Big Muddy Folk Festival, Boonville, Missouri, April 6-7, 2001

In addition to songs from their Ozark roots, Ruth and Lillian also draw from that renaissance of American music in the 1930s, but they were young girls down in Neosho in southwest Missouri at the time, learning the songs from the radio. One sister would transcribe the first line of the song and the other would take the next line alternating, throughout the song. It might have taken weeks before they heard the song again to make sure they got it, but they got it. Their father got them a fiddle and guitar and eventually they played programs for stations KFSB and KSWM in Joplin. They also played with their brother, Dave, in a group called Dave and the Prairie Sweethearts. They played the usual theaters, rodeos, reunions, election rallies and pie suppers, and even a circuit for the USO during World War II.

In the fifties they stopped playing music and helped fire the baby boom. In 1983, with their kids grown, they rejoined their brother as the Hammer Family until Dave passed away in 1993. The sisters have found a new following at many of the festivals in Missouri and surrounding states.

Visit the Hammer Sisters web page at Southwest Missouri State.

Visit the Hammer Sisters web page on Bluegrassworld.