Hillbilly-Music.com - Keeping Country Music History Alive
Hillbilly-Music Folio Display


The Smile Time Trio
KFEQ St. Joseph, MO

About The Group

Go back to 1949. Tune in KFEQ out of St. Joseph, Missouri and you were listening to this trio who were celebrating their collective 16th anniversary performing. All three of them had started their careers back in the early 1930s.

Tex Grooms, came from Drumright, OK, singing, and playing the guitar and fiddle. Up til 1938, he was performing alone when he joined the "The Boys of Sunset Trail" in Illinois. Around that time, World War II broke up the band and they went separate ways. Tex went to work with Cindy Walker on "The Rhythm Rodeo". Later on, he was the fiddle player with "Al Clauser's Oklahoma Outlaws". While with Al, Tex got to do quite a bit of solo fiddle work on recordings as well as being the featured fiddle player at many square dancers. Tex was with Al's group until 1947 when he joined "The Smile Time Trio".

Then there was guitar playing Chuck Brady, a Hoosier, hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana. He got his start on radio over station WDZ out of Tuscola, Illinois, with "The Boys of the Open Road". He spent a couple years with a G.I. show outfit that toured the USA and the South Pacific. After that stint, he came back to Indianapolis and was heard over WFBM. It was while he was playing dates in Wisconsin during the vacation months that he became the guitarist and lead singer for "The Smile Time Trio."

Betty Jean was the third member of "The Smile Time Trio". She acted as the "femcee" as they called her, sang and played the ukelele. Her roots were in Wisconsin and there she started her career singing and yodeling. Later she moved on to WNAX out of Yankton, SD where she wrote, directed and produced an original show called "The Circle B Dude Ranch".

Timeline and Trivia Notes

Group Members included:

  • Tex Grooms, solo singer, guitar, fiddle
  • Chuck Brady, lead singer, guitar
  • Betty Jean, singer, ukelele

Credits & Sources

  • National Jamboree; October 1949; Words to Songs, Inc.; 1 East 42nd Street, New York 17, NY

Read More About The Group

Printer Friendly Version


Group Lists
                                                   


Hillbilly-Music.com

Yes, Hillbilly Music. You may perhaps wonder why. You may even snicker. But trust us, soon your feet will start tappin' and before you know it, you'll be comin' back for more...Hillbilly Music.

Hillbilly-music.com ...
It's about the people, the music, the history.