Roy Hall Biography
6 January 1907, Haywood County, North Carolina, USA, d. 16 May 1943. Roy Hall and his brother Jay Hugh Hall (b. 13 November 1910, Haywood County, North Carolina, USA, d. April 1974), both played guitar and in their teens, they began to entertain while working in the local textile mills. In 1937, they appeared as the Hall Brothers on WSPA Spartanburg, South Carolina, and made their first recordings for Bluebird Records. Further recordings were made in 1938, before the brothers split and Roy formed his string band, the Blue Ridge Entertainers. The band first played WSPA, before moving on to Asheville, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and finally to WDBJ Roanoke, Virginia, where it appeared twice daily. In late 1939, his Saturday evening Blue Ridge Jamboree regularly attracted major stars including Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers. Hall was an astute businessman and his show proved so popular that before long, he had to form two bands to meet all the bookings; the second band was led by Jay Hugh, who had rejoined him in 1940 (early in 1940, Jay Hugh appeared and recorded with Clyde Moody and Steve Ledford as the Happy-Go-Lucky Boys). The bands played a mixture of old-time and modern music and were undoubtedly an influence on later bluegrass bands. Hall was one of the first bandleaders to feature the prominent use of the steel guitar. He recorded a 1938 version of "Wabash Cannonball", which has been compared to Roy Acuff's, and he also recorded "The Orange Blossom Special" approximately seven months before the Rouse Brothers, although because of a legal argument over publishing rights, it was never released. Among the songs Hall first featured in the early 40s were "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight" and "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die". By 1945, the sales of the latter exceeded 100,000. Hall did not live to enjoy the record's success, dying in a car crash on 16 May 1943. Jay Hugh Hall remained active in music until 1950 and continued to live in Roanoke until his death in April 1974. (This artist should not be confused with Roy Hall aka Sunny David (b. 7 May 1922, Stone Gap, Virginia, USA), the writer of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", who recorded rockabilly in the 50s.)
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
|
