Cliff Carlisle Biography
Cliff Carlisle will be remembered for his pioneering of the Dobro as well as his yodeling. According to Gene Earle, who met Carlisle and wrote an article about him, Cliff “yodeled about on about every record.” Cliff was a wonderfully relaxed singer, with a highly distinctive voice, a witty and prolific writer, and an excellent guitarist. Such a combination of abilities was unique among the Rodgers acolytes with whom Carlisle is invariably grouped, and is rare enough among musicians of any kind.
Cliff Carlisle’s Early Life
Cliff was born in a log cabin on a tobacco farm in Taylorsville, KY, on May 6, 1904. As a child the Hawaiian guitar recordings of Sol Hoopi and Frank Ferera enamored young Carlisle. His father bought him a Sears and Roebuck guitar and imitating Ferera, he eventually placed a steel nut under the strings of his own guitar to achieve a similar sound.
Reared on a farm, Cliff was exposed to rural music by his father was a singing teacher at the local church. Rural blues was also an early influence, and while working on his family's farm he also absorbed the inspiration of old-time string bands and sacred songs; he began his performing career at the age of 16, performing socials and local talent contests alongside a cousin, Lillian Truax. After Truax's marriage disbanded the duo, in 1924 Carlisle began collaborating with Wilber Ball, a construction worker who also played guitar and sang tenor harmony. Over the course of the decade to follow, the duo regularly toured the vaudeville and tent show circuit, performing across the country as quite possibly the first blue yodeling duet team.
Cliff Carlisle and Wilbur Ball- First Recordings
In 1929, Cliff along with his brother, father and other members of the family launched The Carlisle Family Saturday Night Barn Dance on a Louisville radio station WHAS, a fledgling station their popularity helped establish. In 1930, Cliff and Wilber Ball debuted on WHAS that same year Cliff made his first recordings on the Gennett and Champion labels, virtually all of them firmly in the tradition of Jimmie Rodgers. One of the names under which they broadcast was The Lullaby Larkers, and they, along with the Delmores, were among the first yodeling Country duos.
In 1931 he and Ball actually recorded with the Singing Brakeman himself. That same year Carlisle also cut "Shanghai Rooster Yodel," the first in a series of ribald barnyard-themed outings that served him throughout his career, and might have influenced similar tracks by Charley Patton ("Banty Rooster Blues") and Howlin' Wolf ("Little Red Rooster"). Upon signing to ARC in late 1931, Carlisle's career truly took flight, as he landed a regular spot on Charlotte, NC, station WBT, followed by subsequent gigs at Chicago's WLS and Cincinnati's WLW.
A prolific songwriter Cliff claimed to have written about 500 songs. Many of his early songs were blues oriented and, like the early offerings of Jimmie Davis on Victor, contained risqué lyrics with sexual innuendoes (“Sal’s Got A Meatskin” and “Mouse Ear Blues”). Like many of Carlisle's saltier offerings, “That Nasty Swing” and others were issued under pseudonyms including Bob Clifford and Amos Greene, and marketed as 'straight' (black) blues. Probably the best known of such blues titles is his “Ash Can Blues.”
Carlisle Brothers
Ball was replaced about 1934 by Carlisle's younger brother Bill, a dazzling picker and became The Carlisle Brothers. Although preceded by the blues based Allen Brothers, the Carlisle’s featured a guitar-oriented sound, very similar to the Delmore Bothers, a popular brother group, who recorded on the Bluebird label. The Carlisles inspired other generations of guitar pickers, and the version of “Black Jack David” I learned from Doc Watson was based on the Calrilse’s original arrangement (See p. ).
During the mid-'30s, Carlisle's son, billed as "Sonny Boy Tommy," began regularly appearing on live dates and Cliff’s Bluebird recording sessions. The recordings Carlisle made with his son were typically mild and innocuous, but his solo sides continued to his predilection for off-color topics: "A Wild Cat Woman and a Tom Cat Man" offered a cartoonish portrait of domestic disputes, while the snarky "You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone" was a Carter Family cover. In 1939, he recorded "Footprints in the Snow," later to become a bluegrass standard. Working as the Carlisles, the brothers were one of the first groups to record for King in 1944 and had their first chart hit with the label, "Rainbow at Midnight," in 1946. Two years later, as Bill Carlisle charted again on King with "Tramp on the Street."
Later Life: Cliff Retires; Makes Two Comebacks
By the later 30s the popularity of yodels and blue yodels was on the wane. Carlisle remained a regular on WMPS in Memphis, but after his recordings with Bill done for King in 1944-66, which included their hit, “Rainbow at Midnight,” he was essentially retired from the music industry, having recorded hundreds of sides during his heyday.
