DHutchens Says:
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 @4:17:00 AM

Great photo. I never knew some of these guys, Leroy, Frank and (my memory is foggy but was it Gene Knight?) had made the scene by the time I started knowing the band.

Durwood Edwards Says:
Monday, May 14, 2012 @10:25:40 AM

Boy! that brings back some memories! However, this is NOT the original NDSB. The original was Jim Field, vocals; Rodney Hutchins, banjo (RB-11); Bob Quail White, bass, Fiddling' Al, fiddle; Buck Peacock, guitar; Durwood Edwards (me), mandolin. Jim Field (of the Charles River Valley Boys Beatle Country fame) stole the unused name from Tom Paley and signed us in when we played at the Second Annual Level Cross Fiddler's Convention. Rodney won Grand Champion Banjo and we took Second Place Band honors. We appeared with that personnel only one more time, before we disbanded and morphed into other configurations, including the one pictured above.

f5loar Says:
Monday, May 14, 2012 @1:53:47 PM

Okay so it's the Wataga County Boys AKA the begining roots of the founding members of the original NDSB.
I didn't think Quail came along til later. Remember back then this group of pickers would morph into various other string bands to compete in nearby NC Fiddler's conventions. I'm guessing Buck will get all this straightend out in his soon to be publish book on his life and times as a NC picker.

f5loar Says:
Monday, May 14, 2012 @1:53:48 PM

Okay so it's the Wataga County Boys AKA the begining roots of the founding members of the original NDSB.
I didn't think Quail came along til later. Remember back then this group of pickers would morph into various other string bands to compete in nearby NC Fiddler's conventions. I'm guessing Buck will get all this straightend out in his soon to be publish book on his life and times as a NC picker.

Durwood Edwards Says:
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 @4:39:57 AM

I believe the name was Watauga County Squirrel Shooters. Ray Blackwell was a good friend and a very versatile musician. We also performed with Ray as "Grey Eagle" with Jack Lawrence on guitar, Frank Greathouse on mandolin and Kenny Kosek on fiddle.

theoriginalquail Says:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 @11:59:18 AM

The picture taken above was shot by Jim Moffatt at the now refurbished Yates Mill. When that photo was made, along with a pile of others that I have to dig out of my memorabilia file, that particular gang was appearing as the Six & 7/8s String Band. Field was in town with a career change working for Jessy Helmes TV station WRAL, and taking Design courses. This group appeared most frequently on the 106 Ashe Av. porch and at a Pizza Parlor on Hillsborough Street, and most likely at one or all of the several weekend music festival sites around NC that fall - Liberty, Star, Level Cross (??) and at Prof. Eichleberger's famous parties. Fiddleplayer Buddy Pendleton from the famous Leeksville / Spray / Draper township now renamed Eden, appeared in Raleigh that same fall to take a truck driving course and would occasionally join the frey, in particular at the legendary parties held at the 106 Ashe Avenue Address the cosmic center of the Raleigh Bluegrass scene. The cast of pickers that took part is legion - Snuffy Smith Vic Lowery, Dale Lee aka Newt of Raleigh, Buddy Pendleton, Jim Field, Buck Peacock, Quail, Rocky, Gene Knight, Al McCandless, Jim Moffatt, Tommy Edwards, Durwood Edwards, Carol , Flip Pierce and Lois, Bob Isenhour, LeRoy "Mr Pills" Savage, members of Kweskin's Jug band including Bill Keith, Joe Greene, Tommy Randolph and his "sock" guitar, the White man...one cool cat, Tom Glenn and his Ode, John Peden, Tommy Goldsmith, Ben Helms, Ben Runkle, Bob Hoffman, Gary Eckard, Carolyn Bertram, Francene Netter, Tommy of the Muddy Creek Ramblers, Marlyn Hicks, Carol Farnum, Jeff Kohl, Judy Crouch, John Vassalaides. Band Names used included: Watauga County Squirrel Shooters, The Blue Jays, The Nine Pound Hammers, Six and 7/8s String Band, New Deal String Band, Nude Eel String Band, The Slim Savage Horn Band, Baby Boy Glover Memorial Jug Band and others that escape through the walls of time. Look for my expanded recounting of all this in my "Recollections of a Mis-spent Youth"....forthcoming form McFarland Press sometime in the not toooooo distant future. From the High Country home of the original Watauga Squirrel Shooters of yore. Quail

theoriginalquail Says:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 @12:04:53 PM

Egad, I left out Mountain Pig, the Bluegrass Dog famous for biting Birch Monroe at Uncle Bills Brown County"Jam"-oree, and his human Mandola player, Frank Greathouse, sometimes partner of Roger Sprung.

sorry Frank

Quail

f5loar Says:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 @5:40:49 PM

Amazing that the "Quail" has this much memory left in his brain from those days of haze. I bet he don't remember each mile he drove the 1962 Cadillac Limo (aka Gov. Terry Sanford's old ride) to the Uncle Birch farm in Bean Blossom, ID! I remember us literally peeling him out of the front leather seat upon arrival.

theoriginalquail Says:
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 @1:32:25 PM

What is amazing is that Birch did not "miss" the Mountain Pig, Bluegrass Music's heroic first dog, and hit Greathouse who was trying to do a CIA and stand between the Pig, and the end of Birch's snub nosed 38! I do recall our somewhat ragged but triumphant arrival at the "Jam-o-ree" and Uncle Bill's muted comment during the "haze" of the weekend that,"....those boys from North Carolina play some might fine music....but they need to cut their hair!"

We never traveled better than that trip, decked out with American Flags flying from the flag holders, the psychedelic NDSB signs attached to the doors, and an interior Lemo scene right out of Zap Comics complete with the ongoing discussion that season of whether or not we could get LeRoy to appear dressed as the Checkered Demon, bare chested, in black checkered tights, and with a cape. He already had the horns permanently affixed atop that famous noggin.

Of course the real coup was Tommy having secured the ride.............oh the ride!

And next week gang, if Jimmy Martin and Carlton do not rise from the grave to continue a heated discussion with Sonny Osborn about the appropriate place to park buses in the reunion concert in heaven I will tell the tale of NDSB and the legendary trip to Bennington College. Anyone listening???????

robbif Says:
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 @1:49:12 PM

For Tom's originally giving me the photo...Thanks!

For the conversation above (and hopefully more below)...PRICELESS!!!