elvis Facts, The Louvin Brothers

The Louvin Brothers

The Louvin Brothers were one of the acts that Elvis toured with in the 1950s at the start of his career. The Louvins were born and raised on a cotton farm in Alabama and their birth names were Charlie Elzer Loudermilk and Lonnie Ira Loudermilk. The close-harmony duo began with gospel music and then branched out into country and pop. Ira played the mandolin and sang high tenor, while Charlie played the guitar and sang melody tenor. They wrote a number of hit songs over the years. Charlie joined the army during World War II and when he returned they chose the stage name of Louvin. Their cousin singer/songwriter John D. Loudermilk kept the family name in his career.

The brothers lived in several cities in Tennessee trying their luck with various record labels. For a while they lived in Memphis and were postal workers by day and entertainers by night. Their careers were interrupted again when Charlie was called back to serve in the army during the Korean War. This time when he came home from the service they were hired by the Grand Ole Opry.

They had much success in the mid 1950s with several top ten hits. In the late 50s they were encouraged to drop the mandolin and update their sound in order to compete with the new craze for rock 'n' roll. Depression and alcoholism became a problem for Ira and the duo brook up in 1963 and both launched solo careers. Charlie's career was the more successful and he had many more hit singles. Ira continued on a downslide and then he and his fourth wife were killed in a car crash in 1965.

The Louvin Brothers were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2003 the album "The Louvin Brothers Tribute Album" was nominated for a Grammy award. The album features James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Pam Tillis, The Jordanaires, Johnny Cash and many more. Still a performer on the Opry, Charlie toured in 2003 with Cake, Cheap Trick, the Detroit Cobras and the Hackensaw Boys. Charlie often personally greets visitors at the Louvin Brothers Museum is in Nashville, Tennessee.