Biography
Born on 21 April 1924 in Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky, USA, John Dill Jarvis picked up the guitar at age seven and later mastered the banjo, mandolin and bass as well. Traditional sounds captivated him from an early age, especially gospel material. Between 1942 and 1948 he served in the US Army and sustained serious wounds in World War II. Once recovered, he embraced Christianity with lasting commitment and collaborated with his friend Brother Claude Ely at the latter’s Cumberland, Kentucky church, contributing to a King Records session that captured Ely’s performance there. In 1959 Jarvis moved to Hamilton, Ohio, where he established a painting and decorating business to support himself. He began composing original material and appeared on area radio and television broadcasts as well as at local events. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he proved one of the era’s most productive recording artists, cutting sides for Jewel, Rural Rhythm, Vetco, Heart Warming, his own Down Home and Log Cabin imprints and additional companies, usually backed by whichever bluegrass players happened to be available locally, among them Buck Graves, Harley Gabbard and, on occasion, Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys. In later years noted gospel ensembles such as the Lewis Family and Ralph Stanley himself interpreted several of Jarvis’s compositions, including “Take Your Shoes Off Moses” and “Six Hours On The Cross.” He also penned patriotic and narrative pieces such as “Thank God For Old Glory” and “The Hyden Mine Tragedy.” Into the 1990s he maintained a reduced schedule of musical activity in Hamilton while his son oversaw the ongoing decorating firm.