Sam and Kirk McGee Live 1955-1957

Both Sam and Kirk McGee liked to tell the same joke about how they got started on the Grand Ole Opry. Sam's version was "They came down here and got us because they said they wanted someone outstanding in their field. And that's just where they found us - out standing in our field." It may sound like a publicity slogan, but it was basically true. The brothers did grow up on a farm in the rolling hills of south Williamson County, and they did become two of Tennessee's best-known and most respected traditional musicians. For six decades they carried their unique style of old-time music throughout the land from the old elixir-hawking medicine show to the vaudeville stage from the airwaves of the Grand Ole Opry to the plush record studios of New York and Chicago from the "music parks" of the 1950s to the college folk festivals of the 1960s. Along the way they performed with giants like Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, the classic comedy team of Sarie and Sally, and the bluegrass maven Bill Monroe. George D. Hay, the founder and announcer of the Grand Ole Opry, always introduced them "Sam and Kirk McGee from sunny Tennessee."