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About The Artist Doc Williams made his first appearance on the WWVA Jamboree back in December of 1937. He's the oldest living regular member of the Jamboree and still a favorite of the fans. It didn't take him long to capture the hearts of the fans - in 1938 he won the distinction as the station's most popular act. His band the Border Riders were there when he joined - back then it included "Rawhide" Flincher, his brother Cy Williams, Sunflower and Curly Sims. Before Doc and the Border Riders made it to WWVA, he made a few stops. He grew up in the small towns of Pennsylvania. Doc and his brother played locally in the Kittaning area until Doc went back to Cleveland in 1932 and joined a group called Doc McCaulley and his Kansas Clodhoppers, where Doc learned a lot about the music of the West Virginia mountains. It wasn't long til Doc formed his own group called the Allegheny Ramblers. That group had his brother Cy (real name Milo) on fiddle and Curley Sims on mandolin while Doc handled guitar and harmonica. Around 1935, Doc and his group went to radio station KQV in Pittsburgh and also changed their name to the Cherokee Hillbillies. Shortly after that they met up with a female singer named Billy Walker and became the Texas Longhorns. She left for WWL in New Orleans in 1937. Doc and his group, regrouped so to speak and then became the Border Riders. It was at this time, Cowboy Doc (as he was known then) took the surname of Williams, too. Later on, Doc also started his own record label, Wheeling Records. And opened a store in Wheeling across from the Capitol Music Hall . In fact, his wife, Chickie had quite a hit with "Beyond the Sunset" that included a poem called "Should You Go First" back in 1947. Timeline and Trivia Notes
Border Rider members included:
Doc Williams and the Border Riders came onto the music scene in 1937. Cowboy Doc as he was called then had been a member of Billie Walker's Texas Longhorns group, but she had decided to move on to radio station WWL in New Orleans, Louisiana. Doc then decided to form his own band and changed his name at that time to Doc Williams. His real name? You can find that elsewhere on the site. We'll be adding to the story here as time goes by and we catch up. Timeline and Trivia Notes Group members, 1937 (Pittsburgh, PA):
Group members, 1937 (Wheeling, WV):
Group members, 1938-40 (Wheeling, WV and Memphis, TN)
Group members, 1942 (Wheeling, WV):
Credits & Sources
Sound Sample(YouTube Video Format)
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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)
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