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About The Artist
Early on in his career, Al was performing regularly during the heyday of John Lair's popular Renfro Valley Barn Dance, originating from Rockcastle County, Kentucky in the late 1930s, prior to joining the Army. One turning point in Al's career was his work on the Cas Walker Radio Show, a popular show in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. Over the years, this show helped many an artist from that area in their careers such as Roy Acuff, Archie Campbell and later, Dolly Parton. It was during the time Roy and Archie were working in Knoxville that Al was a regular on the show. During the early 1960's, Al was a regular for two years (the entire broadcasting run of the program) of the very popular Corn Huskers Jamboree and also the Midday Merry-Go-Round, that were broadcast every week day over WCPO-TV out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The covers were played on radio station WCKY, who's signal at the time was strong enough to reach out to nearly all four corners of the continental United States. It was due to this audience exposure that Al was a very popular recording artist, who was remembered by numerous fans during the Fan Fairs, held annually in Nashville. Some of the covers recorded by Al were originally released on 78rpm vinyl and included hits by Roy Acuff, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, Johnny Cash, Porter Waggoner and Red Sovine including:
Al also recorded and released a memorial album of hits originally recorded by the father of country music, the legendary Blue Yodeler, Jimmie Rodgers. The album sold extremely well and garnered positive feedback from the diehard traditional country music fans of Jimmie Rodgers. Some of the tunes on the Jimmie Rogers Memorial Album were:
At about the same time, Coral Records also signed him up to record for their label. He recorded "Icicle Tears" b/w "Bonita Chiquita Señorita", a tune written by Al himself. Al headed up two, five month long USO Shows overseas during 1958-59 with his country and western band—The Westerners. Although Al did entertain the audiences a bit with his singing, his main focus during these shows was his comedy routines in the role of Uncle Elmer - an original piece based on a character stereotyped as the ultimate country bumpkin.
Credits & Sources
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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)
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Al Runyon (the name he took to help disc jockeys pronounce his real name - Al Runions)
came from the Appalachian area, in Claiborne County, Tennessee.
During this period in his career, Al was extremely busy doing the 16 Top Hits
(recorded for Burkhardt Records in Cincinnati, Ohio), which utilized his talents
for "covering" several popular artists.
During the late 1950s, Al was signed to the StarDay Record label.
He recorded "The Day Before The Night".
