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Hillbilly-Music.com—The People. The Music. The History.
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About The Artist Our research to date finds mention of Miriam Horn in the mid to late 1940s. Floy Case, one of country music's earliest journalists, wrote in 1945 that Miriam was working with a group called the Broadway Buckaroos. She notes that Miriam was from Hellertown, Pennsylvania. In her usual detailed style, Floy notes that James Allen led the group. Fiddlin' Zeke from Northampton was on the fiddle; a gal named Sandy was playing the accordion and Jerry and Norm, known as the Melody Rangers were also a part of the group. Miriam was doing vocals and playing the guitar. In late 1945, Nicola and Rose Fantetti told their National Hillbilly News readers that Miriam was a former featured female vocalist with Pete Pyle's group that worked at WSM in Nashville, Tennessee. They infer that Miriam was the leader of the Buckaroos at that time. In addition to the usual personal appearances around the area, she and her group were also starring on the Castle Gardens Barn Dance and Jamboree every Saturday night. The show appears to have aired over WSAN from 10pm to 11pm. Other acts featured on the show were Willis Meyer and his band, the Cirle J Range Riders with Al, along with other WSAN artists as Joy, Trudie, Mary, Windy, Spoony and Jean. Square dancing was also a part of the show with a fellow by the name of Happy doing the calling.
In 1947, Billy Wilson was telling readers that WSAN was still featuring Miriam Horn, but this time her group was the Radio Rangers. The article still mentions that the Buckaroos were still on the station as well. In another 1947 column, he notes that she had penned several promising tunes with Ben Shelhamer, Jr. Billy tells readers that Miriam was a "clever young lady." Matt Pelkonen wrote of her in his regular column in National Hillbilly News which seemed focus on letting readers know what songs various artists were featuring. We have found that some of those early columns were a bit self-serving in that they were trying to broaden the base of songs that they themselves had a hand in writing. On one such occasion in late 1947, Matt writes that Miriam was featuring a song over her WGPA shows called "Can't You See You're Not The One For Me". He tells readers that the song writers were Uncle Jack Nelson, Ben Shelhamer, Jr. and Dick Reynolds. We should note that Mr. Shelhamer was also a regular contributor to that magazine, so you get an idea of one of the ways that songs were promoted in that era. We read in one of Billy Wilson's column that Bethlehem, Pennsylvania got a new station WGPA around 1947. In 1949, Nicola and Rose Fantetti note that she and the Rodeo Rangers were back on the air doing a fifteen minute show from 12:30pm to 12:45pm each day on WGPA. In another column, it appears that she was at WGPA in 1947, but based on other columns we've seen, moved to WSAN, then back to WGPA. We see in another column by Mr. Pelkonen that Miriam was featuring a song she helped write called "Shattered Dreams" over WGPA. Mr. Pelkonen along with Mr. Shelhamer, Jr. were co-writers with Miriam. That song appears in a 1944 song folio for Pete Pyle.
Credits & Sources
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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)
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