Bill Browning

Singer, songwriter, and recording engineer Wilmer Lois "Bill" Browning (May 16, 1931 – January 23, 1977) was born in Wayne County to Haskell and Elsie Browning. He grew up on Dry Ridge near St. Albans (Kanawha County). His father, a coal miner, brought home Browning’s first guitar when Bill was 13.

As a youth, he first played music with neighbors before forming The Kanawha Valley Boys with his brother Carlos Browning (1933-2011) and Lou West. The Boys performed live on Charleston’s WTIP radio station from late 1947 until 1950.

Bill Browning and Doris Jean Johnson (1931-2019) were married on March 12, 1950. They moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a truck driver and formed a band, the Echo Valley Boys. He also served as emcee at The Circle Theater on Euclid Avenue, which featured diverse styles of music, including blues, bluegrass, country, and rock ‘n’ roll.  Prominent musicians including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Johnny & Jack, and Dottie West played the Circle, where the Echo Valley Boys served as the house band.

Browning soon formed the Island Records Company with Frank J. Videmsek.  In April 1957, Browning released his first 45 on that label, “Ramblin’ Man” b/w “Washing Machine Boogie.” Other early songs written by Browning were “Sinful Woman,” Breaking Hearts,” Let The Bible Be Your Guide,” and “Borned with the Blues.”

“Borned with the Blues” was released as the A-side of a 45 single in 1959, but Browning would be most remembered for its B-side, “Dark Hollow,” based in part on the traditional “East Virginia Blues.” Bluegrass musician Jimmie Skinner recorded the song later that year, reaching seventh on the country-and-western charts. Luke Gordon also released a more honky-tonk version that same year. Browning joined Skinner’s and Gordon’s label, Starday, and became a regular on the Wheeling Jamboree. Doris Browning later recalled that one evening in Wheeling, the Osborne Brothers, up-and-coming bluegrass stars at the time, congratulated an unaware Browning on his surprise hit. The Echo Valley Boys then took “Dark Hollow” on the road in Canada and New England, sharing a bill with Carter and Ralph Stanley in Connecticut.

In 1960, Browning left the touring circuit after a serious automobile accident. He and Doris moved to Putnam County, where they raised five children, and he returned to truck driving. Music, however, kept drawing him back, and he formed The Dark Hollow Boys with Hazel Paul and Doris on vocals. Bill and Doris also built a studio from scratch and made some of the first recordings of Squire Parsons and the Calvarymen. He produced hundreds of albums—mostly gospel, but some bluegrass—at Midway Recording Studio near Hurricane, and started a distribution arm called Marbone.

By the late 1960s, “Dark Hollow” had started gaining considerable air time on the radio again after catching the ears of Bill Monroe, Del McCoury, and a group of young bluegrass players, such as Jerry Garcia, who would go on to make their own names for themselves. In 1969, Ralph Stanley included it on his first album after his brother Carter’s death. Two years later, Larry Sparks and The Lonesome Ramblin’ Bluegrass had a hit with it. Many first heard it performed by the Grateful Dead, released in 1973 on a live performance recording from 1970. It has also been recorded by David Bromberg, the Seldom Scene, and many other contemporary acts.

Just as Browning was realizing some residual profits from “Dark Hollow,” he was diagnosed with cancer. He died at age 45 and was buried in Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Putnam County.