HOPKINS, AL, AND THE HILL BILLIES

HOPKINS, AL, AND THE HILL BILLIES (c. 1924–1931: Al [bert Green] Hopkins [pno]; Charlie Bowman [fdl]; [Alonzo Ellis] Tony Alderman [fdl]; John Hopkins [gtr]; Frank Wilson [Hawaiian gtr]) Al Hopkins and The Hill Billies were an old-time string band from the North Carolina/Virginia border area who popularized the term hillbilly as something other than a pejorative name for folks from the backwoods. The group was groundbreaking in many ways. Although from rural western Virginia, they were…