Don't Look in the Wrong Place...

 U.S. Tico and The Man were separated by time and distance. They were connected very closely by thoughts, ideas, experience and sheer number of hours spent sitting on the porch playing a guitar. Sometimes they play with friends or family but as is often the case the task of something you believe in can be solitary. Serenading can be a lonely business. It seems there is no one listening while you sit in a little room. Or perhaps they stop by the wrong room to listen? The Man only has to reach back into close family history to find a story that could almost be the one told by himself and U.S. Tico.

With a history that reached back to the 1870s string band music was popular and instrumentation evolved to include other members of the string family with the banjo fiddle combo that defined the genre it the early days. By the 1920s String band music was well on the way to becoming the modern country music we know about today that has incorporated rap beats to sing about pickup trucks, cell phones and drinking Guaro on Costa Rician beaches. Way before Central American beach vacations The Man's family roots were in Perry County Tennessee, Lick Creek specifically near the river where his grandmother's people the Ledbetters settled in the 1850s in close proximity to the Weems (pronounced Wims) family. 

The Man's connection to the Weems family is his great grandfather, Henry Clay Ledbetter had a brother, William Brownlow Ledbetter who married Martha Hale Lewis. Martha, who passed in 1908, the best way we can date all this, had a sister Mary Jane who married William Thomas Weems, reportedly an excellent fiddle player. Their sons formed the Weems Family String Band. In 1920s Perry County my family, the Ledbetters, would surely have known and seen the Weems play music. 

The photos used here are courtesy of The Man's cousin Charles. Charles is the grandson of William Brownlow Ledbetter and grew up knowing brothers Dick and Frank Weems. In his words "they died poor and would have never guessed that a Google search of the Weems Family String Band would produce thousands of results. They played dances and fiddle contests up to their death." 

The Weems Family String Band cut two sides for Columbia Records in 1928. They were standards "Greenback Dollar" backed with "Davy". These records are quite collectable. Cousin Charles has a copy. 

Why did the Weems Family only cut only two sides? They had a career that spanned generations and decades. As this short film will explain the record company wanted more but looked for the band in Arkansas instead of Tennessee. Also cousin Charles has related that an invitation to the Grand Old Opry was missed because the wives wanted to attend the gig as well and there was not an automobile large enough available to transport all to Nashville.   

Have you heard the Weems Family String Band? Have you heard of U.S. Tico and The Man? Don't look in Arkansas.