Paul Warren

Paul Warren distinguished himself as a bluegrass session fiddler whose bow graced countless radio broadcasts, television programs, and studio dates across more than three decades, yet he never issued a solo studio album during his lifetime. Born and raised in Hickman County, Tennessee, he absorbed his earliest musical ideas from his father’s clawhammer banjo playing and from Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith. In the mid-1930s he began performing at high-school dances alongside Emory Martin. He entered Johnnie Wright’s ensemble in 1938; within two years the group’s growing popularity allowed both musicians to leave their daytime employment and devote themselves entirely to music. Warren stayed with Wright and the Tennessee Hillbillies until his induction into the Army in 1942. According to longstanding accounts, he endured capture and a two-year internment in a German POW camp by performing “Under the Double Eagle” on the fiddle for his captors. Following his release from service he rejoined Wright’s band. When Wright later teamed with Jack Anglin to form the duo Johnnie & Jack, Warren continued as their accompanist until 1953; during the same period he also contributed to a year’s worth of Kitty Wells sessions that included the songs “It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels” and “Release Me.” In 1954 he replaced Benny Martin in Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, remaining with the group through all of its recordings until 1969. After the partnership between Flatt and Scruggs dissolved in the late 1960s, Warren continued with Flatt’s Nashville Grass until early 1977, when declining health compelled his retirement; he passed away the next year. Although he left no solo recordings, Lance Le Roy assembled a posthumous collection of his performances that appeared as a tribute album in 1979.