TOMMY MAGNESS (AND HIS TENNESSEE BUDDIES)

• From Roanoke, Virginia.
• A fiddler who worked in the late 1930’s with Roy Hall and His Blue Ridge Entertainers (with whom he made the very first recording of the Orange Blossom Special.)
• 1940, joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and appeared on some of Monroe’s earliest recordings.
• 1946-47, worked with Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys. While with Acuff, he made the first recording of the Black Mountain Rag.
• 1947, formed the Orange Blossom Boys.
• 1951, formed Tommy Magness and His Tennessee Buddies, which included Don Reno and Red Smiley. They recorded several juke box hits for King Records.
• He died in 1972.