The Smokey Mountain Boys

The Smokey Mountain Boys is a bluegrass band formed in 1930s by Roy Claxton Acuff. Roy Acuff was born in 1903 in Maynardsville, TN. He was labeled as “The King of Country Music” and was the first living performer to be selected for the Country Music Hall of Fame back in 1962.

As a child, Roy was not much into music but he would sing in the church where his father preached. Roy’s dad was a Baptist preacher but he also took interest in music and was an amateur fiddle player. Roy loved baseball but due to the multiple serious sunstrokes, he finally gave up his baseball career. Having to stay indoor most of the time, Roy frequently listened to one of his father’s recordings of some artists. He decided to learn fiddle.

In 1932, Roy joined Doc Hower’s medicine show. The show was going from one town to the other, using music performance as sales promotion for medicine called Moc-A-Tan. By the end of the tour, he started a band called Tennessee Crackerjacks. The band would later change its name to the Crazy Tennesseans. Acuff and his band recorded their first music in October 1936. One of their biggest hit songs, called “The Wabash Cannonball,” was probably their biggest money-maker.

Roy Acuff songs such as “The Prodigal Son” and “Lord Build Me a Cabin” are some of the songs that were influenced by religious beliefs. The Roy Acuff Theater was opened in 1979 in honor of Acuff’s legacy. The theater is located in Opryland.