From a live broadcast in 1959 on KTTV in Los Angeles, Skeets McDonald and Joe Maphis perform a countrified version of Nat King Cole’s Mona Lisa.
Performing on Town Hall Party, a show broadcast over radio and television during the 1950s, became something of a hometown Grand Ol’ Opry for the large community of Okies who immigrated to the Southern California region during The Depression and WWII.
One of its most impressive and well-regarded resident musicians, Joe Maphis was a master of stringed instruments, as is more than evident here, and was associated with the inventor of the Travis Picking style, Merle Travis.
Maphis was know for his double-neck Mosrite guitar with his name inlaid between the frets.
A supporting musician to the Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, Rose Maddox, he was so loved an respected that he given the honor by the Johnny Cash family of being laid to rest next to the entire Carter family.
