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One of country musics first super groups to visit Cumming
Skillet
Fourth-generation Skillet Lickers member Russ Tanner, left, and his father Phil Tanner perform. - photo by For the FCN

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Tickets to the Skillet Lickers’ “Country Music Down Yonder” at the Cumming Playhouse are $20. They can be purchased online at www.playhousecumming.com or by calling (770) 781-9178. The playhouse is at 101 School St. in Cumming. For more information about the Skillet Lickers, visit www.skilletlickers.org.

CUMMING — Many people may not be aware, but the roots of country music run deep in north Georgia.

In fact, a group that many in the music world acknowledge as one of country’s first “super groups” hailed from the nearby mountains.

That group, which was begun in the 1920s by fiddle player Gid Tanner of Dacula, went on to become one of Columbia Records’ biggest successes of the day.

The Skillet Lickers may also be one of the longest existing bands in the history of any musical genre. More than 90 years after its beginnings, the Skillet Lickers is still going strong with several third- and fourth-generation members.

Russ Tanner, Gid Tanner’s great-grandson, along with his father, Phil Tanner, and four other members, are keeping the band’s legacy alive.

“It’s a great honor for all of us to be able to pay tribute to our families’ previous generations through our music,” Russ Tanner said. “We think it is important to keep this style of music alive for future generations while honoring all of our history.”

The Skillet Lickers’ legacy has been captured in a stage production called “Country Music Down Yonder,” which will be performed on the Cumming Playhouse stage at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 and 27 and 3 p.m. Feb. 28.

Russ Tanner developed the show in 2014 as a way to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the first record created by his great-grandfather and blind guitarist Riley Puckett in 1924.

Told from the perspective of Frank Walker, the Columbia Records representative who discovered Tanner and Puckett after coming to north Georgia to find new talent, the show tracks the history of the Skillet Lickers and the group’s influence on later country artists such as Bob Wills, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis and Hank Williams.

While there is a lot of history packed into the show, audiences will mostly enjoy the toe-tapping music.

“About three-quarters or more of the 90 minutes is music,” Tanner said, “with the historical story interwoven throughout. We do a lot of the songs that the original Skillet Lickers did, moving all the way up to more modern pieces.”

In celebration of the leap year weekend performance, the group will also be adding a “Leap Year Love” twist to the show, focusing on love songs of the 1930s.

Tanner said he and the other Skillet Lickers are looking forward to returning to the playhouse (audiences may remember the group from October, when it provided the instrumentals for “Smoke on the Mountain”).

“We love being able to share all of our music and history with folks, and we’re especially pleased to be able to do so for Cumming Playhouse audiences,” he said.

“The Skillet Lickers were founded right around the same year as the Cumming Schoolhouse was built, so we feel there is a special connection between us and local audiences.”