Jethro Burns (1920 to 1989) was a mandolin player and comedian from Tennessee. With guitarist Homer Haynes he formed Homer and Jethro, the country parody duo that won a Grammy in 1959 and joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Behind the jokes, Burns was one of the finest jazz mandolin players in America. He brought swing harmony and improvisation to country and bluegrass pickers, and his Mel Bay method book is still in print.
Why Burns matters
Burns played the mandolin like a jazz guitar. He used clean single-note melodies and rich chords instead of Monroe’s bluesy drive, and he played standards by Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, and Cole Porter. Because he worked in country music, country and bluegrass players heard him when they would never have heard a jazz record. In the 1970s Sam Bush and David Grisman sought him out, and his ideas flowed into newgrass.
Life and career
Burns was born on March 10, 1920, in Conasauga, Tennessee, and his family moved to Knoxville when he was three. In 1936 he entered a talent contest at Knoxville radio station WNOX and met Henry Haynes. The two formed a duo, and the station’s program director named them Homer and Jethro on the air.
After service in World War II, the pair reunited in 1945. They worked at WLW in Cincinnati, recorded for King and then RCA, and played KWTO in Springfield, Missouri, with Chet Atkins. In 1949 they moved to Chicago and starred on the National Barn Dance on WLS into the 1960s. Homer and Jethro turned pop hits into country parodies and won the 1959 Grammy for Best Comedy Performance with The Battle of Kookamonga.
After Haynes died in 1971, Burns worked with guitarist Ken Eidson, and the two wrote the Complete Jethro Burns Mandolin Book for Mel Bay. He then toured and recorded with Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman and appeared in Hee Haw’s Million Dollar Band with Chet Atkins and Johnny Gimble. In 1975 he played on an album with Sam Bush, Norman Blake, and Vassar Clements. David Grisman produced Back to Back, his twin mandolin album with Tiny Moore. Burns died of cancer at his home in Evanston, Illinois, on February 4, 1989.
Playing style
Burns played single-note lines with a clean, round tone and almost no wasted motion. His chords were full jazz voicings, with sixths, ninths, and diminished shapes that bluegrass mandolin players seldom used. He could play a chord melody, with the tune on top of moving chords, with the ease of a jazz guitarist.
His timing swung. He phrased like a horn player, with space between lines and notes that leaned against the beat.
Influences and legacy
Burns drew on Django Reinhardt, Duke Ellington, and the swing bands of his youth. He played beside Homer Haynes, Chet Atkins, Steve Goodman, Johnny Gimble, and Joe Venuti.
He influenced Sam Bush, who asked him onto the 1975 album with Norman Blake, and David Grisman, who published his columns in Mandolin World News. His twin mandolin record with Tiny Moore is a touchstone for swing mandolin. Burns also played on Sam Bush’s first solo album, Late as Usual.
Signature tunes and songs
The Battle of Kookamonga.
Essential recordings
S’Wonderful: 4 Giants of Swing (Flying Fish, 1976) Back to Back, with Tiny Moore (Kaleidoscope) Tea for One (Kaleidoscope, 1982) Swing Low, Sweet Mandolin (Acoustic Disc, 1995)
Awards and honors
Grammy Award, Best Comedy Performance, The Battle of Kookamonga, with Homer Haynes (1959) Country Music Hall of Fame, with Homer and Jethro (2001)
Watch and listen
A full set by Burns at Adler House in 1985. Watch his chord shapes and single-note lines.
What to learn from Burns
Learn three jazz chord shapes: a sixth chord, a ninth chord, and a diminished chord. Then play Back Up and Push and swap one of those shapes in wherever a plain major chord feels stale. Burns’s playing shows how much color a few new chords can add to a tune you already know.
Sources
Kenneth C. “Jethro” Burns, Wikipedia Kenneth Burns, 68, of Homer and Jethro, Chicago Tribune Homer and Jethro, Wikipedia
Related players
See the mandolin players hub and the mandolin guide. Burns recorded with Tiny Moore and influenced Sam Bush and David Grisman. Jimmy Gaudreau also brings swing to bluegrass mandolin.