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Country Musician. Real name Johnny James Rimbert Tarlton. A native of Chesterfield County, South Carolina, he is best remembered for his partnership with musician Tom Darby in creating the popular country duo, Darby & Tarlton, that was popular throughout the early 1920s until the late 1930s. The two men who could play anything from plain old country, old timey, acoustic blues, folk-blues, to traditional music. The duo's whose early recordings included, "Birmingham Jail", and "Cumberland Stockade Blue", were considered not only legendary bluesmen, but also pioneers of country music. They also helped popularize the steel guitar and were a big influence on the Allen Brothers and the Delmore Brothers. Born to sharecroppers, Tarlton began his interest in music at an early age. His parents taught him to play traditional songs on both the banjo and harp. By the age of 12 he had learned to play the slide guitar by several local black musicians. In his teens Tarlton became a traveling street musician living off of tips. He eventually made his way across the country, performing and playing wherever he could find work. During the 1920s, while on the West Coast he met a musician named Frank Ferea, who taught him how to use the steel slide guitar to play the more free-flowing Hawaii guitar. After his encounter with Ferea he ended up in Columbus, Georgia, where he settled and soon met his future partner Tom Darby, who was at the time living in Columbus and was learning his vocal stylings from local black singers. Convinced by a local talent agent to play together, the two men decided to form the Darby & Tarlton duo and were quickly given an audition for Columbia Records. They signed with the label and soon released their first single, "Down In Florida On A Hog", a single which made fun of Florida land speculators. The duo's next two recordings were the more popular, "Birmingham Jail", and "Columbus Stockade Blues." Both recordings became country standards and sold more then 200,000 copies. Although the songs were a huge success the duo were only paid a rate of 75 dollars. In 1928, the duo released two more hits, "Birmingham Jail #2", and "Lonesome Railroad." This was followed by "Heavy Hearted Blues" and Traveling Yodel Blues." In 1929, the two men recorded their last session with Columbia, before ending there contract a year later due to difficulties. After leaving Columbia they were unable to find any work, and by 1935 they had left the music business. Somewhat forgotten until the 1960s, Tarlton was found living in retirement in Phenix City, Alabama, and was asked to play at several folk revival concerts. He obliged and went onto play concerts, appear at folk clubs, sit for interviews with a number of folklorists, and even released a new album. He also reunited briefly with his old partner Tom Darby, but due to their age they again quit the music business and lived in retirement. Tom Darby passed away in 1971. Tarlton lived out his final days in Columbus, dying in 1979, at the age of 77. Both men were buried in the Riverdale Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia. In 1998, Tarlton's unmarked grave was finally given a marker. The epitaph reads "Mr Jimmie", Johnny James Rimbert Tarlton, May 8, 1892-November 29, 1979, Co-Author "Columbus Stockade Blues." ~ Kris 'Peterborough K' Peterson
Darby & Tarlton
Darby and Tarlton were an American early country music duo, who achieved some level of success in the late 1920s. The duo consisted of Tom Darby (b. August 25, 1891 in Columbus, GA, d. August 20, 1971) and Jimmie Tarlton, (b. John James Rimbert Tarlton, May 8, 1892 in Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC, d. November 29, 1979 in Phenix City, AL).
