Effective period / Period of releases: 1935 - 1972

Members: Wade Mainer, J. E. Mainer, Clyde Moody, Zeke Morris, Junior Misenheimer, Harold Christy, Beacham Blackweller, Daddy John Love, J.E. Mainer Jr.

J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers were a mountain string band in the early 1930’s that achieved considerable popularity.
They formed an important link between Old-Time string music and bluegrass.

J.E. maintained a musical group with various personnel changes for nearly 40 years. Although the Mainer band moved in the direction of Bluegrass, most observers have placed them in a category that technically falls a bit short of that definition, at least in the pre-WWII period.

The Mountaineers were rediscovered during the folk revival in 1962 by Chris Strachwitz of the California-based Arhoolie label. At that time, Mainer's Mountaineers recorded J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers - The Legendary Family From The Blue Ridge Mountains, which introduced Mainer's music to a whole new generation.
King reissued some of the Mountaineers recordings in the early '60s, and over the course of that decade Mainer recorded several more albums and made appearances on the radio and at festivals.