Jim Eanes

Over five decades Smilin' Jim Eanes shaped both bluegrass and country without ever attaining major stardom. Born Homer Robert Eanes, Jr. in Mountain Valley, Virginia, he received his first guitar at age nine from his father, a banjo player. An injury to his left hand caused ongoing pain, yet he developed a firm command of rhythm guitar. During his early teens he performed square dances alongside his father’s informal string band, and at sixteen he joined Roy Hall’s Blue Ridge Entertainers on a Roanoke radio station, staying with the group until Hall’s death in 1943. After World War II he performed with Uncle Joe & the Blue Mountain Boys and spent a brief period in 1948 alongside Bill Monroe.

Eanes made his first recordings in 1949 under his birth name, accompanied by fiddler Homer Sherrill and banjoist Snuffy Jenkins. Securing a radio position in Virginia, he formed the Shenandoah Valley Boys in 1951; the group issued several singles on the small Blue Ridge imprint before moving to Decca. Although his style had leaned heavily toward bluegrass, Decca steered him toward country material. The resulting singles enjoyed respectable sales without reaching the charts. When the Decca contract ended in 1955, Eanes—now presenting the band as Smilin’ Jim & His Boys—began recording for Starday. His first single there, “Your Old Standby,” became one of his signature pieces. Over the next five years the Shenandoah Valley Boys produced albums for both Starday and Blue Ridge. Among the many originals he wrote during this stretch was “I Wouldn't Change You If I Could,” which reached number one for Ricky Skaggs in 1982.

Throughout the 1960s Eanes worked as a deejay at various Virginia stations while making occasional appearances and recordings for independent labels. He released his debut bluegrass album, Your Old Standby, in 1967. The follow-up LPs Jim Eanes and Rural Rhythms Present Jim Eanes featured support from Red Smiley & the Bluegrass Cut-Ups. After Smiley retired from regular appearances on WWVA’s Wheeling Jamboree, Eanes assumed leadership of the band and renamed it the Shenandoah Cutups; they recorded one album in 1970 before disbanding.

Eanes subsequently hosted festivals and cut bluegrass albums for smaller labels, among them the well-regarded Cool Waters Flow. A heart attack in 1978 halted his heavy touring schedule, but he recovered in time to undertake a Western European tour the following year, repeating the journey in 1980 and 1982. While in Belgium he recorded with the local group Smoketown Strut. During the remainder of the 1980s he reduced his road work yet continued to record, marking fifty years in music with the 1990 release 50th Anniversary.