LOUVIN BROTHERS TRIBUTE PAGE

About Me

Hello and welcome to The Louvin Brothers Tribute Page,so glad you found us..Hope you enjoy your visit here and be sure to check out all of the wonderful videos.,If you love The Louvin Brothers,then come on in and sit a spell and listen to fine music,watch some videos and just have a good ole time..
Hi,I'm Ira Louvin's grandson and of course Charlie Louvin is my great uncle..I'm the son and only child of my mother,the late Linda Gail Loudermilk aka Linda Gail Louvin..I Have wanted to start a tribute page to My great uncle Charlie and my late grandfather Ira for quiet sometime,but due to my touring and some long term disabling problems in my life and also the fact I was never able to figure out html this has taken awhile to get around to doing..Now,thanks to Myspace and other websites,the long time desire of mine to start a tribute page to my grandfather and great uncle has become possible and a reality as well as a much easier task to achieve..
Although this page is dedicated to The Louvin Brothers and their friends,fans and anyone who can appreciate their music, I thought I would take time to let everyone get acquainted with who I am and some history about myself since many of you may or may not have ever heard of me or even knew I exist..lol
My parents divorced when I was very young and I moved around and back & forth throughout AL,GA and TN a lot when I was a child,although I spent most of my childhood years growing up on Sand Mountain living with my grandparents on my fathers side of the family,who basically raised me since about the age of 5 to the age of 15..I spent most of my time going to school,working summer jobs as well as spending countless hours locked away in my room on Sand Mountain,listening to music,playing my guitar,witting songs and dreaming of someday becoming a rock star..LOL..I jammed with a few friends and family members who also played and I got blamed for inspiring them to do so..LOL..
I started performing live at about the age of 11 around Chattanooga Tn. and later at various schools on Sand Mountain..By the age of 15 I was off to Florida performing regularly and touring with various musicians and bands and have played music and toured on and off ever since..I've had the pleasure of performing on the same stage with and/or with members of Black Oak Arkansas,Dr.Hook,Ruby Star & Grey Ghost,MTB,and Loggins & Messina,just to name a few..Oddly enough,I was mostly a rocker and later became a heavy metal performer and played more than my fair share of cover tunes over the years as well..I've performed at some wonderful places and some not so wonderful places,been on top of the world at times and on rock bottom at others..
Now that I'm much older and after many years of dealing with my personal battles with depression,panic and various anxiety disorders..I thought for awhile I was losing my mind,but doctors assured me that I wasn't..lol..But it was a miserable and very scary time for me to say the least and left me in a position of not being able to perform,travel or have the ability nor desire to do much of anything on and off for many years because of it..It was far worse before my mother died.Sadly,things were so bad at that time and I was so sick I was not able to even leave my home for anything and was not able travel to see my mother in her last days here on earth..Now I am somewhat much better,however,not being able to see her in her last days has left a pain and sad emptiness in my heart that will be there forever..A few years later I was able to somewhat function in society again and was finally able to perform somewhat on a regular basis and did so for about 2 years..I took a break from performing again and was divorced and living on the streets in Chattanooga for awhile,just trying to survive and now reside close to Chattanooga....It has been a long time thought of mine to possibly try my hand at doing my own version of my favorite Louvin Brothers songs and a blend of blues,country,folk and rock music or what like to call rockin' country folk blues or bayou country rock folk music,Yeah, I know it's already been done..LOL..I'm currently working on witting some new songs and fooling around with some of my favorites songs of the Louvin Brothers..I hope that everyone can appreciate my version of them,if anyone ever get's to hear them and I ever finish them someday..LOL...Hey anyone wanna give me a recording contract?..Just kidding..LOL I have just started working on this page and digging through some of my old photos and stuff as well as borrowing pics here and there,so please check back later for more Louvin photos and other stuff..I will be adding much more to this page over time..Thank for you interest and love of the Louvin Brothers and their music..If anyone has any photos,stories or other things concerning the Louvin Brothers that they would like to contribute or share,please feel free to offer,All will be considered and welcome..Thanks so much for stoppin' by to visit and reading my bit of dribble about myself and now please continue to read abotu the legendary artists that this page is really about,,THE LOUVIN BROTHERS..
The Louvin Brothers were one of the acts that Elvis toured with in the 1950s at the start of his career. The Louvins were born and raised on a cotton farm in Alabama and their birth names were Charlie Elzer Loudermilk and Lonnie Ira Loudermilk. The close-harmony duo began with gospel music and then branched out into country and pop. Ira played the mandolin and sang high tenor, while Charlie played the guitar and sang melody tenor. They wrote a number of hit songs over the years. Charlie joined the army during World War II and when he returned they chose the stage name of Louvin. Their cousin singer/songwriter John D. Loudermilk kept the family name in his career.The brothers lived in several cities in Tennessee trying their luck with various record labels. For a while they lived in Memphis and were postal workers by day and entertainers by night. Their careers were interrupted again when Charlie was called back to serve in the army during the Korean War. This time when he came home from the service they were hired by the Grand Ole Opry.They had much success in the mid 1950s with several top ten hits. In the late 50s they were encouraged to drop the mandolin and update their sound in order to compete with the new craze for rock 'n' roll. Depression and alcoholism became a problem for Ira and the duo brook up in 1963 and both launched solo careers. Charlie's career was the more successful and he had many more hit singles. Ira continued on a downslide and then he and his fourth wife were killed in a car crash in 1965.The Louvin Brothers were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2003 the album "The Louvin Brothers Tribute Album" was nominated for a Grammy award. The album features James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Pam Tillis, The Jordanaires, Johnny Cash and many more. Still a performer on the Opry, Charlie toured in 2003 with Cake, Cheap Trick, the Detroit Cobras and the Hackensaw Boys. Charlie often personally greets visitors at the Louvin Brothers Museum is in Nashville, Tennessee.

