Moody Was the Man

Every hear of Clyde Moody? I heard him on the radio a couple of times in my teens and then forgot about him for nearly 50 years until I heard the mighty Eddie Stubbs talk about him on WSM the other night. Here's the Wikipedia entry on Moody:

Clyde Moody (September 19, 1915 – April 7, 1989), also known as the "Hillbilly Waltz King" and sometimes as "The Genial Gentleman of Country Music" was one the great founders of American Bluegrass music.
Born in Cherokee, North Carolina, Moody got his start in the late 1938 in the string band J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers. He continued as a member of the Browns Ferry Four with Merle Travis, Grandpa Jones and The Delmore Brothers. In 1940 he was one of Bill Monroe's original Blue Grass Boys and on the Grand Ole Opry. They started out in Cincinnati in 1943 as the Drifting Pioneers onWLW radio. He also played at the first Bluegrass Festival at Fincastle, Virginia, in 1965.
His career highlights include appearing in the White House 3 times and writing and recording the million-seller Shenandoah Waltz. He sang with a young Elvis Presley in 1955 when Tom Parker paired them for a six-week tour.
He died in Nashville, Tennessee.
His nephew, Bruce Moody is also a popular bluegrass musician and toured with him 1962-1969. 

Did you catch that? Moody actually toured with Elvis in 1955! He was invited to the White House three times! And he wrote a million seller record, "Shenandoah Waltz." (I planned to post a video of that song by the Johnson Mountain Boys a few months ago, but never got around to it. I looked for the Moody version, but it's apparently unavailable.) 

"I Love You Because You're You" was a popular old country song that many stars of the day recorded. Here's Moody's version which Joyce and I like a lot. I believe that's Jerry Byrd on steel.

The following is Moody's rockabilly blues song "The Blues Came Pouring Down." I like the driving acoustic guitars on this one.