Cass County Boys

The Cass State Boys comes from enough time, in the first 40s, when Fred Martin (b. Tx, USA; accordion/vocals), an employee musician at WFAA Dallas, was told to complete ten minutes of airtime between programs. With no correct schedule, he loaded along with some talk and some songs. Fellow personnel musician and Texan Jerry Scoggins (b. 1911, Support Pleasant, Tx, USA, d. 7 Dec 2004, LA, California, USA; electric guitar/baritone vocals) became a member of him 1 day for a tale and their performing attracted the interest of friend Bert Dodson (b. 1916, USA, d. 2 Oct 1995, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; bass/tenor vocals). They had taken their name from the actual fact that Martin was created in Cass State, Tx. The listeners enjoyed their harmony performing and they had been shortly playing radio areas and making regional appearances. 1 day, during his Surroundings Force program, Gene Autry noticed them and guaranteed to employ them as his support group when he obtained his service release. He held his word plus they continued to be with him for a long time, during which period they appeared in lots of of his B-movie Westerns and in addition on radio, tv and live performances, being especially well-known on hisMelody Ranch programs. They also made an appearance in theDurango Child series which starred Charles Starrett. The Cass State Boys documented for ARA, Columbia Information and Decca Information, aswell as documenting many radio transcription discs. In 1949, Dodson in fact sang on Autry’s second edition of ‘That Sterling silver Haired Daddy Of Mine’ and the next season on ‘Mississippi Valley Blues’. (Jimmy Long sang on both 1931 originals.) The trio also sang on Autry’s well-known 1956 EPChildren’s Xmas. Scoggins later discovered popularity as the vocalist in the theme tune to the favorite US tv program The Beverly Hillbillies (although Lester Flatt do the singing within the Columbia Information launch). The Cass Region Boys had been inducted in to the Traditional western Music Hall Of Popularity in 1996.