Biography
This bluegrass duo drew in an assortment of untamed and occasionally nameless instrumentalists during their studio dates, and they played a major role in establishing the country duet sound across New England. Although that region later became a recognized center for bluegrass and country music, the New England states had previously lacked the style so thoroughly that casual listeners would never have placed Jerry Howarth or Schuyler Snow in New Hampshire; their piercing, lonesome vocal blend instead evoked Tennessee, North Carolina, or West Virginia. The close-harmony pair actually came from Portsmouth, where their signature attraction was an intricate web of synchronized yodels, a vocal device so distinctive that no one has since attempted to duplicate it. Initial publicity falsely presented Jerry and Sky as brothers from Tennessee. In reality the unrelated friends had known each other since childhood and shared an early fascination with music. Howarth idolized yodeling cowboys including Alberta’s Wilf Carter and Western entertainer Elton Britt, while Schuyler favored the Delmore Brothers, whom he first encountered on local broadcasts. The pair reached radio listeners themselves in 1938 via Portsmouth’s WHEB. Like many country acts of the era they cultivated a cowboy persona, appearing in promotional photographs posed beside horses, with Snow visibly uneasy about the animals.
Boston, hardly a cowboy town, served as the team’s primary base throughout most of their performing years. They appeared on stations such as WEEI and WBZ, and several programs aired over the Mutual Network, extending their reach throughout New England. The duo also spent time in Albany and traveled north to the Canadian Maritime provinces and south to Washington, D.C. New York publisher and songwriter Bob Miller arranged their first recording date in 1945 for the Chicago-based Sonora label, which had previously documented Fred Kirby, Whitey and Hogan, and the Carolina Playboys. That debut session produced the duo’s best-known number, “Sparkling Brown Eyes,” a song Billy Cox had written in the 1930s and that resurfaced as a country hit in later decades, including a 1970s version by Dickie Lee. The same sessions included a frenetic “Orange Blossom Special” performed by several uncredited New York musicians whose violin work anticipated the experimental style of Polly Bradfield decades later. Mandolinist and dobro player Ralph Jones, a West Virginian who had accompanied the singers for years, received credit on the Sonora sides. On subsequent recordings Jerry and Sky employed their own group, the Melodymen, again featuring Jones alongside fiddler Allen Arthur; Tex Logan also played fiddle with the ensemble before later becoming a rocket scientist.
After cutting more than a dozen titles for Sonora the pair moved to the larger Decca roster in 1949, completing two sessions that yielded considerable unreleased material. Jerry and Sky remained active into the mid-1950s, though the cancellation of live radio programs reduced their opportunities and they shifted to touring military bases before eventually retiring from performing. Howarth continued in radio and managed a station in Quincy, Massachusetts, during the 1970s. Snow took a position with the Dale Carnegie Schools and ceased public performances. Several later New England bluegrass ensembles, among them Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys, have cited the duo as a formative influence.
Boston, hardly a cowboy town, served as the team’s primary base throughout most of their performing years. They appeared on stations such as WEEI and WBZ, and several programs aired over the Mutual Network, extending their reach throughout New England. The duo also spent time in Albany and traveled north to the Canadian Maritime provinces and south to Washington, D.C. New York publisher and songwriter Bob Miller arranged their first recording date in 1945 for the Chicago-based Sonora label, which had previously documented Fred Kirby, Whitey and Hogan, and the Carolina Playboys. That debut session produced the duo’s best-known number, “Sparkling Brown Eyes,” a song Billy Cox had written in the 1930s and that resurfaced as a country hit in later decades, including a 1970s version by Dickie Lee. The same sessions included a frenetic “Orange Blossom Special” performed by several uncredited New York musicians whose violin work anticipated the experimental style of Polly Bradfield decades later. Mandolinist and dobro player Ralph Jones, a West Virginian who had accompanied the singers for years, received credit on the Sonora sides. On subsequent recordings Jerry and Sky employed their own group, the Melodymen, again featuring Jones alongside fiddler Allen Arthur; Tex Logan also played fiddle with the ensemble before later becoming a rocket scientist.
After cutting more than a dozen titles for Sonora the pair moved to the larger Decca roster in 1949, completing two sessions that yielded considerable unreleased material. Jerry and Sky remained active into the mid-1950s, though the cancellation of live radio programs reduced their opportunities and they shifted to touring military bases before eventually retiring from performing. Howarth continued in radio and managed a station in Quincy, Massachusetts, during the 1970s. Snow took a position with the Dale Carnegie Schools and ceased public performances. Several later New England bluegrass ensembles, among them Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys, have cited the duo as a formative influence.
Singles