Wildwood Flower

Buck Billo and Maxi sing Homer and Jethro’s version of “Wildwood Flower”. It was in the late ’40s into the 1950s, basing themselves out of the Windy City, that the duo hit their true stride. Their first big hit was a takeoff on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with a quite young June Carter contributing on vocals. The success of this single brought them to the attention of powerful radio station WLS, thus securing Homer & Jethro a regular spot on the National Barn Dance. Joining in 1949, the duo would stay faithful to the original version of the Grand Ole Opry, staying with the show until 1958. The national hookup did wonders for their career, which got an added boost when they started working double duty as regulars on Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club, one of the top-rated morning-radio chat shows of its time, also based out of Chicago. The 1950s found them scoring big with numerous guest shots on television. The beauty of Homer & Jethro (as opposed to another country novelty act) was that they could work anywhere and be understood. They could be on the bill with Roy Rogers or trading cornball putdowns with Jimmy Dean or slickly one-upping Johnny Carson, and they always held their own. As time went on, their act became more deadpan and, if anything, even more polished, as if to distance themselves from everything else that had existed before them in their little corner of the country world. They were still singing with broad accents, but the satires were getting more acerbic with …