John McGhee Born:  April 8, 1882 Died:  May 9, 1945 WSAZ Huntington, WV

About The Artist John Leftridge McGhee's major contributions to the history of country music came through his partnership as a recording artist with Frank Welling. However, both men made solo recordings and also worked with others on recordings and other musical endeavors. Welling relocated to Charleston about 1937 while McGhee remained in Huntington where he and his wife had a paper hanging business. John McGhee was born in the Lincoln County village of Griffithsville, but moved with his family to the new booming city of Huntington (founded in 1875 as a Chesapeake and Ohio Railway terminus). Many older family members had been Baptist ministers. In 1905, he married Susie Eskew and they subsequently reared six children and ran their painting and paper hanging operation. According to their youngest daughter Anna, Susie did much of the business work while John spent much of his time in musical activities like church choirs, barbershop quartets, hymn sings, minstrel shows, playing piano in silent movie houses, operettas, playing for dances, and eventually making phonograph records from 1927 until 1932. From about 1917, many of these activities also involved a younger man Frank Welling (1898-1957) who had developed skills on the Hawaiian guitar and at one point toured in vaudeville with an act called Domingos Filipino [sic] Serenaders. They often worked and sang together in their varied endeavors. Like some other West Virginia artists-David Miller, Bill Cox, etc.- they seem to have been put in contact with record companies through the intercession of William R. Calaway. Both men did their first recordings for the Starr Piano Company, makers of Gennett and Champion Records, as well as Sears, Roebuck labels in November and December 1927. Most of the sacred numbers were credited to Welling and McGhee while the topical and comedy numbers were only to John McGhee (both men may have furnished instrumentation). Welling usually played either standard or Hawaiian guitar and sang lead. McGhee played guitar and harmonica and his bass voice made their duets sound somewhat odd to modern listeners more accustomed to lead and tenor harmonies. This pattern persisted through their recording career as it went from Gennett to Paramount, Brunswick, and the American Record Corporation. In addition, their recordings were leased to Sears. Montgomery Ward, budget and dime store labels, often released under a wide of number of pseudonyms. Once the Great Depression began to hit bottom McGhee's recording career ended although Welling lasted a little longer. Frank then went to Charleston and WCHS. McGhee continued in Huntington although his children thought he seemed depressed in later years, never quite the same after his musical life faded, dying at age 63. Credits & Sources Hillbilly-Music.com would like to express its thanks to Ivan M. Tribe, author of Mountaineer Jamboree — Country Music in West Virginia and other books that can be found on Amazon.com and numerous articles in other publications for providing us with information about this artist.

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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)   Conqueror Rec. No. Side Song Title   8638 A You Are as Welcome as the Flowers in May   8638 B Maple on the Hill (w/Frank Welling)   Gennett Rec. No. Side Song Title   6362 A The Sinking of the Submkarine S-4   6362 B The Marion Parker Murder   6403 A The Preacher and the Bear   6403 B I Got Mine   6419 A Aged Mother   6419 B Breaking of the St. Francis Dam   6450 A The Volunteer Organist   6450 B Bring Me Back the Old Time Music   6479 A Bill Bailey, Won't You Come Home   6479 B Bill Bailey, Ain't that a Shame   6546 A Hard Luck Jim   6546 B Not McGhee: Calaway's West Virginia Mountaineers (that may have included McGhee)   6587 A A Suffering Child Made Happy   6587 B Hatfield-McCoy Feud (w/West Virginia Mountaineers)   6703 A The Vestris Disaster   6703 B My Old Cottage Home   6721 A I Want to Be a Worker for the Lord   6721 B Where the Gates Swing Outward Never   6795 A He Included Me   6795 B Leaning on the Everlasting Arms   6932 A Calling the Prodigal   6932 B There's Glory In My SOul (not John McGhee)   6960 A Life Ain't Worth Living when You're Broke   6960 B My Wife Left Me (Kirk McGee?)   7096 A The Great Airplane Crash   7096 B Pictures from Life's Other Side (by Frank Welling)   7168 A You're As Welcome as the Flowers in May   7168 B When the Harvest Days Are Over, Jesse Dear   Paramount Rec. No. Side Song Title   3230 A Just Kiss Yourself Goodbye (as Billy Whoop)   3230 B Why Don't You Go (as Billy Whoop)   3234 A Columbus Prison Fire   3234 B The Prisoner's Child   3253 A (If You Can't Be a Bell Cow) Fall in Behind (as Billy Whoop)   3253 B Since I Married that Actor Man (as Billy Whoop)