Bert Layne

Bert Layne (December 14, 1889—October 22, 1982) was an American old-time musician, fiddler, violinist, singer, and songwriter. He was a member of the popular string band from Georgia, Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers and his own bands, Bert Layne's Mountaineer Fiddlers and Bert Lane's Melody Boys.

Bert Layne was born Bert Monroe Layne in Arkansas on December 14, 1889.

He learned to play fiddle in his youth. His father made musical instruments for his children and also played banjo, though he preferred dancing to music. Many of his relatives in the family also played fiddle or banjo.

When he was 16, Layne left his home in Arkansas and went to Colorado seeking employment. He worked in mines, as a warehouse worker, and drove teams of horses, among other odd jobs. By age 20, he moved west, to California, with his sister and brother-in-law. Shortly after this, he moved back east to Toledo, Ohio.

In 1925, Layne met the fiddler Clayton McMichen from Georgia. They became good friends and McMichen introduced Layne to the lively music scene around Atlanta, Georgia, and also to his musician friends. The following year, Layne joined the famous Georgia string band Skillet Lickers with Gid Tanner, Lowe Stokes, Hoke Rice, Ted Hawkins, Arthur Tanner and Hoyt "Slim" Bryant. That year, he played on two recordings of the group: "Uncle Bud" (Columbia Records W143021) and "I Got Mine" (Columbia Records W143030).

In 1927, Layne played at a fiddler's convention in Georgia with Fate Norris, Riley Puckett, and Gid Tanner.

Around that time, Layne and McMichen also formed a string band named McMichen Layne String Orchestra with guitarists Slim Bryant and Riley Puckett. A songwriter, Layne also co-wrote many of their classics, including "Take Me Back To My Carolina Home" and "Down on the Old Ozark Trail." In 1928, the group made recordings on Columbia Records:

• Little Blue Ridge girl (Columbia W147261)
• The dying hobo (Columbia W147262)
• Sailing on the Robert E. Lee (Columbia W147272)
• Down on the Ozark Trail (Columbia W147274)
• Blind child's prayer (Columbia W147308)
• Daisies won't tell (Columbia W147310)
• Ramblin' boy (Columbia W147311)

Layne spent the rest of the 1920s mainly with recordings and tours of the Skillet Lickers. On one of these tours, in 1930, fiddler Lowe Stokes was involved in a shootout and had to have his hand amputated. Layne, who was working as a mechanic at the time, constructed a prosthesis that allowed Stokes to play fiddle again.

In 1929, Layne made recordings on Columbia Records with Georgia Organ Grindersand with fiddler Claude Davis ("We were pals together", "Down in a Southern Town", "Underneath the Southern Moon", "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland", etc.). With his own string band Bert Lane's Melody Boys (with Claude Davis), he made four titles on Brunswick records:

• Sparklets Waltz
• Nights Of Gladness Waltz
• A Give Me Your Heart
• I Ain't Got No Sweetheart

In 1930, Layne played with Lowe Stokes, Hoke Rice, Claude Davis, and Clayton McMichen. They also had a recording contract with Brunswick Records and recorded more than a dozen songs under different names. Some of the tracks had jazz influence.

Around that time, Layne also played and recorded with Bascom Lamar Lunsford, a folklorist from western North Carolina.

After Skillet Lickers disbanded in 1931, Layne often played and toured as a member of Clayton McMichen's various bands (McMichen's Melody Men, Georgia Wildcats).

In 1931, Layne and McMichen performed on WLW radio, a commercial news–talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1933, they performed at a show at the World Fair in Chicago and received engagements with the National Barn Dance, a country music radio broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago.

Layne's last published recordings were in 1931 with Johnny Barfield and Hoyt "Slim" Bryant:

• Back To my Georgia Home
• Highway Hobo
• On The Banks of the Old Ohio
• Peach Pickin' Time In Georgia
• Rabbit Hunt Part I
• Rabbit Hunt Part II
• Sweet Florine
• Yum Yum Blues

In the early 1930s, McMichen left for Cleveland. In 1936, Layne formed his own band Bert Layne's Mountaineer Fiddlers in Ohio with Garner Lee "Pop" Eckler, Rolin Gaines, Rod McQueen, Arnal Stanley, and Johnny Barfield. Mountaineer Fiddlerswere very popular in Ohio and also made appearances on WSB, WGST, and WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. They also got to perform at the Brown County Jamboree, a live country music show that took place in Bean Blossom, Indiana

In his later years, Layne lived in Covington, Kentucky, and continued to play music. In his mid-eighties, he organized a reunion of the old musicians from Atlanta with whom he had played in the 1920s in Arkansas.

Two years after his death in 1982, Layne was inducted into The Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.

Layne was married to Georgia native Allene (1895–1972). His fellow musician Clayton McMichen was married to Allene's sister Daisy.

Bert Layne died in Covington, Kentucky, on October 22, 1982, at age 92.