Bluegrass Trivia Challenge

[Mandolin Cafe]

A good mandolin pal in Kansas City tells me this mandolin player on this album is a great--I agree--wants to know who it is. I do too. His note to me:

I am looking for the name of a mando jock that played on an album from 1963 by Bill Harrell and the Virginians. I can come up with the names of everyone but him.

Bill Harrell-guitar/vox
Buck Ryan-fiddle
Sydney Edwards-bass/vox
Smitty Edwards-banjo/vox
Mandolin...unknown.
Help!???

[Timbofood]

There's a little taste of "Dean Webb" touch on "Jesse James", it's sure not his picture but, maybe some influence? I've got nuthin'.
Scott, this is a serious mind tester!

[Mandoplumb]

I can't bring the picture in plain on this I pad, but Red Rector recorded with him in the early years, I think, but it is not Red. I also think Smiley Hobbs played with him some in the 60's. Could it be him?

[bassandmando]

That is Smiley Hobbs in the picture.

[Ivan Kelsall]

A look at this web page re. ''The Wonderful world.... " shows that Smiley Hobbs wrote 2 of the tunes on the album:-
https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Harrell...elease/8252230 So - Smiley Hobbs ,
Ivan

[almeriastrings]

Very fine picking. I agree it is Smiley Hobbs - much underated. Buck Ryan was also a heck of a fine fiddle player. I saw him live with Harrell when he was with Don Reno. I can't remember for sure but I THINK it was Smiley Hobbs on mandolin on those gigs too. I do know whoever it was, he was extremely good. I also seem to recall Smiley Hobbs did some twin fiddle with Buck Ryan?

[Timbofood]

I love this!

[ralph johansson]

On my first and only visit to the US, decades ago, I spent a cuple of weeks in Washington, DC. Me and Fred Geiger (a banjo player) one evening went to see Smiley Hobbs' group in a club in Arlington, Va. Fred persuaded me to sit in with the band on one tune, playing Hobbs' mandolin (with moderately high action, in stark contrast to Doyle Lawson's Homer Ledford that I had tried weeks earlier in Lexington, Ky). As I recall Hobbs was very nice, listening intently to my playing and smiling encouragingly all the time. The tune, I still remember this, was Snow Deer. The fiddler -I forget his name - hadn't played it in quite a while but appreciated my choice of tune and did a very good job on it.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Cool info. Thank you, everyone. My long-time friend in KC who is a fine traditional bluegrasser thinks you'all nailed it after looking up info on him. And what a kick in the pants this album is. A great listen to bluegrass from another time. Wonderful.

[dshipp]

A look at this web page re. ''The Wonderful world.... " shows that Smiley Hobbs wrote 2 of the tunes on the album:-
https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Harrell...elease/8252230 So - Smiley Hobbs ,
Ivan

Good detective work, though I'd be careful using this record's attributions as definitive. They also show that Bill Harrell wrote "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy," "Pretty Polly," "Flower Blooming in the Wildwood" and "Good Woman's Love." Really?

[Timbofood]

Well, didn't A.P Carter pretty much "write" everything!?
Some folks simply don't see any distinction between, written, arranged, found, borrowed, gifted, stolen, or any other variables in the music business.
Just an observation.

[Willie Poole]

My bet is that it WAS Smiley Hobbs, I have seen that band many many times and Smiley was always the mandolin player