The Skillet Lickers - 100 Years: 1926-2026 (Blue Vinyl)

Limited Edition 180-Gram Blue Vinyl LP

Document Records marks the centenary of the Skillet Lickers' first recordings with this single LP, catalog DOLP-10001, pressed on 180-gram blue vinyl. The distributor lists the edition at 300 copies. The jacket is a collage of period photographs and 1920s Columbia Records advertisements, with a Columbia 78 label for "Bully of the Town" at its center. Illustrated notes by Russ Tanner, Gid Tanner's great-grandson, give the band's history and the family's view of it, and a QR code carries a bonus download.

The twelve tracks are drawn from the band's recordings for Columbia, made in Atlanta from 1926. They include "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane," the first record the Skillet Lickers made, cut in Atlanta on April 17, 1926, along with "Bully of the Town," "Pass Around the Bottle and We'll All Take a Drink," "Casey Jones" and "Old Joe Clark."

Gid Tanner, born near Monroe, Georgia, in 1885, first went to New York with the blind guitarist Riley Puckett in March 1924 to record duets for Columbia. In 1926 the Skillet Lickers were formed around him as a studio band, with Puckett, fiddler Clayton McMichen and Fate Norris; Lowe Stokes also played fiddle with the group. The group disbanded in 1931 and reformed for occasional sessions with a changing lineup; their best-selling single, "Down Yonder," came in 1934 on RCA Victor.

Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1988. After Tanner's death in 1960 the name was carried on by his family, and his grandson Phil Tanner and great-grandson Russ Tanner still perform as the Skillet Lickers in Dacula, Georgia.

Tracklist

1. The Old Grey Mare
2. Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
3. Bully of the Town
4. Shortening Bread
5. Pass Around the Bottle and We'll All Take a Drink
6. Alabama Jubilee
7. Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan
8. Dance All Night With a Bottle in Your Hand
9. Casey Jones
10. I Don't Love Nobody
11. Old Joe Clark
12. She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain