Thomas Hoyt "Slim" Bryant
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| Thomas Hoyt "Slim" Bryant | |
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| Born | December 7, 1908 Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
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| Occupation | Country music performer and songwriter |
Thomas Hoyt "Slim" Bryant (born December 7, 1908) is a country music singer/songwriter and guitarist born in Atlanta, Georgia. After spending nearly 18 years working with Georgia fiddler Clayton McMichen as part of his band the Georgia Wildcats, Bryant and most of the band separated from McMichen and moved to Pittsburgh in 1940. He is considered by many to be the father of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, country music scene, having performed on the first television program to air in that city, a musical variety show broadcast live on WDTV from Syria Mosque in Oakland, Pennsylvania, in 1949. He is thought to be the last surviving musician to have recorded with the legendary country singer Jimmie Rodgers, who died in 1933. In 1932, Rodgers recorded Bryant's song Mother, the Queen of My Heart, with Bryant accompanying him on guitar. With his back-up group, the Georgia Wildcats, he wrote and recorded such novelty songs during his career as Eeny Meeny Dixie Deeny, the closest he ever came to having a "hit" on the Billboard charts. [1]
Bryant currently resides in the Pittsburgh borough of Dormont, Pennsylvania.[2] He was the subject of a profile in the January-February 2004 issue of No Depression Magazine.[3]
