Burns was born in Conasauga, Tennessee on March 10, 1920. His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee when he was three. In 1936, he auditioned for a talent contest at Knoxville radio station WNOX where he met Henry Haynes, also 16. The two formed a duo and WNOX program director Lowell Blanchard gave them the stage names Homer and Jethro after forgetting their names on the air.
Burns was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II and reunited with Haynes, who had served in the Pacific, in Knoxville in 1945. By 1947, the duo moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and were working at WLW on the station's Midwestern Hayride. They signed with King Records, where they worked as a house band and recorded singles on their own, and two years later signed with RCA Records. The pair were fired along with other stars by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, Missouri and performed on KWTO with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson.
In 1949, they moved to Chicago, Illinois and played at the Chicago Theatre. Between shows, they would go to WLS to appear live on National Barn Dance. While performing on WLS, Burns met and married his wife, Lois Johnson, who he called Gussie. Her twin sister Leona was married to Atkins.
In 1959, they won a Grammy for the best comedy performance in 1959 for "The Battle of Kookamonga", a parody of Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans".
Burns was a highly-influential mandolin stylist, preferring clean single-note jazzy melodies and sophisticated chords over the dominant bluegrass stylings of Bill Monroe, and since he performed mostly in a country music setting, introduced many country mandolinists to sophisticated jazz harmonies and improvisational techniques, as well as standards from the songbooks of Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and Cole Porter.
By the 1970s, Burns' influence had spread to a younger generation of bluegrass and "new-acoustic" musicians, most notably New Grass Revival mandolinist Sam Bush. His participation in Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns, an independently released album produced by promoter Hank Deane, was reportedly at Bush's suggestion. During that same decade, Burns' acquaintance with erstwhile bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman led to Burns' writing a number of music/humor columns in the Grisman-published journal Mandolin World News. Grisman also produced a 1978 duet album on Kaleidoscope Records, Back to Back, featuring Burns and Western swing electric mandolinist Tiny Moore. Although Burns and Moore were approximately the same age and were among the few of their generation to make their reputations playing jazz and swing mandolin, the two had never met prior to the production of the album, its liner notes report.
After Haynes died in 1971, Burns's regular musical partner was guitarist Ken Eidson, with whom he co-authored an influential mandolin method tome (Mel Bay's Complete Jethro Burns Mandolin Book, still in print), and they continued to perform as Homer and Jethro. After the partnership ended, Burns continued to play, most notably with Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman. He appeared on several of Goodman's albums and also toured nationally with him. At times he appeared in the Million Dollar Band on TV's Hee Haw with Atkins and swing fiddler Johnny Gimble. He also became a master teacher of mandolin jazz. He died in 1989 from prostate cancer in Evanston, Illinois.
In 2001, Burns and Haynes were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Some of Burns' most influential recordings (in order of recording):
Bear Family BCD-15728AH Jazz From the Hills, Country All Stars (reissue of sessions from 1952–1955); with Jerry Byrd, Chet Atkins, Henry D. Haynes, Dale Potter
RCA Victor Playing It Straight (1962), Homer and Jethro; reissued on CD by RCA Japan
RCA Victor It Ain't Necessarily Square (1965?), Homer and Jethro; reissued on CD by RCA Japan
RCA Camden Down Yonder and Other Old-Time Favorites (1967) by Wade Ray and the Country Fiddlers.
FRC-653-CD "The Puritan Sessions" with swing fiddler Keith Coleman; cut originally for Puritan label in 1975, but not issued until 1998
Flying Fish Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns (1975)
Acoustic Disc ACD-60 Back to Back (originally 1979 on Kaleidescope), with Tiny Moore, Eldon Shamblin, Shelly Manne, Ray Browne
Acoustic Disc ACD-15 Swing Low Sweet Mandolin (1987); with Don Stiernberg
Acoustic Disc ACD-29 Bye Bye Blues (1987); with Don Stiernberg
The two RCA Victor albums showcased Homer and Jethro as jazz musicians rather than comedy kings. They didn't have wide commercial appeal, so the studio gave them a free hand to select material, arrange and improvise.
The RCA Camden LP was a budget release by a studio group with Wade Ray (overdubbed fiddles), Sonny Osborne (banjo) and Homer and Jethro. Burns played jazzy interpretations of old-time fiddle standards.
Back to Back paired Burns with Western swing giant Moore and an all-star jazz rhythm section with Ron Carter und Shelly Manne.
The two ACD were recorded by Burns after his cancer was advancing; he and Stiernberg worked in an intimate setting to put as many of Burns' musical ideas on high-quality recordings for future generations to enjoy and for aspiring swing mandolinists (and guitarists) to learn from.
Laura
Jethro Burns Lyrics
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Of something that never happened, yet you recall it well
You know the feeling of recognizing someone
That you've never met as far as you could tell, well
Laura is the face in the misty light
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
The laugh that floats on a summer night
And you see Laura on the train that is passing through
Those eyes, how familiar they seem
She gave your very first kiss to you
That was Laura but she's only a dream
The lyrics of Jethro Burns's song Laura are a beautiful description of a feeling that is difficult to put into words. The feeling of something half remembered, something that never happened, yet you still remember it vividly. The song's first two lines create a sense of nostalgia and emotional depth, as it speaks to the universal human experience of feeling as if you've been somewhere before or experienced something that you haven't. The song's protagonist is remembering a girl named Laura who he has never met, but her face and other details are familiar to him.
The song's chorus describes the various ways in which Laura appears to the singer. She is the face in the misty light, the footsteps down the hall, the laugh that floats on a summer night. The nostalgia in the lyrics is heartbreaking, as the singer can't quite recall the details of Laura, despite her being so familiar to him. The chorus describes how the singer sees Laura on a train passing through and how her eyes seem so familiar to him. It evokes a sense of longing and sadness, as the singer realizes that Laura was only a dream.
Overall, the lyrics of Laura are incredibly moving and capture the essence of the human experience of nostalgia and memory. The song is a beautiful contemplation on the fleeting nature of memory and how powerful it can be to remember something that never happened.
Line by Line Meaning
You know the feeling of something half remembered
The sensation of being familiar with someone, yet unable to pinpoint precisely why.
Of something that never happened, yet you recall it well
Feeling a sense of familiarity with something you've never actually experienced.
You know the feeling of recognizing someone
Noticing a person and feeling like you know them, despite never meeting them before.
That you've never met as far as you could tell, well
Despite feeling like you know someone, you are still uncertain if you've ever met them before.
Laura is the face in the misty light
Laura represents an elusive image, never quite in focus or clear.
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
An ambiguous and cryptic sound that may or may not signify someone coming or going.
The laugh that floats on a summer night
The transient sound of joy and happiness that is both soothing and ephemeral.
That you can never quite recall
Although familiar, the memory is never fully realized or complete.
And you see Laura on the train that is passing through
A fleeting moment with Laura on a journey, with the train symbolizing time and change.
Those eyes, how familiar they seem
Laura's features are known and recognizable, even though she may be stranger than familiar.
She gave your very first kiss to you
Laura represents a formative and deeply personal experience of youth and young love.
That was Laura but she's only a dream
Laura's presence is ever-elusive and ethereal, only to be experienced in the realm of dreams and memories.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: David Raksin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind