Curley Williams

Born on 3 June 1913 in southern Georgia, Doc Williams received his given name because local family lore held that the seventh child would grow up to practice medicine. Details of his childhood remain scarce, yet by the early 1940s he was leading a western-swing outfit as its fiddler on WALD in Albany, Georgia, rather than pursuing a medical career. Arriving in Nashville with his Sante Fe Riders in December 1942, the group reached the Grand Ole Opry stage, where George D. Hay renamed both the leader and the band to prevent mix-ups with the already established Doc Williams And His Border Riders on WWVA’s Wheeling Jamboree. Williams’s curly hair and his Peach State origins supplied the obvious alternative, yielding Curley Williams And His Georgia Peach Pickers. Networked Opry broadcasts commenced in September 1943, and the first Columbia sessions took place in 1945 once the wartime recording ban had lifted. From 1945 through 1948 the group worked the West Coast dancehall circuit and made a screen appearance in the 1947 Charles Starrett western Riders Of The Lone Star; during the same period they also became regulars on The Louisiana Hayride.

Williams composed “Half As Much” and cut it at the band’s final Columbia date in 1951; the following year Hank Williams, a friend but no blood relation, propelled the number to the second slot on the country chart. Persistent confusion has led many listeners to credit Hank as the writer, although the song later sold a million copies for Rosemary Clooney and enjoyed British success via versions by Alma Cogan and Lita Rosa. While under contract to Columbia, Williams also supplied instrumental support on other artists’ dates, among them a session for Fred Rose recording under the alias Rambling Rogue. In the early 1950s he and the Peach Pickers appeared regularly on the Smoky Mountain Jamboree in Georgia and broadcast sponsored programs over WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama. By 1954, however, Williams had grown weary of the entertainment business and stepped away from it altogether. He died on 5 September 1970.