Biography
In the 1930s, Red, Jim, and Jack Anglin billed themselves, with ample cause, as "the South's favorite trio" under the name the Anglin Twins and Red. Their act functioned as a seedbed for later country styles, directly producing the 1940s duo Johnnie & Jack and, by extension, opening an indirect route to Kitty Wells.
The brothers entered the world in Franklin, TN, as part of a sizable family yet spent their childhood in Athens, AL. While still adolescents, they received guidance from northern Alabama's Delmore Brothers. Relocating to Nashville in 1930, the Anglins drew personal encouragement from witnessing the Delmores on the Grand Ole Opry and soon resolved to launch performing careers of their own. By 1933 the three had coalesced into a working trio, with Jack on guitar, Jim on string bass, and Red supplying vocal harmonies.
Mid-decade brought an unpaid berth on Nashville's WSIX, after which the Delmores secured them a paying slot on Birmingham, AL's WAPI. Regional recognition prompted the ARC label to approach the Anglins ahead of its 1937 San Antonio sessions, which generated the hit single "They Are All Going Home but One."
The group shifted to Memphis station WMC in 1938 and recorded once more that year, this time in Columbia, SC. Of the 34 sides the Anglin Brothers cut, only 14 appeared, all on ARC's recently purchased Vocalion imprint. Broadcast work in New Orleans and Atlanta ended when Red entered the military; he suffered wounds during the Allied invasion of France.
Jim Anglin later ranked among the leading songwriters of the 1940s and 1950s, supplying signature material first to Roy Acuff and then to Kitty Wells. Jack Anglin, however, enjoyed the widest commercial reach after teaming with brother-in-law Johnnie Wright in the early 1940s. As Johnnie & Jack, the pair scored repeated RCA Victor successes until Jack's death in a 1963 automobile accident.
Michigan's Old Homestead label assembled a 1979 collection that gathered every commercially issued Anglin Brothers track. The set leans heavily on humorous and sentimental numbers cast in established forms, several of which subsequent artists appear to have absorbed from the brothers' radio and recorded performances. "Uncle Eph's Got the Coon," for example, became a signature piece for Grandpa Jones, while "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies" ranked among Hank Williams' preferred gospel numbers.
The brothers entered the world in Franklin, TN, as part of a sizable family yet spent their childhood in Athens, AL. While still adolescents, they received guidance from northern Alabama's Delmore Brothers. Relocating to Nashville in 1930, the Anglins drew personal encouragement from witnessing the Delmores on the Grand Ole Opry and soon resolved to launch performing careers of their own. By 1933 the three had coalesced into a working trio, with Jack on guitar, Jim on string bass, and Red supplying vocal harmonies.
Mid-decade brought an unpaid berth on Nashville's WSIX, after which the Delmores secured them a paying slot on Birmingham, AL's WAPI. Regional recognition prompted the ARC label to approach the Anglins ahead of its 1937 San Antonio sessions, which generated the hit single "They Are All Going Home but One."
The group shifted to Memphis station WMC in 1938 and recorded once more that year, this time in Columbia, SC. Of the 34 sides the Anglin Brothers cut, only 14 appeared, all on ARC's recently purchased Vocalion imprint. Broadcast work in New Orleans and Atlanta ended when Red entered the military; he suffered wounds during the Allied invasion of France.
Jim Anglin later ranked among the leading songwriters of the 1940s and 1950s, supplying signature material first to Roy Acuff and then to Kitty Wells. Jack Anglin, however, enjoyed the widest commercial reach after teaming with brother-in-law Johnnie Wright in the early 1940s. As Johnnie & Jack, the pair scored repeated RCA Victor successes until Jack's death in a 1963 automobile accident.
Michigan's Old Homestead label assembled a 1979 collection that gathered every commercially issued Anglin Brothers track. The set leans heavily on humorous and sentimental numbers cast in established forms, several of which subsequent artists appear to have absorbed from the brothers' radio and recorded performances. "Uncle Eph's Got the Coon," for example, became a signature piece for Grandpa Jones, while "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies" ranked among Hank Williams' preferred gospel numbers.