Everett Lilly
Image No. 65-15N-37: Tex Logan and Everett Lilly 1965 Newport Folk Festival Tex Logan was born in Coahoma, Howard County, Texas. He grew up to become one of the best fiddle players of his generation but figured a day job was a good idea. His studies in electrical engineering earned him a master's degree from M.I.T., a doctorate from Columbia, and a steady job at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. Along the way he found time to fiddle at the Wheeling Jamboree and with artists such as Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Red Belcher, whose band the Kentucky Ridge Runners included, at the time, two brothers named Everett and Bea Lilly. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
Image No. 65-15N-38: The Lilly Brothers 1965 Newport Folk Festival Everett (mandolin) and Bea Lilly (guitar) began playing and singing together in the 1930s. In 1952, the noted Texas fiddler Tex Logan brought them to Boston with their longtime friend, banjo-player Don Stover. As the Lilly Brothers & Don Stover (sometimes featuring Tex Logan), they introduced Southern mountain string band music to New England long before the folk music revival enabled them to play concerts and folk festivals for larger audiences.