Frank "Hylo" Brown was born April 20, 1922 in Johnson Co., KY in the small community of River. Hylo's musical career started in 1939 at WCMI in Ashland, KY, later moving to WLOG in Logan, WVa. As with many from the area at that time, in 1949 Hylo and his family moved to Springfield, OH to find work. There he started working for Bradley Kincaid singing tenor and worked for him for 5 years. Hylo had his own radio show at WPFB in Middletown, OH in the morning before he went to work. This is where Hylo got his name. Smokey Ward was the DJ at the station and the program was at 5 o'clock in the morning. Hylo's most requested song was The Prisoner's Song, one that he sang both in his usual high lead voice and also in falsetto. Smokey said any man that could get up at 5 in the morning and sing that high, there would be no more Frank, from now on it would be Hi-lo.
While with Bradley, Hylo wrote Lost To A Stranger and wanted Kitty Wells to record it. In 1954 he went to Nashville with the acetate of the song to see his friend Joe Allison who was going to take Hylo to Johnny and Kitty's house when he got off the air. Ken Nelson with Capitol Records came in to drop off Ferlin Husky's latest release and they let him hear it. After he found out that Hylo wrote it and was singing the song, Ken signed Hylo to an 8 year contract with Capitol Records. Lost To A Stranger received alot of airplay on country and pop radio and did well enough for him to begin appearing on the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree in 1955 along with Jim and Jesse. Hylo's band at that time was known as the Buckskin Boys, named so for the buckskin jackets they wore. Hylo would perform on the Jamboree until 1960, working with some of the best in bluegrass such as The Osborne Brothers, Jimmy Martin with J.D. Crowe and Paul Wiilliams and Mac Wiseman.
In 1957, Flatt and Scruggs asked Hylo to become their featured vocalist with the Foggy Mountain Boys and it was so successful that Martha White asked Hylo to take out a second unit for the Martha White T.V. shows. Hylo organized the Timberliners and this classic combination of Red Rector, Jim Smoak, Tater Tate and Joe Phillips put out some of the best bluegrass ever laid down and this line-up recorded the now classic self-titled album "Hylo Brown" for Capitol in 1958. Hylo would work Mississippi and Tennessee and F&S would work through West Virginia, alternating occassionally. Their schedule would always have the two groups working their way back to Nashville for the Saturday night Opry.
On July 12, 1959, Hylo and the Timberliners were part of the very first Newport Folk Festival playing with Earl Scruggs because Lester got upset that they didn't include his name when Earl was asked to play the festival so Earl asked Hylo and his group to work the show with him.
Hylo left Capitol in 1961 unhappy with the direction they were wanting him to go and signed with Starday records, recording 4 albums and became known as The Bluegrass Balladeer as well as still appearing with Flatt and Scruggs from time to time. From Starday Hylo recorded with Rural Rhythm releasing 7 albums for the label. He recorded two sessions for Vetco Records, as well as sessions for King Music City, Atteraim, K-Ark, Jessup, Newland and Rome.
In 1971 Hylo saw one of his songs, The Grand Ole Opry Song, included in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's album, Will The Circle Be Unbroken. Hylo wrote the song while working with Bradley Kincaid and surprisingly didn't record it himself until his Tribute To My Heroes album on the Atteraim label in the 70's.
Hylo retired from the road in the 70's and did a few appearances as a solo act. In the early 80's Ricky Skaggs recorded Lost To A Stranger shortly after making the move to country music and in the latter part of the 80's Hylo had the itch to hit the road again and in 1989 he met a young banjo player named Mike Daniels and asked him to go on the road with him. They worked together for 11 years. Hylo enjoyed a resurgence in his career in the 90's with the popularity of CD's with Bear Family releasing a complete collection of his Capitol recordings in 1992, Rural Rhythm making available much of Hylo's recordings, Crosscut Records acquiring and releasing one of his Vetco sessions, Thirty Pieces of Silver and Gary Reid's Copper Creek label releasing a live concert from 1959 titled Hylo Brown In Concert. In 1994 Hylo was included with a long list of who's who in country and bluegrass music when his name was included on the U.S. 23 Country Music Highway which stretches from the Ohio border to the Virginia border. Hylo was the first artist on the highway to make it in the business and his name appears with other legends such as Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, The Judds, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Tom T. Hall, Patty Loveless, Dwight Yoakum, Rebecca Lynn Howard and Gary Stewart.
Hylo resurgence also came about with several great groups recording his material including IIIrd Tyme Out cutting I've Waited As Long As I Can, Tony Rice covering the same song as well as Thunder Clouds of Love, Doyle Lawson's One Way Train and Your Crazy Heart and James King recording Silent Partner.
IBMA included Hylo with the first generation pioneers of bluegrass artists they honored in April of 2001 and on Feb. 3, 2003 Hylo was inducted into the SPBGMA Hall of Honor. Unfortunately Hylo did not live long enough to enjoy this great honor, passing away on January 17, 2003 and rests in Springfield, Ohio. Mike Daniels accepted his award on behalf of the family.
Since Hylo's death there has been even more of his material re-released with Gary Reid compiling a greatest hits of his Starday material entitled "Lovesick and Sorrow", Rural Rhythm's Greatest Hits release, Earl Scruggs' Classic Bluegrass Live featuring the complete Newport Folk Festival, not to mention the great Flatt and Scruggs Martha White shows being released on DVD by Shanache that Hylo appears in.
Hylo Brown was a great singer, songwriter and entertainer who left a huge mark on bluegrass and country music and the purpose of this tribute page is for his many friends, fans and former Timberliners to enjoy his music and share some memories. Thanks! Mike Daniels
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