Mainer’s idiosyncratic technique created a softer sound than the three-fingered style formerly associated with bluegrass, and represented a significant change from the heavier drop-thumb style known as “clawhammer”. His style of playing and his skill at translating traditional songs into sounds akin to modern country influenced better-known musicians such as Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt. As a result, his versions of songs such as Maple on the Hill and Take Me in the Lifeboat later became bluegrass standards.
Wade Mainer
Mainer reached the summit of his fame in the early 1940s, but never fully adapted to his life as a celebrity. In 1941 the American folklorist Alan Lomax arranged for Mainer to entertain Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt at “An Evening of American Folklore” at the White House. Mainer turned up in bib overalls with a red bandanna in his pocket and, at supper after the show, spilt ice cream on the First Lady’s dress: “I started to wipe it off and she said 'Oh, don’t bother.’” The next thing Mainer knew, the president’s wife had made a swift exit. “She said, 'Excuse me,’ then went off and came back with a fresh dress,” he recalled.
The following year Mainer sang with Woody Guthrie in the folk musical Chisholm Trail on CBS radio – an engagement that Mainer had almost missed out on due to his moral rectitude. “They gave me a song to sing called Dodge City Jail that had a lot of rough talk,” Mainer recalled. “I said, 'No, I don’t want to do that,’ and Woody stepped in and said, 'If you play the banjo, I’ll sing it.’”
Some attributed Mainer’s comparatively low musical profile to the fact that he failed to make it to the Grand Ole Opry at this early stage in his career. The show’s director invited Mainer to come and play in 1941, but the musician was under contract to a radio station in Knoxville at the time, and was prevented from going to Nashville by his boss.
By the late 1940s Mainer’s brand of old-time music was being overshadowed by modern country and, in 1953, he gave up. Resigned to the idea that he would never make it as a musician, he moved to Michigan and worked in obscurity at a General Motors plant.
Wade Mainer was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, on April 21 1907 and grew up in a poor farming community. He taught himself to play the banjo on an instrument made from a groundhog’s hide and, while working as a labourer, would perform at corn-shuckings and bean-stringings.
In the mid-1920s Mainer joined his older brother Joseph (“JE”), who worked at a cotton mill in Concord and played the fiddle. They formed a band called The Mountaineers and by 1934 had landed a slot on the local radio station.
By the mid-1930s the Mainers were one of the most popular country acts in the south-eastern United States. “People would come to our shows after riding two hours on horses,” Mainer said. “Some would walk to the shows carrying lanterns so they could see their way back home.” By 1937 Wade had formed his own group, The Sons of the Mountaineers, with which he made more than 100 recordings for RCA’s Bluebird subsidiary.
In 1937 he married Julia Brown, who performed as “Hillbilly Lily” on a local radio station and with whom he had five children.
During the folk revival of the 1960s a generation of younger fans rediscovered Mainer and, with his wife on guitar, he became a regular performer at bluegrass festivals. In 2002, 60 years after he had first been refused permission to perform there, he finally appeared at the Grand Ole Opry.
“Don’t complain and tell people your problems,” Mainer liked to say, “’cause half the people don’t want to hear them and the other half are glad you got ’em.”
He is survived by his wife and by three sons and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.
In the mid-1920s Mainer joined his older brother Joseph (“JE”), who worked at a cotton mill in Concord and played the fiddle. They formed a band called The Mountaineers and by 1934 had landed a slot on the local radio station.
By the mid-1930s the Mainers were one of the most popular country acts in the south-eastern United States. “People would come to our shows after riding two hours on horses,” Mainer said. “Some would walk to the shows carrying lanterns so they could see their way back home.” By 1937 Wade had formed his own group, The Sons of the Mountaineers, with which he made more than 100 recordings for RCA’s Bluebird subsidiary.
In 1937 he married Julia Brown, who performed as “Hillbilly Lily” on a local radio station and with whom he had five children.
During the folk revival of the 1960s a generation of younger fans rediscovered Mainer and, with his wife on guitar, he became a regular performer at bluegrass festivals. In 2002, 60 years after he had first been refused permission to perform there, he finally appeared at the Grand Ole Opry.
“Don’t complain and tell people your problems,” Mainer liked to say, “’cause half the people don’t want to hear them and the other half are glad you got ’em.”
He is survived by his wife and by three sons and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.
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