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Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum

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Recognizing the pioneers of bluegrass music.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams career in bluegrass has spanned seven decades. He is best known for a six-year stretch with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys but also had a memorable run with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers and more recently fronted his own band, the Victory Trio. As a songwriter, he has over 125 songs to his credit.

Born in Wytheville, Virginia, in 1935, Paul received a mandolin from his father before he was ten and was soon making music with a distant cousin, Jimmy Williams. Although Paul was born with the last name of Humphrey, he adopted the stage name of Williams so that he and Jimmy could be billed as the Williams Brothers.

In their early teens, the Williams Brothers landed a spot on radio station WPUV in nearby Pulaski, Virginia. The duo toured with an act known as Black Whip, which also included a banjo player who was billed as Uncle Leroy. Their next stop was WWYO in Pineville, West Virginia, where the boys signed on with the English Ramblers, a group that featured banjo, fiddle, mandolin and guitar. Yet another switch came when they migrated to Marion, Virginia, and radio station WMEV. Here they were hired by Cousin Zeke Leonard for his Virginia Valley Boys.

In the early part of 1951, Paul and Jimmy landed with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. The group was headquartered out of radio station WHIS in Bluefield, West Virginia. Just sixteen at the time, Paul received a salary five dollars per show. In May of the next year, following Jimmy’s departure, Paul recorded the first of two Nashville sessions with the group, playing guitar and singing lead and tenor. Three of the four RCA releases bore his name as composer: “You Broke Your Promise,” “I’m Left Alone,” and “Nobody Cares (Not Even You).” A second session, in October, included two of Paul’s songs: “My Brown Eyed Darling” and “That’s Why You Left Me So Blue.”

At the start of 1953, the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers relocated to Detroit to appear on WJR’s Saturday night Big Barn Frolic. Band members secured day jobs to supplement their income. During the band’s tenure in Detroit, Paul cut his final session with the group. They recorded six selections at a studio in Chicago in August 1953, none of them written by Paul.

Shortly after the session, Paul briefly joined the Stanley Brothers, whose Clinch Mountain Boys included his cousin Jim Williams. Paul roomed at the Stanley home on Smith Ridge in rural Dickenson County, Virginia. At the start of 1954, he enlisted in the Air Force. While stationed in the Far East, Paul played electric guitar in a country band.

Upon his discharge from the Air Force, Paul visited with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, then headquartered at radio station WLSI in Pikeville, Kentucky. It was here that Jimmy Martin called, asking him to replace Earl Taylor on mandolin and tenor vocals in the Sunny Mountain Boys. Paul joined Jimmy in Detroit in the fall of 1957 and played nightclubs three nights a week. Also in the band was banjo player J.D. Crowe. The trio of Martin, Williams, and Crowe made the Sunny Mountain Boys one of the most dynamic groups in bluegrass history.

In February of 1958, Martin moved the band to Shreveport where they appeared on KWKH and the Louisiana Hayride. Also in February, Paul cut his first session with Martin, at Bradley Studio in Nashville. Six songs were recorded, including Paul’s “I Like to Hear ‘Em Preach It.”

During his six years as a Sunny Mountain Boy, Paul recorded eleven sessions and forty-nine songs. He returned to the studio with Jimmy as a guest in 1967 and 1968, adding two sessions and six more songs. By his own reckoning, Paul wrote at least half of the songs he recorded with Martin. Some were credited in his own name, some were listed as joint collaborations between himself and Martin, and others—for whatever reason—were copyrighted in Jimmy’s name. In at least one instance, one of Paul’s songs was published under his wife’s name. Among his credited and uncredited triumphs are bluegrass classics: “Night,” “Hold Whatcha Got,” “The Joke’s On You,” “Old Fashioned Christmas,” “I Can, I Will, I Do Believe,” “My Walking Shoes,” “Pretending I Don’t Care,” “Mr. Engineer,” and “Shut-In’s Prayer.”

While in Shreveport, Paul left Martin briefly to perform with James O’Gwynn, another Hayride artist. By the latter part of 1958, Williams was back with Jimmy Martin in time to move to Wheeling, West Virginia, and WWVA. Many cite the band’s tenure there as its artistic and commercial high point.

In 1963, Paul received salvation and subsequently turned in his notice to Jimmy Martin. For the next thirty years he held non-musical jobs, retiring from the U.S. Post Office in 1995. During these decades, he continued to keep a hand in music by being the choir director for his church and a member of an a cappella gospel quartet which had a program on radio station WMTN in Morristown, Tennessee.

Coinciding with his retirement, Paul launched his own gospel group, the Victory Trio. The group toured for the next fifteen years, averaging an album a year, starting with Ain’t God Good for Rounder. All of his subsequent band projects, as well as a duet album with veteran Cliff Waldron, appeared on Rebel. In 2010, he teamed up with Doyle Lawson and J.D. Crowe for Old Friends Get Together on the Mountain Home label. The album won IBMA awards for Recorded Event of the Year and Gospel Event of the Year. A second release, Standing Tall and Tough, followed (2014), as well as a duet project by Paul and Doyle called Chapter Three (2017).

