Joe worked with Johnny & Jack for a short time in 57-58,,he left them to work in the session world,,he recorded for just about everybody at one time, Patsy Cline,Lefty Frizell,Tammy Wynette,Johnny Horton,Don Gibson,and lots more,,He did cut a couple other songs slapping solo lead,,one was River Of regret by June Stearns,,Unforturnetly the best stuff he ever did has been lost to the airwaves when he worked for Roy Acuff in the 40-50s.
I have a copy of a book where Acuff kept up with when songs were preformed,,one page is of Joes bass songs,,I have searched all over but it dosent look like much of this was ever recorded,,I have a few sound bites,,and some video footage of him in the 60’s on tv,,but theres not much out there on him,,sadly he’s one of the forgoten players,,even though Junior Huskey always said Joe was his idol,,and Roy Jr also said the same thing.I became friends with Joe about 3 yrs before he passed,,I bought his old bass,,and even got to take him back to the Opry too see a lot of his old buddies.
He was a really fine player and needs to be remeberd,,heres a page from one of the old Opry programs,,would’nt you love to hear 12th Street Rag slapped on a bass???