In 1951 Bill reformed the group, The Carlisles, without him. Cliff was bored with retirement and briefly joined the group and Mercury Records for “Too Old To Cut The Mustard.” In 1952 after their hit, “No Help Wanted,” he retired once more although Bill kept the group going. Later during the “folk” revival Cliff was rediscovered when the Rooftop Singers covered his "Tom Cat Blues," leading to a handful of reunion performances with Wilber Ball and even the recording of new material for the Rem label. Cliff Carlisle died April 2, 1983 in Lexington, Kentucky- he was 78.
Complete Early Recordings Cliff Carlisle 1930-1942 includes Bluebird; A Stretch Of Twenty-Eight Years; Alone and Lonesome; Ash Can Blues; Birmingham Jail; Black Jack David; Blind Child’s Prayer; Blue Dreams; Blue Eyes; Blue Yodel No. 6; Box Car Yodel; Brakemen Blues; Brakemen’s Reply; Bunch Of Cactus On The Wall; Casey County Jail; Chicken Roost Blues; Childhood Dreams; Columbus Stockade Blues; Come Back Sweetheart; Cowboy Johnnie’s Last Ride; Cowboy Song, The; Cowboy’s Dying Dream; Crazy Blues; Dang my Rowdy Soul; Dear Old Daddy; Desert Blues; Dollar is All I Crave; Don’t Marry The Wrong Woman; Down In The Jailhouse On My Knees; Dream A Little Dream Of Me; Far Beyond The starry Sky; Fatal Run; Flower Of My Dreams; Flower Of The Valley; Footprints in the Snow; Fussin’ Mama; Gall I Left Behind; Gamblin’ Dan; Georgia Moon; Get Her By The Tail On a Down Hill Drag; Girl in The Blue Velvet Band; Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad; Going Back To Alabama; Goodbye Old Pal; Great Judgement Day; Guitar Blues; Handsome Blues; Hen Pecked Man; High Steppin’ Mama; Hobo Jacks’s Last Ride; Hobo Blues; Hobo Jack’s Last Ride; Hobo’s Fate; Home Of The Soul; I Don’t Mind; I Want A Good Woman; I’m Glad I’m a Hobo; I’m Just A Ramblin’ Man; I’m Lonely and Blue; I’m Saving Saturday Night For You; In a Boxcar Around The World; In The Hills of Old Kentucky; It Ain’t No Fault Of Mine; It Takes An Old Hen To Deliver The Goods; Just A Lonely Hobo; Just A Song At Childhood; Just A Wayward Boy; Little Bit Of Lovin’ From you; Little Sadie, My; Little White Rose; Lonely; Lonely Little Orphan Child; Lonely Valley; Lonesome For Caroline; Longing For You; Look Out I’m Shifting Gears; Makes No Difference What Life May Bring; Memphis Yodel; Memories That Haunt Me; Memories That Make Me Cry; Modern Mama; Mouses’ Ear Blues; My Little Pal; My Lonely Boyhood Days; My Lovin’ Kathleen; My Rockin’ Mama; My Rocky Mountain Sweetheart; My Traveling Night; My Two-Time Mama; Never No Mo’ Blues; New Memories Of You That Haunt Me; Nevada Johnnie; No Daddy Blues; Nobody Wants Me; On My Way To Lonesome Valley; Old Home Place; On The Banks Of The Rio Grande; Onion Eating Mama; Over By The Crystal Sea; Pan-American Man; Pay Day Fight; Poor Widow; Prepare Me Oh Lord; Ramblin’ Jack; Rambling Yodeler; Ridin’ That Lonesome Train; Ridin’ The Blinds; Ringtail Tom; Rocky Road; Roll on Blue Moon; Rooster Blues; Seven Years With The Wrong Woman; Shanghai Rooster Yodel; Shanghai Rooster Yodel No. 2; She Was A Pip; She’s Waiting For Me; Shine On Harvest Moon; Shine On Me; Shine Your Light For Others; Shufflin’ Gal; Shot The Innocent Mam; So Blues; Sugar Cane Mama; Sunshine and Daisies; Sweet As The Roses In Spring; Sweet Cider Time; Sweet Nanny Lisle; T For Texas; That Nasty Swing; There’s A Lamp In The Window Tonight; They Say It’s The End Of The Trail Old Paint; Tom Cat Blues; Trouble Minded Blues; Trouble On My Mind; True And Trembling Brakeman; Two Eyes In Tennessee; Two Little Sweethearts; Unclouded Day; Vacant Cabin Door; Virginia Blues; Waiting For A Ride; Weary Traveler; When I Feel Froggie I’m Gonna Hop; When I’m Dead And Gone; When It’s Roundup Time In Texas; When The Angles Carry Me Home; When The Cactus Is In Bloom; When The Evening Sun Goes Down; When You Wore A Tulip; When We Meet Again; Where Are The Pals Of Long Ago; Where My Memory Lies; Where Romance Calls; Where Southern Roses Climb; White Rose, The; Wigglin’ Mama; Wild Cat Woman and A Tom Cat Man; Wreck Of Happy Valley; Wreck of Number 52; Written Letter; Yodeling Them Blues Away; You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone; Your Saddle Is Empty Tonight;