Tarlton grew up on a farm in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, learning folk songs from an early age. His parents were sharecroppers and he had to help out with the chores. He still managed to find the time to learn the slide guitar and banjo. After working as a street musician in the 1920s, Tarlton met Frank Ferera, who taught him how to play the Hawaiian guitar. Tarlton soon moved to Columbus, Georgia, where he met Tom Darby. They began performing together and shortly, they were offered a chance to make a recording for Columbia Records. Two songs were cut on April 5, 1927, and the recording sold well enough to allow a second recording session. On November 10, 1927, they recorded four songs, among them "Birmingham Jail" and "Columbus Stockade Blues". The two songs, coupled on one record, became the duo's biggest hits selling more than 200,000 copies. Darby and Tarlton recorded 63 songs between 1927 and 1933. In 1933, they became hostile towards each other and went their separate ways professionally. Darby did, however, visit Tarlton occasionally. Tom Darby formed a short lived duo in 1931 together with Jesse Pitts, called The Georgia Wildcats. Darby and Tarlton both retired in 1935. In 1963, Darby and Tarlton reunited to perform in Weracoba Park (known locally as "Lakebottom") when they agreed to be part of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra's opening pops concert. Thomas P. Darby's nephew, Richard "Ricky" Whitley, claims that he learned guitar from Tom Darby and Jimmy Tarlton. Darby was quoted as saying in a 1963 interview with The Columbus Enquirer (now known as The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer) regarding the opening pops concert performance that "Tarlton’s fine wife said we sounded even better than before. Made goose pimples come up on her arms, she said." Darby was drafted during World War I, but was shortly thereafter honorably discharged due to being "unfit to serve" (flat feet). Darby was married to Alma "Olene" Darby (née Brown) until his death at the Columbus Medical Center, after a long bout with lung cancer. He was interred in Columbus, Georgia's Riverdale Cemetery in the Veteran's section. His wife died in 1984 after a brief illness and is buried beside him. The song "Little Ola" was actually written by Darby as a tribute to his wife ("Olene" Darby was several years his junior). After retiring from the music business, Darby had other business ventures, including a stint "running moonshine". He would row a boat filled with moonshine from a small island near Phenix City, Alabama (where his still was located) to the Columbus, Georgia, side across the Chattahoochee River. A simple yet effective method was employed to avoid prosecution. If "Olene" saw a "revenooer" (as they were called), she would wave a dark handkerchief. If it was safe, she would wave a light-colored handkerchief. On at least one occasion, a "revenooer" had shown up...and a dark-colored handkerchief was waved. Darby reversed course, rowing back to the Alabama side. When the agent approached Mrs. Darby, he asked what she was doing. She replied, "I was waving to my husband." When asked why he had turned around, she replied, "He must have forgotten something."
During the folk revival of the 1960s, Tarlton performed again.
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By Bruce Eder
Jimmie Tarlton is best known for his partnership with Tom Darby, which lasted from the late '20s until the mid-'30s. The two were never especially fond of each other, however, and although they both saw some activity in the '60s as part of the folk-blues revival, and Tarlton got to make a record, there was no impetus for continuing the partnership.
Tarlton's style was rooted in rural South Carolina, where he was born and raised. His father, a sometime farmer and sawmill worker, played a fretless banjo and his mother sang. At age six, Tarlton was playing banjo and French harp, and he later took up the guitar and learned to play bottleneck, using glass and a knife. In the '20s, he also discovered the Hawaiian guitar style. He played around the northeast and the Texas-Louisiana-Oklahoma region in the teens, and eventually made his way to California, playing at bars, cafes, and in medicine shows.
Poor eyesight kept him out of World War I, and he made his living working at local cotton mills in South Carolina before becoming a telegraph worker. He began recording with Tom Darby in 1927, but across his career, his performances included collaborations with Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, the Delmore Brothers, and the Skillet Lickers, among numerous others. Although Darby and Tarlton had a substantial hit with "Cumberland Stockade Blues" and "Birmingham Jail," their contract only gave them a flat payment of $75 for the records, and there were no follow-up releases with any similar success. By the mid-'40s, Tarlton had left the music business.
He was rediscovered in 1963, living in Phenix City, AL (a notorious locale in its own right, incidentally, as the sin capital of its county and a crime and corruption center whose story was chronicled in two separate feature films in the '50s) and became a renowned figure in the folk and folk-blues revival. Tarlton played some shows at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, and made a record, but was too old by that time to pursue the opportunities in front of him.
Tarlton became one of a handful of figures -- country fiddler Eck Robertson is another -- who preserved a style of music-making that would otherwise have been lost and embellished it into becoming something new and all his own. His music, as preserved on his solo sides recorded at his own home in the early '60s by then incorporated the influences of Hawaiian guitar and ragtime, but beneath it all was a native South Carolina folk style that pre-dated recorded music.