My Interests

The Louvin Brothers were one of the acts that Elvis toured with in the 1950s at the start of his career. The Louvins were born and raised on a cotton farm in Alabama and their birth names were Charlie Elzer Loudermilk and Lonnie Ira Loudermilk. The close-harmony duo began with gospel music and then branched out into country and pop. Ira played the mandolin and sang high tenor, while Charlie played the guitar and sang melody tenor. They wrote a number of hit songs over the years. Charlie joined the army during World War II and when he returned they chose the stage name of Louvin. Their cousin singer/songwriter John D. Loudermilk kept the family name in his career.The brothers lived in several cities in Tennessee trying their luck with various record labels. For a while they lived in Memphis and were postal workers by day and entertainers by night. Their careers were interrupted again when Charlie was called back to serve in the army during the Korean War. This time when he came home from the service they were hired by the Grand Ole Opry.They had much success in the mid 1950s with several top ten hits. In the late 50s they were encouraged to drop the mandolin and update their sound in order to compete with the new craze for rock 'n' roll. Depression and alcoholism became a problem for Ira and the duo brook up in 1963 and both launched solo careers. Charlie's career was the more successful and he had many more hit singles. Ira continued on a downslide and then he and his fourth wife were killed in a car crash in 1965.The Louvin Brothers were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2003 the album "The Louvin Brothers Tribute Album" was nominated for a Grammy award. The album features James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Pam Tillis, The Jordanaires, Johnny Cash and many more. Still a performer on the Opry, Charlie toured in 2003 with Cake, Cheap Trick, the Detroit Cobras and the Hackensaw Boys. Charlie often personally greets visitors at the Louvin Brothers Museum is in Nashville, Tennessee.

I'd like to meet:

