Roy Lanham

Roy Lanham earned his primary reputation through guitar duties with the Sons of the Pioneers between 1961 and 1986, yet he also headed the Whippoorwills across many years and released country-jazz guitar instrumentals as a solo act under his own name during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Observers place him on equal footing with renowned figures such as Chet Atkins and Merle Travis, even though wider recognition eluded him. Born in Corbin, KY, on January 16, 1923, Lanham began playing guitar in childhood. While still a teenager he secured radio engagements as a rhythm guitarist across several instrumental groups, one of which pop vocalist Gene Austin eventually recruited and renamed the Whippoorwills. Within that ensemble Lanham handled lead guitar duties in a jazzy manner shaped by Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, further set apart by his four-part harmony chord approach that he alternated with single-string passages. In 1943 he joined Cincinnati’s WLW, the 50,000-watt station that opened doors to regular session work for King Records, where he contributed to releases by Hank Penny and the Delmore Brothers, among others. Following a single 1946 Chet Atkins date for the Bullet label, Lanham relocated to Dayton and revived the Whippoorwills. Over the ensuing years the group toured extensively, cut transcriptions for Smiley Burnette’s radio program in Hollywood, and joined Merle Travis for six Capitol sides in the early 1950s. Lanham’s association with Smiley Burnette’s show introduced him to the Sons of the Pioneers, who asked the Whippoorwills to substitute on their broadcast during the Sons’ touring absences. He accumulated further session credits with Johnny Burnette and Dorsey Burnette, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves, Bonnie Guitar, the Browns, and the Fleetwoods, while also issuing singles both solo and alongside the Whippoorwills. Momentum from the Fleetwoods tracks prompted his own solo LP in 1959, followed later that year by the sole Whippoorwills album, Sizzling Strings.