Frank Luther - Country Music Hits

Country Music Hits

In 1928, with his singing only gradually returning to top form, Frank met and became acquainted with fellow Kansan Carson J. Robison, who had teamed with tenor Vernon Dalhart to make many dozens of top-selling recordings of rural American favorites, shortly to be known in the trade as hillbilly music. Robison and Dalhart were severing their recording partnership, and it was suggested that Luther listen to some Dalhart records and seek to approximate his style. From 1928 to 1932, Frank Luther recorded country music with Carson Robison. Their recordings, made for several record companies and issued on a variety of labels, were extremely popular. "Barnacle Bill the Sailor," "When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver," "When It's Springtime in the Rockies," "When the Bloom is On The Sage," "Little Green Valley," "Down on the Old Plantation," "I'm Alone Because I Love You," "The Utah Trail," "Goin' Back to Texas," "Left My Gal in the Mountains," "In the Cumberland Mountains," "An Old Man's Story, "Little Cabin in the Cascade Mountains," and "The Birmingham Jail" sold a great many copies and influenced future generations of country singers.

When Robison formed his own cowboy singing group for a British tour in 1932, Frank Luther assembled a new trio with his wife, Zora Layman, and baritone Leonard Stokes. They recorded some sides for Victor, but 75-cent country records were not selling very well in the Depression which was just getting underway. Art Satherley, legendary producer for the American Record Corporation, began to record the Luther Trio on 25-cent chain store discs. Coincidental with their first ARC releases came the group's debut on the NBC radio series, Hillbilly Heart-throbs in 1933. Created and written by folklorist/writer/performer Ethel Park Richardson, the network series dramatized old Appalachian ballads as well as newer country music narrative songs. Well-known radio actors played the dramatic roles, with the musical bridges between scenes furnished by the Frank Luther Trio. Richardson, whom Luther would refer to forty years later as a wonderful woman, introduced him to many mountain songs and influenced his repertoire. While on her show, Zora Layman became the first country female singer to have a major hit record with Bob Miller's "Seven Years With the Wrong Man." Her debut performance caused the NBC switchboard to light up for two hours. Frank scored hits with "Rocking Alone in An Old Rocking Chair," "When the White Azaleas Start Blooming," "The Old Spinning Wheel," "Home on the Range," "New Twenty-One Years," and "Seven Years With the Wrong Woman."