Biography
William H. "Shorty" Godwin (1889–1959) toured with tent and vaudeville shows throughout the deep South, and recorded two sides for Columbia in Atlanta in 1929. A photograph from that period shows him onstage with The Skillet Lickers, Columbia's ruling hillbilly artists, all dressed in "rube" costumes.
In the 1930s and '40s, Godwin became a well-known radio comedian on WWVA's "World's Original Jamboree", broadcast every Saturday night from Wheeling, West Virginia.
As "Hiram Hayseed", he appeared with Jamboree regulars Doc Williams & His Boarder Riders, and with Mack Jeffers & His Fiddlin' Farmers.
Godwin later moved to WMMN Fairmont, joining The Happy Hoedowners on a daily 5:00am broadcast.
Godwin's 1929 "Jimbo Jambo Land", a spoof of romance in the tropics, was crafted by professional songwriters Nat Vincent, Billy Frisch, and Billy Hueston, and first recorded by vaudevillian Billy Murray in 1922.
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