Slim Byrant
Title
Slim Byrant
Description
Interview with Slim Bryant, recorded by Darwin Lee Hill, May 24, 1996.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1908, songwriter, singer, and guitarist Thomas Hoyt “Slim” Bryant made his first recordings in 1928 as a member of the Harmony Boys string band. He went on to work extensively with the Georgia Wildcats, originally under the leadership of fiddler Clayton McMichen, establishing himself as a prolific recording artist and radio personality. In 1932, he recorded ten songs with Jimmie Rodgers, a figure widely regarded as the father of country music; among their collaborations was “Mother, The Queen of My Heart,” a Bryant composition which would become a country music standard. One of the last living survivors from the earliest years of the country music recording and broadcasting industries, Bryant died in 2010 at the age of 101.
This interview was conducted over the phone by Darwin Lee Hill, host of Darwin Lee’s Real Hillbilly Music Hour, which broadcast from 1995-2015 on WHVW, 950 AM, in Hyde Park, New York. The Southern Music Research Center is currently working in collaboration with Hill to digitize and make accessible, through this archive, dozens of additional interviews with classic country music pioneers. The Darwin Lee Hill Collection will ultimately include, in addition to those original interviews, full episodes of Hill’s weekly radio show as well as additional materials from Hill’s personal collection of rare recordings and ephemera.
In a second interview -- recorded March 15, 2003, for the 70th anniversary of the death of Jimmie Rodgers -- Slim reflects further on his relationship with Rodgers.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1908, songwriter, singer, and guitarist Thomas Hoyt “Slim” Bryant made his first recordings in 1928 as a member of the Harmony Boys string band. He went on to work extensively with the Georgia Wildcats, originally under the leadership of fiddler Clayton McMichen, establishing himself as a prolific recording artist and radio personality. In 1932, he recorded ten songs with Jimmie Rodgers, a figure widely regarded as the father of country music; among their collaborations was “Mother, The Queen of My Heart,” a Bryant composition which would become a country music standard. One of the last living survivors from the earliest years of the country music recording and broadcasting industries, Bryant died in 2010 at the age of 101.
This interview was conducted over the phone by Darwin Lee Hill, host of Darwin Lee’s Real Hillbilly Music Hour, which broadcast from 1995-2015 on WHVW, 950 AM, in Hyde Park, New York. The Southern Music Research Center is currently working in collaboration with Hill to digitize and make accessible, through this archive, dozens of additional interviews with classic country music pioneers. The Darwin Lee Hill Collection will ultimately include, in addition to those original interviews, full episodes of Hill’s weekly radio show as well as additional materials from Hill’s personal collection of rare recordings and ephemera.
In a second interview -- recorded March 15, 2003, for the 70th anniversary of the death of Jimmie Rodgers -- Slim reflects further on his relationship with Rodgers.
Citation
“Slim Byrant,” Southern Music Research Center, accessed July 3, 2024, https://southernmusicresearch.org/items/show/725.