Biography
Joseph Emmett Mainer, 20 July 1898, in a one room log house in Buncombe County, North Carolina, USA, d. 12 June 1971. Mainer played banjo at the age of nine but later became an accomplished fiddle player. He worked in textile mills from the age of 12 but began playing locally with other musicians in the 20s. He eventually formed Mainer’s Mountaineers which comprised his banjo-playing brother Wade Mainer and guitarists Daddy John Love and Claude ‘Zeke’ Morris. In 1932, Mainer played regularly on radio in Gastonia but in 1934, sponsored by Crazy Water Crystals, and performing as the Crazy Mountaineers, they became regulars on WBT Charlotte. They later moved to WPTF Raleigh but also played in New Orleans and on the Mexican border stations. Over the years there were various changes of personnel including Steve Ledford, Snuffy Jenkins and Morris’ brothers Wiley and George. They first recorded as J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers for Bluebird Records...
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