Gid Tanner

My given name is James Gideon Tanner and I was born at Thomas Bridge, Georgia on June 6th, 1885. I started learnin` to play the fiddle when I was 14 after one of my uncles died and willed a fiddle to me. I grew up to make a chicken farmer and a fiddler. When I finally married and settled down we moved to Dacula, Georgia in Gwinnet County. I got pretty well known around home for fiddlin` and singin` at the same time, I can pick a banjer too. They started them big fiddlin` contests down to Atlanta in 1913 and called it The Georgia Old-Time Fiddler`s Convention. I beleive I missed the first one, but hit about all of them after that. I even won it in 1928, and come close several other times. I think they had the last contest there about 1935. It was along about the time they started the contests that I started goin` to Atlanta and playin` on the street when it was too wet to work on the farm to make a little extra change. That`s how I met most of the ones I picked with and recorded with like Riley Puckett and Fate Norris. In the early 20`s they got that big radio station in Atlanta called WSB. We played on the radio some and was some of the first country music ever played on the radio in the nation along with ole Fiddlin` John Carson. In June of 1923 Fiddlin` John Carson made the first issued country record for the OKeh company. It always seemed like everybody got a kick out of me fiddlin` and singin` at the same time, and my double-barrelled voice that some call falsetto. Some how or other Frank Walker of the Columbia record company heard of me bein` pretty popular `round Atlanta and sent for me to come to New York City in March of 1924 to make some records for them so his company could compete with OKeh. I got a hold of Riley Puckett to go with me and we made some records. I made some records solo and so did Riley, and we played together on a few too. The first number I recorded was Boll Weevil Blues on March 7th, 1924 was solo, just me singin` with my fiddle playin`. My first record they actually put out though was Columbia 110-D with Buckin` Mule and Hen Cackle on it. Columbia also put out some of our numbers on some other labels they owned under different names, also known as you know. They came out on Harmony, Silvertone and Regal under names like Gibbs & Watson which was me and Riley, Tom Carter which was just me and Carter and Wilson which was me and Riley. I never did understand why they done that. So, me and Riley recorded a few more times in New York till October 3rd, 1925 when the record company got a portable recording outfit and come down to Atlanta to record. It was then that me and Fate Norris recorded together for the first time. Then in April of 1926 Frank Walker got the idea of some of the other Atlanta pickers he was recording to make a group with me. They called us Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers and had me, Riley, Fate Norris, and two more fiddler`s named Clayton McMichen and Bert Layne. We sure made some big sellers for Columbia. We all recorded together as the Skillet Lickers and also teamed up a few groups out of different combinations of us to make some records too. We all recorded for Columbia till October of 1931 when the depression busted Columbia. Then in March of 1934 me, Riley, Ted Hawkins and my son, Gordon Tanner, went plum to San Antonio, Texas to record for Bluebird. This was the last time I recorded for a big outfit like Columbia or Bluebird. We made a bunch of records for them in just a day or two. One was a huge hit called Down Yonder. It was so popular they even put it on 45rpm records when they came out. My son Gordon fiddled on that and boy if he didn`t just tear it up. After that, I just played around locally the at political rallies and such as that. I even won a fiddlin` contest once when I was 71. I reckon that about sums it all up.