Hillbilly-Music.comThe People. The Music. The History.
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About The Artist Jesse Elmo "Cannonball" Lewis, a Greenmount (Laurel County) Kentucky native, migrated first to Indiana and finally to Ohio. He played a style of music that straddled the line between country and what soon become known as bluegrass. Along the way, Lewis authored and recorded "Before I Met You," a number that became a bluegrass standard via a popular version by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs as well as Carl Smith. BMI awarded Joe a "Citation of Achievement" award in 1957 for the song. The tune was also on Charley Pride's first album for RCA Victor. In the spring of 1958, he wrote a Letter to the Editor of Country & Western Jamboree letting folks describing himself as a 'former country music recording artist' but was going to record again in the near future. He told readers that he had a copy of "Before I Met You" by either Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs or Carl Smith and the first ten that wrote him would get a copy. He mentioned he had some left over promotional discs. While living in Indiana in 1939, Joe won a talent contest that he considered his entry into the entertainment world. After that he played and sang at other local events until World War II broke out. He then served in the US Army until 1945, suffering injuries in the Italian campaign. After his release Joe renewed his musical activities on the club scene in the Greater Cincinnati-Dayton area. In 1951, Lewis began cutting a few sides for Carl Burkhardt's labels such as Gateway and Kentucky including the first "Before I Met You," and also signed with the major label, M-G-M. Fred Rose added the additional nickname "Cannonball" to his long-time nickname of Joe. Through 1954, he did sixteen songs for M-G-M, some original and some covers of other hits. Several of the numbers had railroad and trucker themes such as "Train Whistle Nightmare" "Railroad Engineer," and "Truck Driver's Night Run Blues." Successful covers included the Korean War song hit "Missing in Action" and Jimmie Skinner's "Down the Road to Love." It seems that Joe's manager in 1955 was upset with a columnist (Douglas Watt) in New York not giving Joe his just due in attention. El Rader pointed out that Joe was knocking them dead in personal appearances with a vocal trick. Joe was known for singing train songs. In those numbers he would produce a train whistle 'effect' what El Rader described as technically a whistle but was more like a "forced musical groan." It was said that the 'novel sound' "...originates in his throat as four separate and simultaneous music notes in harmony and then leaves his mouth sounding like a train whistle." In addition to his home area, Cannonball proved popular in such areas as Missouri and Arkansas. For a time, he lived in Fort Worth, Texas that was also a region where he had strong appeal. Billboard reported in 1958 that he partnered with El Rader to form the "Country Music Promotions" company that was headquartered in Cincinnati. Their aim was to engage in music publishing (Cannonball Music Inc.), free-lance record promotion and talent-scouting. After some years Joe got tired of traveling so much and took a warehouse manager job at Southwestern Steel in New Miami from which he retired at age 65. Overall, he was married twice, widowed once, and adopted several children. He also played a lot of churches and recorded some gospel numbers for the local label Melody. After retirement, he became more active, but still most of his activity was local. He died at age 77.
Credits & Sources
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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)
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