The Georgia Yellow Hammers is an old-time string and vocal quartet from Gordon County, Georgia from the 1920s. The group featured Charles Moody, Jr. on guitar; Bud Landress on banjo; Phil Reeve on guitar; and Bill Chitwood

Bill Chitwood

William Hewlitt "Bill" Chitwood was a fiddle player from Resaca, Georgia. He was born in 1891. He also played banjo, as did many of the members of the band he most frequently played with, The Georgia Yellow Hammers....

 on fiddle.

Collaboration with the Baxters

The group often played with Andrew and Jim Baxter

Andrew and Jim Baxter

Andrew Baxter, African-American fiddle player, and Jim Baxter, African-American-Cherokee singer/guitar player, were father and son, respectively, and performed their fiddle/guitar duet from Gordon County, Georgia in the 1920s as the Baxter Brothers...

 from Curryville, GA (also in Gordon County). Curryville was also home to music legend Roland Hayes

Roland Hayes

Roland Hayes was a lyric tenor and is considered the first African American male concert artist to receive wide international acclaim as well as at home...

. Andrew Baxter's unique style of fiddle is heard an early recording of a band favorite entitled "G-Rag". Interestingly enough, the Baxter's were African Americans. This is an interesting note due to the time period. The band released one of the top selling records of 1920s southern music with 1927's release "The Picture on the Wall"/"My Carolina Girl". The 1927 recording session with the Baxter's took place in Charlotte, NC, and was a rare integrated session, uncommon even through the mid to late 20th century. Andrew and Jim Baxter were a well known duo for the time in their own right around Northwest Georgia.

Legacy

The band is nationally recognized as an important 1920s "old-time" band. Their songs can still be heard from early recordings on such sites as YouTube.com and others. The song "Drifting Too Far From The Shore" written by member Charles Moody has been covered by such artists/ bands as The Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

, Hank Williams, Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...

, Phil Lesh & Friends and many others, as well as being a standard in many gospel hymnals. The Calhoun High School

Calhoun High School (Calhoun, Georgia)

Calhoun High School is a grades 9-12 Public High school in Calhoun, Georgia. It is accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission, by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and is a member of Georgia High School Association...

 football stadium in Calhoun, Georgia is also named after the guitar player and founding member Phil Reeve.

Further reading

• Wayne W. Daniel, Pickin' on Peachtree: A History of Country Music in Atlanta, Georgia (Urbana: University of Illinois Press
  University of Illinois Press
  The University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...
  
  , 1990), 76-77.
• The Encyclopedia of Country Music, ed. Paul Kingsbury (New York: Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
  
  , 1998), s.v. "Georgia Yellow Hammers."
• Gene Wiggins and Tony Russell, "Hell Broke Loose in Gordon County, Georgia
  Gordon County, Georgia
  Gordon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 44,104. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 52,044. The county seat is Calhoun.- History :...
  
  ," Old Time Music 25 (summer 1977): 9-21.
• Charles K. Wolfe, "The Georgia Yellow Hammers," in Classic Country: Legends of Country Music (New York: Routledge, 2001).
• Tony Russell, Old Time Music Journal