The Louvin Brothers were Charlie and Ira Louvin, an American duo best-known as the popularizers of close harmony, a kind of country music. The genre evolved in the 1930s from traditional Appalachian folk music; performers like Blue Sky Boys, Delmore Brothers and Monroe Brothers inspired the Louvins, whose career peaked in the 1950s. The Louvin Brothers' career began in gospel music in the 1940s, with their first foray into secular music being the minor hit "The Get Acquainted Waltz" (recorded with Chet Atkins). Other hits included "Cash on the Barrel Head" and "When I Stop Dreaming". They joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1955, and stayed there until breaking up in 1963. Ira Louvin was killed in a car accident in 1965 while Charlie pursued a solo career.
Country-rock pioneers The Byrds recorded the Louvin-penned "The Christian Life" for their seminal 1968 release Sweetheart of the Rodeo.In 2001, the Louvin bothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The tribute CD "Livin, Lovin, Losin: The Songs of the Louvin Brothers" (released in 2003) won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Country Album.From the close-harmony brother acts of the '30s evolved Charlie and Ira Louvin, ranking among the top duos in country music history. With Ira's incredibly high, pure tenor and Charlie's emotional and smooth melody tenor, they learned well from the Bolick brothers (the Blue Sky Boys), the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and other major family duos of the previous generation, preserving the old-time flavor while bringing this genre into the '50s, when country music moved to a newer sound. Whatever type of songs they recorded -- gospel, folk, hillbilly, or '50s pop -- those songs became the Louvins'. Add to the list the many Louvin compositions (for example, "If I Could Only Win Your Love," Emmylou Harris' first hit), and you have an act that is outstanding in country music history. Their career took awhile to get going, partly because of interruptions from WWII and the Korean War. In the early '50s, after making a reputation for unexcelled gospel singing, the Louvins broadened their repertoire, recording "The Get Acquainted Waltz" (with Chet Atkins adding another guitar to Charlie's and to Ira's mandolin), a fair hit that showed success was reachable with non-religious music. The electric guitar, with the duo's unique harmony and Ira's exceptional tenor, created a sound that fans asked for in increasing numbers. In 1955, after ten unsuccessful auditions, they finally joined the Opry, where they performed to great acclaim until 1963, when they broke up. They had a number of hits, including the much-covered "When I Stop Dreaming" and "Cash on the Barrel Head." Following the duo's breakup, Ira and Charlie both pursued solo careers.
Born and raised in the Appalachian mountains in Alabama, both Charlie (born Charlie Elzer Loudermilk, July 7, 1927) and Ira (born Lonnie Ira Loudermilk, April 21, 1924; died June 20, 1965) were attracted to the close-harmony country brother duets of the Blue Sky Boys, the Delmore Brothers, the Callahan Brothers, and the Monroe Brothers when they reached their adolescence. Previously, they had sung gospel songs in church, and their parents encouraged them to play music, despite the family's poverty. Ira began playing mandolin while Charlie picked up the guitar, and the two began harmonizing. After a while, they began performing at a small, local radio station in Chattanooga, where they frequently played on an early-morning show.
The Brothers' career was interrupted in the early '40s when Charlie joined the Army for a short while. While his brother was in the service, Ira played with Charlie Monroe. Once Charlie returned from the Army, the duo moved to Knoxville, TN, where they received a regular spot on a WROL radio show; they later moved to WNOX. Around this time, they decided to abandon their given name for Louvin, which appeared to be a better stage name. (Their cousin John D. Loudermilk retained the family name.) Following their stint in Knoxville, they moved to Memphis, where they broadcast on WMPS and cut one single for Apollo Records. After their brief stay in Memphis, they returned to Knoxville.
In 1949, the Louvin Brothers recorded a single for Decca Records which failed to make much of an impact. Two years later, they signed with MGM Records and over the next year recorded 12 songs. Shortly after their MGM sessions were finished, Charlie and Ira moved back to Memphis, where they worked as postal clerks while playing concerts and radio shows at night. Eventually, they earned the attention of Acuff-Rose, who signed the duo to a publishing contract. Fred Rose, the owner of the publishing house, helped the duo sign a contract with Capitol Records. The Louvins' debut single for the label, "The Family Who Prays," was a moderate success (it would later become a gospel standard), yet they were unable to capitalize on its success because Charlie was recalled by the Army to serve in the Korean War.
Upon Charlie's discharge from the Army, the Louvins relocated to Birmingham, where they planned to restart their career through appearances on the radio station WOVK. However, a duo called Rebe & Rabe had already carved out a close-harmony niche in the area, using several of the Louvins' own songs. When Charlie and Ira were reaching a point of desperation, Capitol's Ken Nelson was able to convince the Grand Ole Opry to hire the duo. Prior to joining the Opry, the duo had been marketed as a gospel artist, but they began singing secular material as soon as they landed a slot on the show, primarily because a tobacco company sponsoring its broadcast told the Opry and the Louvins "you can't sell tobacco with gospel music." While they didn't abandon gospel, the Brothers began writing and performing secular material again, starting with "When I Stop Dreaming." The single became a Top Ten hit upon its release in the fall of 1955 and would eventually become a country standard. It was followed shortly afterward by "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby," which spent two weeks at number one early in 1956. No less than three of the duo's other singles -- "Hoping That You're Hoping," "You're Running Wild," "Cash on the Barrel Head" -- reached the Top Ten that year, and they also released the albums Tragic Songs of Life and Nearer My God to Thee. The Louvins' success in 1956 was particularly impressive when considering that rock & roll was breaking big that year, sapping the sales of many established country artists.
However, the Louvins weren't able to escape being hurt by rock & roll. They had two relatively big hits in 1957 ("Don't Laugh" and "Plenty of Everything but You"), "My Baby's Gone" reached the Top Ten in late 1958, and their classic version of the traditional ballad "Knoxville Girl" was a moderate hit in early 1959, but those four hit singles arrived in the space of three years; they charted four songs in 1956 alone. Soon, the Louvins were receiving pressure from Capitol to update their sound. They tried to cut a couple of rockabilly numbers, but they were quite unsuccessful. Eventually, Ken Nelson suggested that the duo abandon the mandolin in order to appeal to the same audience as the Everly Brothers. The Louvins didn't accept his advice, but the remark did considerable damage to Ira's ego and he began to sink into alcoholism.
The Louvin Brothers continued to record during the early '60s, turning out a number of theme albums -- including tributes to the Delmore Brothers and Roy Acuff, as well as gospel records like Satan Is Real -- as well as singles. "I Love You Best of All" and "How's the World Treating You" reached numbers 12 and 26 respectively in 1961, the first year they had two hit singles since 1957. However, the duo began fighting frequently, and Ira's alcoholism worsened. Following one last hit single, "Must You Throw Dirt in My Face," in the fall of 1962, the duo decided to disband in the summer of 1963.
Charlie and Ira both launched solo careers on Capitol Records shortly after the breakup. Charlie was the more successful of the two, with his debut single, "I Don't Love You Anymore," reaching number four upon its summer release in 1964. For the next decade, he racked up a total of 30 hit singles, though most of the records didn't make the Top 40. Ira's luck wasn't as good as his brother's. Shortly after the Louvins disbanded, he had a raging, alcohol-fueled argument with his third wife, Faye, that resulted in a shooting that nearly killed him. He continued to perform afterward, singing with his fourth wife, Anne Young. The duo were performing a week of concerts in Kansas City in June of 1965 when they were both killed in a car crash in Williamsburg, MO. After his death, his single "Yodel, Sweet Molly" became a moderate hit.
The Louvin Brothers' reputation continued to grow in the decades following their breakup, as their harmonies and hard-driving take on traditional country provided the blueprint for many generations of country and rock musicians. The Everly Brothers were clearly influenced by the duo, while country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons drew heavily from the Louvins' deep catalog of classic songs, recording "The Christian Life" with the Byrds and "Cash on the Barrelhead" as a solo artist. The Louvin Brothers and their music is truly legendary. ~ David Vinopal, All Music Guide

