Biography
An Indiana-based country and western ensemble operating under the name the Downhomers—occasionally rendered as Down Homers or Down-Homers—formed in the early to middle portion of the 1940s. Its visibility stemmed chiefly from two successive lead vocalists: the yodeling Kenny Roberts and the man who replaced him, Bill Haley.
For a stretch the musicians were headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The lineup consisted of Roberts on vocals and guitar, Bob Mason on vocals and rhythm guitar, Shorty Cook on steel guitar, Lloyd Cornell on double bass, and Guy Campbell on violin. Their chief stylistic touchstone remained the Sons of the Pioneers; between Campbell’s and Cook’s instrumental work, Roberts’s yodeling, and the close harmonies supplied by the rest of the members, the group generated considerable energy on stage and on the air.
WOWO in Fort Wayne brought them aboard for a daily program in 1944, and they also performed on Saturday nights for the Hoosier Hop Barn Dance, which reached listeners via the NBC radio network. Roberts exited in October 1944, the month he turned 18 and entered the draft, remaining away for the next thirteen months.
By then the American Vogue label—founded by Tom Saffady and bearing no relation to the French company of the same name—had already recorded the group on five selections. The pair of 78 rpm singles that followed secured the Downhomers an unusual niche in record-collecting history, because Vogue had perfected a mid-1940s process for manufacturing picture discs in full color; the two releases thus prefigured the short-lived collector craze for illustrated 12-inch vinyl that would surface in the late 1970s.
Five months after returning, Roberts departed again in April 1946, by which time the band had shifted northward to a regular spot on WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. It was around this period that Bill Haley, an aspiring country and cowboy singer from Chester, Pennsylvania, who had previously worked with the Range Drifters and had also appeared on the Hoosier Hop, joined the Downhomers. His stint lasted less than eight months.
According to some accounts, Haley was dismissed after attempting to split the group and lure several members into a new edition of the Range Drifters; in any event, by November he had left, reportedly taking Cornell and Mason with him. The Downhomers continued with Cook, Campbell, Slim Cox, Rusty Rogers, and Hank Gunder. The revised lineup remained active into the close of the decade, and at one point Haley even sought to rejoin once his own band’s prospects faded.
Interest in the Downhomers persists mainly because of Haley’s presence during the spring and summer of 1946 and the fame he later attained from the mid-1950s onward. As a result, the four official recordings plus various transcription and demo discs that feature him have drawn outsized attention from musicologists, critics, and fans far beyond anything the group enjoyed during its own era. These sides appear on the 2006 Bear Family anthology The Real Birth of Rock N Roll Arrives: 1946-1954.
For a stretch the musicians were headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The lineup consisted of Roberts on vocals and guitar, Bob Mason on vocals and rhythm guitar, Shorty Cook on steel guitar, Lloyd Cornell on double bass, and Guy Campbell on violin. Their chief stylistic touchstone remained the Sons of the Pioneers; between Campbell’s and Cook’s instrumental work, Roberts’s yodeling, and the close harmonies supplied by the rest of the members, the group generated considerable energy on stage and on the air.
WOWO in Fort Wayne brought them aboard for a daily program in 1944, and they also performed on Saturday nights for the Hoosier Hop Barn Dance, which reached listeners via the NBC radio network. Roberts exited in October 1944, the month he turned 18 and entered the draft, remaining away for the next thirteen months.
By then the American Vogue label—founded by Tom Saffady and bearing no relation to the French company of the same name—had already recorded the group on five selections. The pair of 78 rpm singles that followed secured the Downhomers an unusual niche in record-collecting history, because Vogue had perfected a mid-1940s process for manufacturing picture discs in full color; the two releases thus prefigured the short-lived collector craze for illustrated 12-inch vinyl that would surface in the late 1970s.
Five months after returning, Roberts departed again in April 1946, by which time the band had shifted northward to a regular spot on WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. It was around this period that Bill Haley, an aspiring country and cowboy singer from Chester, Pennsylvania, who had previously worked with the Range Drifters and had also appeared on the Hoosier Hop, joined the Downhomers. His stint lasted less than eight months.
According to some accounts, Haley was dismissed after attempting to split the group and lure several members into a new edition of the Range Drifters; in any event, by November he had left, reportedly taking Cornell and Mason with him. The Downhomers continued with Cook, Campbell, Slim Cox, Rusty Rogers, and Hank Gunder. The revised lineup remained active into the close of the decade, and at one point Haley even sought to rejoin once his own band’s prospects faded.
Interest in the Downhomers persists mainly because of Haley’s presence during the spring and summer of 1946 and the fame he later attained from the mid-1950s onward. As a result, the four official recordings plus various transcription and demo discs that feature him have drawn outsized attention from musicologists, critics, and fans far beyond anything the group enjoyed during its own era. These sides appear on the 2006 Bear Family anthology The Real Birth of Rock N Roll Arrives: 1946-1954.
Albums