Over the years, Paul’s songs have been covered by a number of artists including Jimmy Martin, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Hank Williams, Jr., Ernest Tubb, Charlie Walker, Ray Charles, the Osborne Brothers, IIIrd Tyme Out, Marty Raybon, Doyle Lawson, the Primitive Quartet, Vernon Oxford, and Here Today (David Grisman, Emory Gordy Jr., Herb Pedersen, Jim Buchanan and Vince Gill).

In 2013 Paul scaled back his performance activities but he continues to make select appearances with Doyle Lawson and J.D. Crowe as well as with the Victory Trio.

– Gary Reid is a bluegrass music historian, journalist, producer, and actor based in Roanoke, Virginia.

The Copyright Office database credits Paul Williams with 137 published compositions, co-compositions, or arrangements, including:

• “Ain’t God Good”
• “Deep River”
• “Mr. Engineer”
• “My Walking Shoes”
• “Old Fashioned Christmas”
• “One Kiss Away from Loneliness”
• “Prayer Bells of Heaven”
• “Pretending I Don’t Care”
• “Stormy Waters”
• “Theme Time”

Early Influences

• George Humphrey (father)
• Two brothers (both played guitar)
• Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys
• Sauceman Brothers and the Green Valley Boys

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His music is personal and so is his show. A peep into the life of a truly gifted soul. The lyrics and melodies are truly 'Evergreen'. Many thanks for sharing your talent with us.

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Paul Williams and The Victory Trio: Just A Little Closer Home

by Jack Dwyer

“There’s Still Time”

The highlight of this album, of course, would have to be Williams’ powerful and pure tenor singing. Yet, he is skillfully accompanied by a cast of talented vocalists and pickers, which makes for an entertaining mix of bluegrass breakdowns, ballads, and ensemble singing.  The vocals shine particularly bright on the fourth and ninth tracks of the album, which are performed without instrumental accompaniment, in the classic bluegrass gospel a cappella style.  All this makes for good listening, especially for gospel fans, but also for those who aren’t normally drawn to gospel music. This is entirely due to Mr. Williams and his band, all of whom possess a high degree of musicianship, which they have succeeded in capturing on this recording.

Rebel Records

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Paul Williams & The Victory Trio

When you see or hear the name Paul Williams, the next thought will be of a quality person with a great voice and a smooth mandolin lick, using his talents to lift up the name of Jesus. Bluegrass fans love to hear great gospel tunes but if you want to  feel  bluegrass gospel, then Paul Williams and the Victory Trio are the real deal.

Paul’s love for music and the Lord began at the age of nine when his father bought him an “A” model Gibson mandolin to play in prayer meetings and church services. The love and dedication continue today with Paul and his great band traveling all over the country spreading the good news at churches, festivals and benefits.

Paul’s legendary career began with The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in the ’50s; he then went on to become one of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Paul did an extensive amount of song writing and recording during these years. Some of the songs he wrote during his time with Jimmy–“Don’t Cry To Me,” “Prayer Bells In Heaven,” and “I Like To Hear Them Preach It” to name a few–are considered bluegrass classics.

In August of 1963, Paul’s life was changed forever when he found the most precious gift of Salvation. He retired from the Bluegrass circuits, but continued to write songs and play in churches and radio broadcasts for the next thirty-three years.

In 1995, Paul formed the Victory Trio and began to play in churches around his Morristown, Tennessee, hometown. While the group was an immediate regional success, it took four years and the proper breaks to achieve national recognition. The band’s big break manifested itself as their second self-produced recording  Old Ways & Old Paths  was re-released on Rebel Records and subsequently nominated for a Grammy in 2000 in the Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album category.

Paul and The Victory Trio continued to release great bluegrass gospel albums through Rebel Records. As a result of these projects and appearances, they received many nominations for awards. In 2001, 2002 and 2003, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music (SPBGMA), and the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) nominated the band for Bluegrass Group of the Year, Bluegrass Gospel-Traditional Group of the Year and Bluegrass Vocal Group of the Year respectively. In February 2007, the group captured SPBGMA’s Bluegrass Gospel-Traditional Group of the Year.

On December 31, 2013 after over sixty years on the road and a very succesful career, Paul Williams retired.

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Phone: (434) 973-5151

© 2016 Rebel Records. All Rights Reserved.

Paul Williams: A Luminary Legacy in Bluegrass and Gospel

Saturday, November 16, 2024

"Big" Paul Williams, known by his birth name Paul Humphrey, is a beacon in the bluegrass and gospel music community [3]. With a career that has spanned decades, he has touched the hearts of many with his unique voice and incredible musical talent.

Bluegrass Today recently had the privilege of sitting with this early bluegrass legend, discussing his enriching journey in the music industry [1]. Williams has left an indelible mark from his inception in the music world to his fruitful career.

Alongside his accomplishments, the Victory Trio stands out. This group, led by Williams, is known for spreading good news through their soulful music. The band has traveled nationwide, performing in churches, festivals, and benefits, infusing spaces with joy and inspiration [2].

Though Williams has retired from touring with the Victory Trio, their legacy remains intact. While the specifics of a reunion are not mentioned in the provided search results, the mere mention of such an event would undoubtedly bring excitement to bluegrass and gospel enthusiasts around the globe.

