What led me to discovering them was hearing Emmylou Harris’s covers of their songs, usually one on each of her 1970s albums. When I first listened to their music, I remember being pleasantly surprised that here was a 1950s commercially successful country act that was neither honky tonk or Nashville sound, but pure old-time Appalachia. You listen to country records from that time and a lot stands out, but no one as much as the Louvins. Who else was doing folk murder ballads? Who else sang songs about a God that was unseen but scared them to death and didn’t make it cornpone but genuinely spiritual and poetic? Who else wrote lyrics that ended up influencing and appealing to rock artists perhaps more than country ones? Their legacy on American roots music will endure forever.

I got to see Charlie perform in Winter Park, FL a few years before his death. He was quite a performer