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Living Legend coming to town
From staff reports
The Weekly Post
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Published September 4, 2009
A Henagar man who is now considered a living legend is coming to Fort Payne's Boom Days celebration, scheduled to play at the City Auditorium on Sept. 17.
"I'm looking forward to it," Charlie Louvin said. "I haven't been back to the area in probably a dozen years."
Louvin was actually their stage name. They were born under the surname Loudermilk.
Until 1992, he owned land on which stood the Louvin Brothers Music Park, where he and other musicians performed.
Louvin and his brother, Ira, left Sand Mountain for a musical career in the 1940s, getting steady radio work in Knoxville and Memphis, as the Radio Twins.
The Louvin Brothers also toured in Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas during the period.
In 1947, they got their first record deal, with Apollo. At the same time, they became known as the Louvin Brothers.
From there, the Louvin Brothers went on to become one of the biggest country music acts of the '50s and '60s.
Legends
According to their link on the Country Music Hall of Fame (inducted in 2001) website, the Louvins were the link between the Delmore Brothers and the Everly Brothers.
"More important, the Louvin Brothers' stratospheric vocal interplay made them probably the most influential harmony duet in country music history, touching everybody from Emmylou Harris to the cowpunk band Rank & File," the website reads.
And what some stories Charlie can tell.
"In our early days, we had a concert with Eddie Hill in Dyess, Ark.," he said. "I was selling tickets and noticed a young man standing outside. I asked him to show me the bathroom. After he showed me, I invited him in to see the show. That young man was Johnny Cash."
He also related a story about one of the early recording sessions keeping Hank Williams outside, waiting for them to finish.
The Louvins had an early tour with Elvis Presley as their opening act.
"It didn't take his ship long to take off, though," Charlie said.
Musically speaking
The Louvin Brothers started their career with gospel music but achieved their greatest success with a secular sound.
Their gospel music was of the Sacred Harp variety.
"Mother could sing those songs without using a book," Charlie said. "I always had to refer to a book for the words, even when I knew the melody."
After achieving commercial success, the Louvins had several No. 1 gospel hits.
"We won every award available in gospel," Charlie said. "But it's much harder to earn a living in that than in country."
In the country genre, they had a string of hits, with some of them going to No. 1.
Breaking up
The brothers went their separate ways in 1963.
Ira released only one album before being killed in a car wreck.
Charlie started his solo career with several hits before stopping most of his recording and becoming a fixture on the Grand Ole Opry.
Starting over
In 2006, Charlie started recording again, under the Tompkins Square label. The first album was his first in over a decade.
He has since recorded four albums, including this year's "Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs." The title is appropriate, as the Louvin Brothers were known for such songs.
"A lot of the old ballads came over from the old country," Charlie said. "We learned a lot of them, growing up, listening to Mother and other family members sing them."
A new gospel album, "Charlie Louvin — Steps to Heaven" was released last September.
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