Al Hopkins And His Buckle Busters

Al Hopkins Albert Green Hopkins Gap Creek North Carolina June 5 1889 – October 21 1932 Was An American Musician A Pioneer Of What Later Came To Be Called Country Music.
Hopkins Played Piano An Unusual Instrument For Appalachian Music. The Members Of The Band That Brought Him To Fame Which Was Known By Several Names The Hill Billies Al Hopkins' Original Hill Billies And Al Hopkins And His Buckle Busters Came Variously From Hopkins' Own Watauga County North Carolina And From Grayson And Carroll Counties In Virginia. Although The Group Formed Up In 1924 In Galax Virginia They Were Based In Washington D.C. And Performed Regularly On WRC. In 1927 They Became The First Country Musicians To Perform In New York City. They Were Also The First To Play For A President Of The United States Calvin Coolidge At A Press Correspondents' Gathering And The First To Appear In A Movie A 15-Minute Warner Bros./Vitaphone Short Released Along With Al Jolson's The Singing Fool . Hopkins Was Born In Watauga County North Carolina An Area Known For The Richness Of Its Folk Culture. His Father John Benjamin Hopkins A Sometime North Carolina State Legislator Built Organs As A Hobby Played The Fiddle Piano And Organ And Had A Good Repertoire Of Traditional Fiddle Tunes. His Mother Celia Isabel Green Hopkins Sang Old Ballads And Church Music Among Other Tunes. Hopkins And His Siblings All Showed Musical Talent Early. In 1904 The Family Moved To Washington D.C. And Hopkins' Father Went To Work For The United States Census Bureau. His Sister Lucy Later Remarked That Al And His Brothers And Sisters Also Had Plenty Of Exposure To The Popular Music Of The Time. In 1910 Al Hopkins Launched His Professional Music Career. He And His Younger Brothers Joe Elmer And John Formed A Group Called The Old Mohawk Quartet Which Played Regularly At Washington's Majestic Theater.
About 1912 The Family Built A Large New House At 63 Kennedy Street In An Area Of Northwest Washington D.C. That Was Not Yet Built Out. Hopkins' Mother And The Younger Children Summered At The Family Farm In Gap Creek North Carolina So Their Contact With Rural Life Remained Strong. In The Early 1920s Hopkins' Oldest Brother Jacob A Surgeon And Musician Established A Rural Hospital/clinic In Galax Virginia Where He Often Invited Local Banjo Players To Entertain The Hospital Patients. Doctor Hopkins Was Renowned And Active As A Surgeon And Musician. Al Hopkins Worked For Him In Galax As Hospital Office Manager And Secretary. Joe Who Would Later Play With Al In His Recorded Bands Worked At This Time As A Railway Express Agent In White Top Gap Virginia. Joe Played Guitar Here And There In His Spare Time Including At His Brother's Clinic.
In Late Spring 1924 Joe Met Fiddler And Journeyman Barber Alonzo Elvis "Tony" Alderman In The Latter's Galax Barber Shop. The Two Of Them And Al Hopkins Were Soon A Trio. John Rector A Local General Store Keeper And Five-String Banjo Player Who Has Already Recorded Decided That They Were Better Than His Current Band And Joined Them. They Soon Traveled To New York City To Record A Three-Day Trip In A Ford Model T. That Initial Recording Session Was A Disaster The Technology For Recording Such Groups Was Still In Its Infancy. That Wasn't Their Only Bad Fortune That Year Doctor Hopkins Died July 26 1924.
Early The Next Year They Made It Back To New York This Time In A New Dodge Rector Had Bought And On January 15 1925 Recorded Six Pieces Much More Successfully For Ralph Peer At OKeh. Lacking A Band Name At The OKeh Session Hopkins Whose Now-Urban Father Had Been Kidding Him About The Direction His Life Was Taking Told Peer "We're Nothing But A Bunch Of Hillbillies From North Carolina And Virginia. Call Us Anything." In Fact No One In The Band Conformed To The Stereotype Of A Backwoods Hillbilly. The Hopkins Brothers Father Was A Legislator And Civil Servant Rector Owned A Store Alderman Had Grown Up In An Isolated Cabin But His Father Was A Surveyor Civil Engineer And Justice Of The Peace. Still They Became The Hill Billies And Although They Soon Had Qualms About The Name Alderman Would Later Say "Hillbilly Was Not Only A Funny Word It Was A Fighting Word." Fellow Musician Ernest Stoneman Encouraged Them To Keep It "Well Boys You Have Come Up With A Good One. Nobody Could Beat It."
With Hopkins' Doctor Brother Dead There Was No Reason To Stay In Galax And The Band Based Itself In Washington D.C Where They Soon Became Regulars On WRC On The Radio Hopkins Mother Sang With Them On The Ballads.
On May 8 1925 They Played At An Enormous Fiddler's Convention In Mountain City Tennessee Sponsored By The Local Ku Klux Klan. At This Time Charlie Bowman Joined The Band As An Additional Fiddler. Other Members Would Later Come And Go But This Completed The Classic Lineup.
They Played Gigs From South Carolina To New York. Commenced – At Schools Vaudeville Shows Fiddlers' Competitions Political Rallies And Even A White House Press Correspondents' Gathering Before President Coolidge.
For OKeh They Recorded Only The On 1925 Session Produced By Ralph Peer. Later They Would Record For Vocalion As The Hill Billies And Brunswick As Al Hopkins And His Buckle Busters . The Vocalion And Brunswick Recordings Were Identical Except For The Band Names.
Hopkins And His Band Tried At One Point To Control The Name "Hill Billy" As It Applied To Music. They Incorporated Their Group January 21 1929 As Al Hopkins' Original Hill Billies But Ultimately Accepted That Their Band Name Had Become The Name Of A Genre Of Music.
Hopkins And His Band Continued To Perform Until His Death In A Car Accident In Winchester Virginia In 1932. The Band Broke Up After His Death. Al Hopkins Piano
Joe Hopkins Birth And Death Dates Unknown Guitar
Alonzo Elvis "Tony" Alderman September 10 1900 – October 25 1983 Fiddle
John Rector D. August 28 1985 5-String Banjo
Charlie Bowman July 30 1889 – May 20 1962 Fiddle Joined In 1925 See Also Hill Billies / Al Hopkins & Buckle Busters read less