A rare take of the Kentucky Colonels, early on when they were known as The Country Boys.
Those boys from Maine sure could pick.
Pretty cool to see that Gretsch neck on Clarence's guitar.
A consistent highlight for my 87 year old mother's television watching is when the Country Boys/Kentucky Colonels or The Dillards pop up on a Mayberry rerun.
Bob Smakula
I'd be interested to know why the show producers decided to go with the Dillards instead of the Kentucky Colonels when they decided to create the Darling family.
quote:
Originally posted by RB3I'd be interested to know why the show producers decided to go with the Dillards instead of the Kentucky Colonels when they decided to create the Darling family.
I guess you're thinking about how the Kentucky Colonels were already on their radar, since they'd used them in a pre-Darling episode. I don't know, but as Neil Rosenberg tells it (IIRC), there was an element of serendipity: the Dillards just happened to be where someone from the show could see them and they made a good impression.
The Dillards were more “hillbilly” than the White brothers. I think the early use of the Country Boys was because they were based in LA and easily available.
Humour
Not much call for speaking roles from Maine boys' accents.
Mitch Jayne told me that Danny Thomas was responsible for the Dillards getting the Darling role.
The reason they never spoke was because they would need to then be members of the Screen Actors Guild at much higher cost. In silence they could be and were hired as "extras".
I believe it was in an interview with Rodney Dillard that I heard that Andy Griffith had advised the boys to choose their own compositions for their musical performances on the show. He told them that they would then be entitled to residual remuneration when the shows were re-broadcast as reruns.
Andy had been a music teacher.
Ilike to think he had some part in finding the excellent acoustic players of the day.
TV being so visual Andy probably figured the Dillards looked more interesting
Edited by - chuckv97 on 11/04/2024 15:02:13
quote:
Originally posted by steve davisThose boys from Maine sure could pick.
Pretty cool to see that Gretsch neck on Clarence's guitar.
My understanding is that it's a Martin neck with a replacement possibly Gretsch fretboard.
That's right.The original guitar with unattached fretboard and thinned top was purchased dirt cheap and taken to another store for assembly which was also very cheap.
Clarence was told to only use light strings on the thinned top,but he immediately put on the heaviest he could find.
Shooting it with a bb or pellet gun is another story.
