball and The Great Speckled Bird.
Acuff guested on the Opry on February 5, 1938. His Great Speckled Bird brought in sacks of mail, and the Opry hired him and renamed the band the Smoky Mountain Boys. Dobro player Pete Kirby, known as Bashful Brother Oswald, joined that year. From 1939 to 1946 Acuff hosted the Opry’s Prince Albert network segment. In 1942 he and songwriter Fred Rose founded Acuff-Rose Music, the company that signed Hank Williams in 1946 and published Tennessee Waltz. He appeared in the 1940 film Grand Ole Opry and ran for governor of Tennessee as a Republican in 1948.
Acuff joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1962 as its first living inductee. His 1972 appearance on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Will the Circle Be Unbroken brought him a new audience, and on March 16, 1974, he opened the new Grand Ole Opry House with President Richard Nixon in the crowd. He received the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991, the first country act so honored. He died of congestive heart failure at Baptist Hospital in Nashville on November 23, 1992, at age 89.
Playing style
Acuff played old-time Tennessee fiddle, the square dance style he heard on his father’s porch and on the Carson and Tanner records, not the smooth Texas style that later took over contests. His fiddle was a stage tool. He used it to kick off tunes, to keep the band moving, and to give the crowd something to look at between songs.
That showman’s instinct is the thing to notice. He did yo-yo tricks on stage and taught them to President Nixon at the Opry House opening. He hired fiddlers better than himself, above all Howdy Forrester, and gave them the hot breaks. His own strength was his voice, a powerful lead that carried over a string band on early radio.
Influences and legacy
Acuff’s father gave him the fiddle and the records of Fiddlin’ John Carson and Gid Tanner, and those Georgia players shaped his early sound.
Howdy Forrester held his fiddle chair for 36 years and did the bookings for Acuff-Rose. Forrester’s friendship with Perry Harris led to the Grand Master Fiddler Championship, and Acuff, Forrester, and Johnny Gimble built the first invitation list in 1972. Hank Williams said in 1952 that for drawing power in the South it was Roy Acuff, then God.
Signature tunes and songs
Wabash Cannonball The Great Speckled Bird The Precious Jewel Wreck on the Highway Night Train to Memphis Will the Circle Be Unbroken.
Essential recordings
Wabash Cannonball and The Great Speckled Bird, Crazy Tennesseans (American Record Corporation, 1936) The Precious Jewel (1940) Will the Circle Be Unbroken, with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1972)
Awards and honors
Country Music Hall of Fame, first living inductee (1962) Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement (1988) National Medal of Arts (1991) Kennedy Center Honors (1991)
Watch and listen
Acuff and Bashful Brother Oswald play Wabash Cannonball. Watch how Acuff uses the fiddle to open the song and then hands the breaks to the band.
Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys in performance.
What to learn from Acuff
Learn Wabash Cannonball. It is a three-chord song that every jam knows, and Acuff’s records are the versions people hear in their heads. Work out the fiddle kickoff and a simple break that states the melody. The technique to steal is his bandleading. Acuff kicked off the song, sang it, and let Oswald and the fiddler take the breaks. Play the tune, call the breaks, and get out of the way.
Sources
Roy Acuff, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Roy Acuff, Grand Ole Opry History, Grand Master Fiddler Championship Past winners, Grand Master Fiddler Championship Roy Acuff, Wikipedia Howdy Forrester, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more old-time and Opry fiddlers. Acuff’s longtime fiddler Howdy Forrester has his own page. He learned from records by Fiddlin’ John Carson and Gid Tanner, and he helped Vernon Solomon become the first Grand Master champion in 1972.