Biography
Roy Harvey, who earned his living as a railroad engineer while also working as a fingerstyle guitarist, vocalist, and organizer of recording sessions, holds a distinctive position in Appalachian string band history. His close ties to Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers link him directly to the lineage that later produced Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, and Doc Watson. The five-year span of his own recording work roughly matched the rapid rise of Poole’s career, and together their achievements helped lay the foundation for the old-time rural music tradition.
Born in Monroe County in southeastern West Virginia on March 24, 1892—two days after Poole—Harvey picked up the guitar during childhood yet devoted most of his early adulthood to the Virginian Railway. A strike-related layoff ended that employment in 1923, after which railroad-themed numbers surfaced regularly across his recorded output. In 1925, while running a streetcar between Princeton and Bluefield, West Virginia, he met three members of the North Carolina Ramblers then traveling through the area: guitarist Norman Woodlieff, fiddler Posey Rorer, and banjoist Charlie Poole. The encounter sparked an ongoing collaboration, and Harvey’s Gibson guitar soon enriched the ensemble’s sound.
At the time Harvey resided in Beckley, West Virginia, and held a part-time job at a music store, where he expanded an already extensive familiarity with sheet music dating back to 1890 and observed which published songs and records drew the strongest public interest. By September 1926 the three musicians were rehearsing at Harvey’s home before traveling to New York to cut their first discs. For the next several intense years he functioned as a core participant in the North Carolina Ramblers.
Displaying notable business acumen, Harvey soon took charge of the group’s affairs. When Poole refused to breach his Columbia contract, Harvey capitalized on the expanding market for hillbilly string bands by leading a revived lineup—banjoist Bob Hoke filling Poole’s role—into studios in New York, Chicago, and Ashland, Kentucky, for Gennett, Paramount, and Brunswick during 1927 and 1928. The years 1929 and 1930 yielded some of Harvey’s most distinctive work. A series of duets with yodeler Earl Shirkey captured Harvey’s relaxed comic style; because Shirkey had trained in traditional European yodeling, the blend of Appalachian and Alpine approaches produced striking results. Two sets of guitar duets with Leonard Copeland rank among Harvey’s finest instrumental achievements, their interplay matching the cohesion found in the blues and jazz pairings of Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang. Fiddlers Lonnie Austin and Odell Smith appeared on sessions with Harvey in this period, and he also recorded a pair of sides alongside banjoist Vance Weaver and the guitarist’s brother, Wiley Weaver. Consistent with his managerial role, Harvey arranged for the Weaver Brothers to sign with Columbia.
Although his industry contacts delayed financial hardship for a time, 1931 marked the close of Harvey’s recording career. Sixteen sides made for Gennett early that June were issued under the name West Virginia Ramblers and featured fiddlers Jess Johnston and Bernice “Bernie” Coleman plus banjoist Ernest Branch. Harvey’s final discs were cut in Atlanta, Georgia, near the end of October 1931 with Coleman and Branch; Columbia commissioned the tracks, yet they appeared on the Okeh label and remained among his scarcest issues until later reissues. After taking part in roughly two hundred recordings, Harvey stopped performing once the Great Depression curtailed most activity in rural music. He abandoned music entirely, served as a police officer, and moved to Florida, where he resumed his original trade by running locomotives. At his death in 1958, Poole’s former associate had long since been forgotten by the public and no longer owned a guitar. Document has reissued ninety-four sides recorded between 1926 and 1931 across four volumes, most of the material documenting Harvey’s work outside his better-known association with Poole.
Born in Monroe County in southeastern West Virginia on March 24, 1892—two days after Poole—Harvey picked up the guitar during childhood yet devoted most of his early adulthood to the Virginian Railway. A strike-related layoff ended that employment in 1923, after which railroad-themed numbers surfaced regularly across his recorded output. In 1925, while running a streetcar between Princeton and Bluefield, West Virginia, he met three members of the North Carolina Ramblers then traveling through the area: guitarist Norman Woodlieff, fiddler Posey Rorer, and banjoist Charlie Poole. The encounter sparked an ongoing collaboration, and Harvey’s Gibson guitar soon enriched the ensemble’s sound.
At the time Harvey resided in Beckley, West Virginia, and held a part-time job at a music store, where he expanded an already extensive familiarity with sheet music dating back to 1890 and observed which published songs and records drew the strongest public interest. By September 1926 the three musicians were rehearsing at Harvey’s home before traveling to New York to cut their first discs. For the next several intense years he functioned as a core participant in the North Carolina Ramblers.
Displaying notable business acumen, Harvey soon took charge of the group’s affairs. When Poole refused to breach his Columbia contract, Harvey capitalized on the expanding market for hillbilly string bands by leading a revived lineup—banjoist Bob Hoke filling Poole’s role—into studios in New York, Chicago, and Ashland, Kentucky, for Gennett, Paramount, and Brunswick during 1927 and 1928. The years 1929 and 1930 yielded some of Harvey’s most distinctive work. A series of duets with yodeler Earl Shirkey captured Harvey’s relaxed comic style; because Shirkey had trained in traditional European yodeling, the blend of Appalachian and Alpine approaches produced striking results. Two sets of guitar duets with Leonard Copeland rank among Harvey’s finest instrumental achievements, their interplay matching the cohesion found in the blues and jazz pairings of Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang. Fiddlers Lonnie Austin and Odell Smith appeared on sessions with Harvey in this period, and he also recorded a pair of sides alongside banjoist Vance Weaver and the guitarist’s brother, Wiley Weaver. Consistent with his managerial role, Harvey arranged for the Weaver Brothers to sign with Columbia.
Although his industry contacts delayed financial hardship for a time, 1931 marked the close of Harvey’s recording career. Sixteen sides made for Gennett early that June were issued under the name West Virginia Ramblers and featured fiddlers Jess Johnston and Bernice “Bernie” Coleman plus banjoist Ernest Branch. Harvey’s final discs were cut in Atlanta, Georgia, near the end of October 1931 with Coleman and Branch; Columbia commissioned the tracks, yet they appeared on the Okeh label and remained among his scarcest issues until later reissues. After taking part in roughly two hundred recordings, Harvey stopped performing once the Great Depression curtailed most activity in rural music. He abandoned music entirely, served as a police officer, and moved to Florida, where he resumed his original trade by running locomotives. At his death in 1958, Poole’s former associate had long since been forgotten by the public and no longer owned a guitar. Document has reissued ninety-four sides recorded between 1926 and 1931 across four volumes, most of the material documenting Harvey’s work outside his better-known association with Poole.