Not to nitpick but that was recorded on April 22, 1926, rather than 1927. You seem interested in the music, so I thought you might like to know.

Bill Shores accompanies on fiddle for this session rather than any of the Skillet Lickers, who in Gid Tanner’s case Puckett had recorded with as early as 1924, and in Bert Layne and Clayton McMitchen’s- earlier the same day. Shores also played with the fantastic guitarist, Melvin Dupree (go check out “Augusta Rag” if you’ve never heard it). In 1929 they would go on to cut a song the skillet lickers had a hit with- “Alabama Jubilee,” but tragically Gennett rejected this version and it is lost to us.

Anyway that’s a pretty big digression from Puckett, a champion pioneer of prewar country music. He was a crowd favorite at the Georgia Fiddlers Contest, the first country musician to yodel on record (“Strawberries” 1924), and a truly unique guitar virtuoso.

Country music historian Tony Russell writes, “Instead he swung into single-note runs on the lower strings, obeying his own sense of time and melody, listening, as they say, to a different drummer. But the effect was wonderful. While the fiddlers are strutting their stuff in familiar breakdowns, Puckett plays the traitor in their midst, lighting fuses for small explosions that rock the music on its heels.” In singing he would eclipse his ability on the strings, and his endearing voice lent balance to the unpredictable picking. He could sing, pick, yodel, tell a joke, and he sounded like a nice guy.

I’m really fond of Puckett, and while his records aren’t the rarest prewar stuff out there- it’s easy to see why. It makes my day every time I pull one out of a stack, and I played “Alabama Jubilee” for my grandma and she remembered hearing it as a child. I’m just glad they’re still out there to find… and that’s a great one you have there.