Biography:Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers
Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers
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Biographical notes
The following is excerpted from W.K. McNeill's article "Five Pre-World War II Arkansas String Bands: Some Thoughts on their Recording Success", printed in JEMF Quarterly, vol. XX, No. 73, Spring/Summer 1984, p. 71 [1]
This includes the longest lived Arkansas string band recorded during the 1920s, which also happens to be one of the largest mountain groups ever recorded. Organized and led by a non-playing member, Dr. Smith's Champion Horse-Hair Pullers was based in the tiny Arkansas mountain town of Calico Rock.
The moving force behind the Horse-Hair Pullers was Dr. Henry Harlin Smith, one of Izard County's' leading citizens and a tireless supporter of Ozark culture. Indeed, the band came into existence mainly because of his desire to promote Izard County. Among his initial schemes to bring more people into the area was a fiddle contest held in Smith's hometown, Calico Rock, in January, 1926. The winners of this contest formed the nucleus of the Horse-Hair Pullers, the band being filled out with the addition of four singers that Smith called the Hill-Billy Quartet. This aggregation played locally and occasionally for functions of the Missouri Pacific Railroad for which Dr. Smith served as acting surgeon from 1906 until his death in 1931. Then on 13 March 1926, the band gained a wider audience when they performed over radio station KTHS, Hot Springs, Arkansas. Apparently the program was well received, for newspapers of the time report that 225 telegrams applauding the presentation came into the station while Smith's group was on the air. During the next week, several more telegrams and phone calls arrived asking for the band's return. Smith brought them back for at least two more shows even though it must have required considerable time to get from Calico Rock to Hot Springs. Today the trip takes four hours and, on the primitive roads of 1926, must have taken much longer.
In 1928, Smith's band traveled to Memphis where they recorded six sides for Victor. According to some of the band members, the group was told to play anything they wanted as long as it was not under copyright. The six selections include a ballad that can be traced back to the nineteenth century; a traditional song made up mainly from "floating verses;" one religious song; two "coon songs;" and a sentimental parlor piece from the late nineteenth century. This selection can probably be considered representative of the breadth of the band's repertoire, especially since some former members have said that is the case, but is misleading in some ways. For example, several persons interviewed during the past seven years recall that Smith's group featured a large number of comedy and gospel songs in their stage presentations. The former are well represented on the 1928 recordings but gospel items are not.
Smith's band continued to perform until 1930 when some members, like fiddler Bryan Lackey, moved out of state and dropped out of music altogether. Although at no time did the group contain more than eight members, four instrumentalists and four volcalists, the personnel shifted slightly over the years. This is undoubtedly due to the very informal nature of the band, a venture that all of the members looked upon as merely a sideline. They were united primarily because of their love of music- and Dr. Smith. At least thirteen men are known to have belonged to the organization at various times.
Dr. Smith outlasted his band by only a short time. On 14 October 1931, while driving to Little Rock, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and, although he was taken to a hospital, he never regained con- sciousness. Thus, at the age of fifty, the life of one of Izard County's leading citizens ended. But, while Dr. Smith is gone, he is hardly forgotten. Today, more than a half century after his death, he is still fondly remembered by residents of Calico Rock and that is perhaps the best possible testimony to the character of this man who, for a brief time, figured prominently in the history of Arkansas country music.