Edd Mayfield (1926 to 1958) was a Texas ranch hand who played guitar and sang lead with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys in three stints between 1951 and 1958. He recorded twenty songs with Monroe, including the 1958 gospel album I Saw the Light and the instrumentals Scotland and Panhandle Country. He died of leukemia at age 32, days after he fell ill on tour.
Why Mayfield matters
Most bluegrass guitarists of the 1950s kept the beat and stayed out of the way. Mayfield did more. He filled the space behind Monroe’s mandolin with strong backup notes and runs that other players noticed. Banjo player Joe Drumwright said Mayfield was ahead of his time. Fiddler Kenny Baker said he played a strong guitar. Pickers who study the 1950s Monroe band hear a guitarist who pushed the rhythm role forward.
Life and career
Thomas Edd Mayfield was born on April 12, 1926, on his family’s ranch near Dawn, Texas, about 30 miles southwest of Amarillo. The family moved to Dimmitt, Texas, in 1932. He learned mandolin first, then guitar. In the early 1930s he met a player named Arnold Geiger, who shaped his guitar technique. He first heard Bill Monroe on the Grand Ole Opry in 1934.
Mayfield served in World War II and carried a guitar through his service. Back home, he played with his brothers Smokey and Herb as the Mayfield Brothers, one of the first West Texas bands to take up bluegrass. The brothers played the Louisiana Hayride and held a weekly live show on KSEL radio in Lubbock for about a year. He married Jo Laverne McLain in 1948.
In 1951 Monroe hired Mayfield to replace Carter Stanley on guitar. His first session came on October 28, 1951, when the band cut The First Whippoorwill and Christmas Time’s A-Coming. He went home to Texas in early 1952. He came back in 1953 for the band’s Bean Blossom shows and stayed into 1954. In June 1954 he recorded My Little Georgia Rose, Close By, and Put My Little Shoes Away. In September 1954 he played on Monroe’s second recording of Blue Moon of Kentucky. Then he went back to Texas again, where he ranched and rode in rodeos.
Mayfield returned to Monroe for the last time in early 1958. In February and March the band recorded the gospel album I Saw the Light. In April they cut the instrumentals Scotland and Panhandle Country. That summer he collapsed on tour near Bluefield, West Virginia. Doctors found acute leukemia. He died on July 7, 1958, within days of the diagnosis. He is buried in Dimmitt, Texas.
Playing style
Mayfield played a Gibson guitar with a thumbpick. That choice set him apart from the flatpick players who came to define bluegrass guitar. The thumbpick gave him a fat bass note and let him fill behind the melody without losing the beat.
The recordings show a rhythm player with drive. On Scotland and Panhandle Country the guitar stays under the fiddles and mandolin, but it never drops out. His bass runs connect the chords and keep the band moving. Joe Drumwright remembered his backing notes as some of the best he ever heard. That is the thing to listen for: the notes between the chords, not a solo.
Influences and legacy
Mayfield learned from Arnold Geiger in Texas and from Bill Monroe on the bandstand. He played in Monroe’s band beside fiddlers Kenny Baker and Red Taylor. Monroe himself said Mayfield played a great part in bluegrass when he joined the band.
His early death cut his legacy short. Country music historian Doug Green called him the mystery man of bluegrass guitar. The Patuxent label later released The Mayfield Brothers, a set of home tapes and studio recordings from 1948 to 1956, some cut at Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico. Those tracks are the only place to hear him outside the Monroe band.
Signature tunes and songs
Scotland Panhandle Country Blue Moon of Kentucky My Little Georgia Rose Christmas Time’s A-Coming I Saw the Light.
Essential recordings
I Saw the Light, Bill Monroe (Decca, 1958) The Mayfield Brothers (Patuxent)
Watch and listen
This is the 1958 Decca recording of Scotland, with Mayfield on guitar behind Monroe’s twin fiddles. Listen for the guitar under the fiddle breaks.
What to learn from Mayfield
Learn Scotland. It is a Monroe instrumental in a fiddle-tune form, and it is a good test of whether your rhythm guitar can stay steady under a fast twin-fiddle break. The technique to steal is the strong backup note. Play along with the 1958 record and match the bass notes the guitar puts under each chord. Keep them loud and on the beat. That is what Monroe hired him for.
Sources
Edd Mayfield, The Mystery Man, by Doug Hutchens Thomas Edd Mayfield, Wikipedia The Mayfield Brothers, Patuxent Music
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more rhythm players. Mayfield took over the guitar chair from Carter Stanley and played beside Kenny Baker. Jimmy Martin and Del McCoury held the same job with Monroe in other years.