During the course of a career that lasted more than 50 years, the late Kenneth (Jethro) Burns was given many nicknames and accolades. Mandolin players called him “The Legend,” “The Great One,” “Mr. Mandolin,” and “The World’s Greatest Mandolin Player.” For 39 of those 50 years Burns performed with Henry Haynes as the musical comedy duo known worldwide as Homer and Jethro. Their collaboration yielded 35 albums, a Grammy Award, regular appearances on national radio and TV shows (Johnny Carson, Dean Martin, Jimmy Dean), and a series of outrageously successful, and just plain outrageous, commercials for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

Most of their comedy songs were Jethro’s parodies of hit pop and country tunes. Their brilliance as comedians threatened to overshadow their virtuosic musicianship, although two instrumental albums displayed their pioneering string jazz sound.

Born in rural northern Georgia on March 10, 1920, Jethro and his folks moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was just 3. His brothers all played music and they got plenty of support and understanding from their father, who worked on the medicine-show circuit as a tap dancer and comedian. It was from his father that he got a firsthand view of music and comedy together, and Jethro later credited him, saying, “Because of him I always had a good understanding of exactly what I was doing as an entertainer.”

In later years Jethro appeared regularly on the television program “Hee Haw,” played with his brother-in-law Chet Atkins in The Million Dollar Band, and returned to his live-radio roots on A Prairie Home Companion. He also wrote a regular monthly column for the publication Mandolin World News, and performed club dates with his Jethro Burns Quartet, a two mandolins, guitar, and bass combination with a heavy emphasis on The Master’s swinging style.

As anyone who ever saw Jethro perform will attest, he had a very good understanding indeed. His wacky, cornball humor was always note perfect, and his mandolin playing was as entertaining as it was soulful. As Steve Goodman once said, “I never heard him play or say anything that wasn’t the very thing that everyone else in the room wished they had played or said.” How did he do it? His special skill was to mix equal parts mischief and genius, while keeping his tongue firmly in cheek at all times. And a large part of his appeal can be summed up in his philosophy of “No matter where you go, there you are!”

Jethro’s humor, mandolin playing, and musicianship remained undiminished, even in the final stages of the cancer that took his life February 4, 1989.

Courtesy of Artist Direct