Milk ’Em in the Evening Blues – The McGee Brothers and Arthur Smith
This record cover for the “Old timers of the Grand Ole Opry” is one of about two dozen designed by Craig Mierop for Folkways Records. While Mierop successfully submitted two typeface designs to Photo-Lettering, Inc., he’s been more prolific as a graphic designer than as lettering artist. And obviously he’s a daring type user! For the title, Mierop chose Seymour Chwast’s bottom-heavy Art Tone, and paired it with another flamboyant typeface for the band name: Hobo caps with a shaded upper half plus contour, set on a curve. This variation of Morris F. Benton’s 1910 design was added by PLINC in 1966 and is shown in the One Line catalog as Hobo Carousel (see also this Byrds single).
The McGee Brothers, Sam (1894–1975) and Kirk (1899–1983), played as a musical duo for 50 years beginning in the mid-1920s. Steeped in the tradition of “old-time” string band music, Sam, on guitar, and Kirk, on banjo and fiddle, were joined in the 1930s with Arthur Smith on fiddle and banjo to form the Dixieliners. The McGees enjoyed a resurgence during the folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, musician Mike Seeger (The New Lost City Ramblers) reunited the McGees with Smith and in 1968 recorded their first album together. This is their only recording as a trio.
Cover photograph courtesy of Mike McGee.
