DaCosta Woltz and the Southern Broadcasters
A patent medicine manufacturer and salesman, Woltz served a term as mayor of Galax. During the 1920s period when the Galax barbershop -founded band, The Hill Billies, was receiving national attention due to radio broadcasts and vaudeville touring, Woltz organized this band, which had on banjo and fiddle two of the finest musicians in the region, Ben Jarrell and Frank Jenkins. Galax has always adored kid musicians, so he also added Price Goodson, the kid of the moment and later a respected Galax attorney.
They had done no broadcasting, but Woltz was a promoter par excellent, so he dubbed them after the fad of the moment. In early May 1927 his Model T chugged westward for three bone-jarring days to Richmond, Indiana, and the Gennett recording studios.
They recorded 18 songs and tunes, and an amazing number of them have become standards. The best known is The Yellow Rose of Texas. It was an old, forgotten sheet music song, composed before the Civil War, and Ben Jarrell’s singing and fiddling gave it new life. It caught the ear of musicians everywhere, and many others rushed to record it.
Jarrell’s singing of Sweet Sunny South had a similar effect. It, too, was older, but his recording gave it new life. His recording of Are You Washed in the Blood? inspired a generation of gospel singers.
Jarrell was from Round Peak, just over the ridge from the Music Center in Surry County, North Carolina. He also made another notable musical contribution; the legendary fiddler Tommy Jarrell was his son.
Frank Jenkins was also from Surry County, and a pioneering three-finger banjoist. A contemporary great guru of the banjo, on first hearing Jenkins’ banjo solo, Baptist Shout, intoned, “I’d put that in the early fifties as that fellow has obviously heard Scruggs.” But the recording is actually from the May 1927 sessions and before Scruggs took up wearing long pants. A Jenkins recording also made the 1820 song, Home Sweet Home, a standard banjo solo.
Woltz played old-time banjo, and his photo still hangs in the City offices in Galax.
It was their only session, and their Gennett recordings were knocked off the market by the Great Depression a year and a half later, but Jarrell, Jenkins, and Woltz nevertheless left a powerful legacy of music. This was due in large measure to Gennett subsidiary labels such as Champion, Conqueror, and Silvertone, being sold via the Sears Roebuck catalogue.
In the photo above are (L-R) Woltz, Goodson, Jarrell, and Jenkins. Much of what is known about this band is due to the excellent research and writing of Richard Nevins.