The Tennessee Ramblers were formed in 1922 by “Fiddlin’” William “Bill” Sievers, a third generation fiddler born in the Elza community, now part of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This family band was made up of his daughter, Willie, and his son, James “Mack” Sievers. Willie started out learning the piano, but was abandoned by her teacher because she would only play by ear. Willie then took up the guitar, and became an outstanding player, regularly winning contests. She also came to be known as a “trick guitarist,” both juggling her guitar and playing it with her feet. Mack played the banjo, and later, their cousin, Walt McKinney, would often accompany the band on steel/Hawaiian guitar. 

The addition of McKinney was not a coincidence, as Hawaiian guitar music was very much in demand, routinely outselling every other genre of recorded music in the United States, peaking in the 1930’s. Vitaphone recording artist Frank Wilson, who billed himself as "the world's greatest comical Hawaiian guitarist," reportedly used the Sievers family as a backup band.

The Ramblers were very popular in East Tennessee, but also toured extensively - as Bill Sievers said, “... from the Gulf to the Great Lakes.” Performing regularly on radio stations in Knoxville, Cincinnati, and Akron helped make them well known. They were also a backing band, as well as regular contestants, at Knoxville’s Market Hall fiddling contests, which drew outstanding regional fiddlers like Charlie Bowman from Gray Station (now Gray), TN, who, at one point, was manager of the Ramblers. 

Market Hall, also known as Knoxville’s Market House, was built in 1897. It was a huge building with vendor space on the ground floor and an auditorium upstairs. It fell into disrepair during the 1950’s, and after a devastating fire in 1959, it was torn down. The area occupied by that building was reimagined as an open public square beginning in the early 2000’s, and has since become the downtown nucleus for the City of Knoxville.

In 1928, the Ramblers attended a Brunswick label audition in Ashland, Kentucky, and cut several sides, including “A Fiddler’s Contest,” which tries to re-create one of their appearances at Knoxville’s Market Hall fiddling events. The Tennessee Ramblers also recorded at the St. James Hotel sessions in Knoxville in August 1929, with titles from that session, along with a follow-up session the following year, included in the Bear Family 2016 release, “The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930 - Knox County Stomp.” In addition to the selections featured below, some of their other tunes included Hawaiian Medley, Cacklin’ Pullet, Medley Of Mountain Songs, Arkansas Traveler, Satisfied, Give The Fiddlers A Dram, and Rambler’s March. 

The Tennessee Ramblers, as a country/hillbilly band, continued playing until 1954, when Bill Sievers died. Willie and Mack then rebranded the group as a Hawaiian music act, “Mack’s Novelty Hawaiians,” with Mack switching to the fiddle. The Sievers played regularly around East Tennessee into the 1970’s.

Somewhat confusingly, there was another popular band formed in the late 1920’s also called The Tennessee Ramblers. This was a western swing/novelty group, Dick Hartman’s Tennessee Ramblers, from Charlotte, NC. They were later also later known as Cecil Campbell And His Tennessee Ramblers, and remained active into the 1970’s.