Music:

Far too many favorites to list..But I have to say The Louvin Borthers,don't I?..LOL..Had it not been for them and my father,I would probably have never become a musician..

Television:

Ira L. Louvin Original name: Ira Lonnie Loudermilk Birth: Apr. 21, 1924, USA Death: Jun. 20, 1965, USA Country Musician. Along with his brother Charlie, he was half of one of country music greatest brother acts. The Louvin Brothers are remembered as writing the books on brother harmonies.Some of their hits included "When I Stop Dreaming", "Your Running Wild", and countless others. Ira, who was a masterful songewriter and mandolin player, was killed in a automobile accident along with his wife while returning from an engagment in Jefferson City and New Bloomingfield Missouri. Search Amazon for Ira Louvin Burial: Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens Nashville Davidson County Tennessee, USA Plot: Walk up the sidewalk as you first enter the gates directly in the middle of the cemetery plot is on the left a few feet up the walk Record added: Dec 15 2002 By: Mike WebbAdded by: Anthony S

Heroes:

The one's I love and who have loved me no matter what,even the one's I've never met yet .

My Blog

Check out this video: Carl Perkins promotional video

Check out this video: Carl Perkins promotional video Add to My Profile | More Videos...
Posted by LOUVIN BROTHERS TRIBUTE PAGE on Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:02:00 PST

GIBSON GUITARS CEO Video

CEO of Gibson Guitars Talks about Sustainability Add to My Profile | More Videos...
Posted by LOUVIN BROTHERS TRIBUTE PAGE on Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:57:00 PST

HERE'S ANOTHER VIDEO PERFORMANCE by CHARLIE LOUVIN..Hope you enjoy !

...
Posted by LOUVIN BROTHERS TRIBUTE PAGE on Thu, 10 May 2007 07:39:00 PST

MORE LOUVIN BROTHERS RECORD LABEL HISTORY & READING

The Louvin Brothers 's StoryIra Lonnie LoudermilkBorn: Section, Alabama, April 21, 1924Died: June 20, 1965 Charlie Elzer LoudermilkBorn: Section, Alabama, July 7, 1927 In country music's long tr...
Posted by LOUVIN BROTHERS TRIBUTE PAGE on Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:05:00 PST