In conclusion, Paul Williams and the Victory Trio's musical journey is a testament to the power of passion, dedication, and love for the craft. Their music continues to inspire, and their legacy will undoubtedly live on for generations to come.

• bluegrasstoday.com - One of the best - a conversation with Paul Williams
• rebelrecords.com - Paul Williams & The Victory Trio
• wikipedia.org - Paul Williams (bluegrass musician)

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Joe Mullins talks Old Fashioned Christmas and Paul Williams

Today is the release date for a new Christmas single from Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers , with a special guest vocal performance from Paul Williams, who is an old friend of the Mullins family.

As this weekend is the 60th wedding anniversary for Paul and his wife, Edria, Joe put together this lovely remembrance to coincide with the release of the single, Old Fashioned Christmas , one Paul wrote back in the late 1950s.

Take it away, Joe…

Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Paul Williams was writing songs before he was even a teenager. By age 17, he was recording his songs for RCA Victor with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. 

In the fall of 1957, Paul completed his service with the US Air Force. Within a few weeks he received a call from Jimmy Martin who asked Paul to join the Sunny Mountain Boys in Detroit, Michigan. Martin was working a jamboree show and a variety of night clubs. 

Paul arrived in Detroit in November 1957. “I made it to Jimmy’s house and this skinny red-headed kid was stretched out on the couch. It was J.D. Crowe,” Paul recalled. He was 22 years old, Crowe had just turned 20, Martin was 30. “J.D. showed me what Jimmy wanted on the mandolin, and worked with me everyday learning the songs I needed to know.” The two were close friends until Crowe’s passing in 2021.

When the December calendar gave them a break, Jimmy insisted Paul go home to Tennessee for Christmas with the Martin family. “I didn’t want to go, but Jimmy insisted I shouldn’t stay in Detroit by myself, so, I rode with Jimmy and Barbara to Sneedville, Tennessee, for the family Christmas gathering,” said Paul. “I met Jimmy’s brothers and sisters, and we spent a few days together. This was the first time I met Edria, Jimmy’s youngest sister. She was 17. By the end of the visit in Tennessee, I was able to kiss her for the first time. I knew right then, immediately, if she would have me I would marry her!”

The trip back to Detroit began, and in the backseat of Jimmy’s Cadillac, Paul Williams wrote his first of many songs for the Sunny Mountain Boys – Old Fashioned Christmas. The beautiful lyrics really capture the festive spirit of the season, and Paul wrote a recitation that Jimmy delivered, personally. “I can see my brothers, Johnny and Roy……mother and dad admiring each one so dear,” a direct accounting of the scenes from the Martin home place in 1957. Martin and his Sunny Mountain Boys, including Paul and J.D., recorded the song in the summer of 1960, and it was released by Decca Records to country radio for the 1960 holiday season.

By Christmas of 1960, Paul and Edria had furthered their courtship, much by mail, as the Jimmy Martin show had left Detroit for Shreveport, and then Wheeling. In eastern Kentucky, my dad, Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Paul “Moon” Mullins, was on air each weekday at WGOH in Grayson. Old Fashioned Christmas became a seasonal hit on my dad’s radio program, immediately. As Dad’s career progressed, he made history on radio at Middletown, Ohio’s WPFB from 1964 until 1989. And every holiday season, Old Fashioned Christmas was heard almost daily, and has always been a family favorite. My wife Tammy’s family even had the Decca Records LP of Country Christmas songs, and we heard Jimmy and Paul singing Old Fashioned Christmas at her parents’ home every Christmas Eve when we were dating, and then first married in the 1980s. 

The song, and my friendship with Paul, are so special to me, that I really wanted to record the song with The Radio Ramblers. I called Paul on Christmas Day last year, in 2021, and told him I would like him to do the recitation and be part of our recording. He didn’t hesitate, and his sincere Christmas wishes in our new version of this classic will be part of the holiday season for the next generation. 

I’m glad to also deliver the “rest of the story.” Nearly five years after that first Christmas kiss for Paul and Edria in 1957, a phone call came to Martin’s Ferry, Ohio, where Paul was living across the Ohio river from the Wheeling Jamboree, the regular Saturday night show for the Sunny Mountain Boys. “If you want to marry me be in Morristown, Tennessee in the morning.” Paul scrambled to find a Greyhound bus that could get him to east Tennessee. Paul said, “I’d never been to Morristown and didn’t know IF I could get there in one night. But I made it the next morning.” The wedding happened at the preacher’s house the afternoon of December 4, 1962. 

HAPPY 60 th ANNIVERSARY to Paul and Edria! You are both so loved by the bluegrass community and we wish both of you the best Old Fashioned Christmas , ever. 

Joe also shared some photos from Paul and Edria’s wedding. The reason for the sudden call and scramble to get back to Tennessee was that Edria’s sister, Erma, was to be married that day to her husband, Marvin, and the two sisters wanted to have a double wedding.

You can check out all the Christmas bluegrass we have covered at Bluegrass Today by following this link .

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Moscow Metro Tour

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Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

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