The Steel Guitar Forum

Was looking thu some old scrapbooks,came across a photo of a four piece band,The Pleasant Vally Boys,Jerry Byrd was a member,any one know anything about them,don't you know.

there is a good descrition in Jerrys book. cc

That was the name of the band Jerry was in, in the early fifties, at WLW in Cincinati.
His book is a good read, and available at many outlets, don't ya know

tht group played together under different names for a number of years, Jerry Byrd, Tommy Jackson, Zeke Turner, Louis Innis. They backed a lot of singers on recordings. Al

Charles there was also a Pleasant Valley Boys group in your neck of the woods, and my buddy Julian Tharpe played with them.

I had never heard of them until Julian's brother Dick Tharpe told me about them. I suppose the group Julian picked with adopted that name possibly after hearing another group had the same name. That apparently happened alot in years past. Foor example, my dad played with a local radio group the late 1940s here in MO, and they called themselves the Ozark Troubadors after Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadors.

I do remember reading in Jerry's biography about the Plesant Valley Boys group.

Terry Wood

There's been a Pleasant Valley Boys in Austin for the past 35 years, led by western swing fiddler Alvin Crow. Pleasant Valley is a suburb north of Amarillo, which was Alvin's point of musical departure before moving to Austin in 1972.

Alvin's released at least a dozen albums on various labels, along with individual cuts on several compilations.

Steel players in that group have been (in no particular order) yours truly, Jimmy Day, Pete Finney, Scott Walls, and Neil Flanz.

I do believe that Jerry and all that "Pleasant Valley Boys" group worked and recorded with Red Foley on the Grand Ole Opry as the "Cumberland Valley Boys" back in 1947 & 48 just before they all moved to W L W after a $$$ contract dispute ?? It's mentioned in Jerrys book. Red kept the name and did more recordings as the "C. V. Boys" but with different musicians. Eddie "C" ( the ole geezer )

Yep!Alvin Crow with Herb Steiner on steel,We used to call them the Pleasant Volley Balls,I subbed for Herb one weekend when he broke his hand...Never been on a tour bus like that.

Wow, take me back.... thirty years ago I used to go see Alvin Crow and the PVB whenever they came to town in Stillwater, OK.
Was I seeing you, then Herb and/or Stu?

Tom,You were seeing Herb,I only played one weekend in Baton Rouge...I had hair down to my butt which didn't fit well with Alvin's image,neither did my playing I wish that I could tell you about that bus the smell OOHH!

I ask you: Weren't these the same top class musicians that composed The String Dusters? Or, was there a difference?

Just have to know........

Going back to my memory of 1948 I believe Jerry mentioned zeke turner but I cannot remember the others. We talked for about an hour. I called him from Japan and Jerry was so appreciative of my call, he said give me your # and hang up and I'll call you back. He did but the connection was so bad we had to give up. I expected a huge bill from the Japanese phone co however they could find no record of the call so I owed nothing. We should have talked a few more hrs. cc

The String Dusters that did the RCA recordings were Homer & Jethro, Jerry Byrd, Dale Potter, Chet AtkinsCharles Grean on bass. That is most of them.
Al

What about all of those early Mercury lable tunes?

They were the String Dusters...........

I believe you are correct Ray that group also recorded quite a lot with Rex Allen and many other singers. Just a talented busy group Al.