The Blue Sky Boys

The Blue Sky Boys were an American country music duo comprised the brothers Earl Bolick (b. 16 November 1919 - d. 19 April 1998) and Bill Bolick (b. 28 October 1917 - d. 13 March 2008), whose careers spanned over forty years.

Biography

The brothers were raised in East Hickory, North Carolina, in a family of six children. Their parents, who were deeply religious, taught them to sing hymns and gospel music while children. A neighbour taught Bill to play banjo, and Earl soon followed suit, though he would eventually decide on the guitar instead. The pair performed as a duo locally, and Bill played with an ensemble called The Crazy Hickory Nuts, who began playing on Asheville radio in 1935. Soon after this, Bill and Earl teamed with fiddle player Homer Sherrill to form The JFG Coffee Boys, also scoring slots on Asheville's radio station. After a few years, they moved to Atlanta and performed as The Blue Ridge Hillbillies.

While in Atlanta, the brothers and Sherrill parted ways, and the duo began recording for RCA Records as The Blue Sky Boys. They made their first recordings on June 16, 1936. Between 1937 and 1941 the group recorded about 100 songs for RCA to considerable success on the hillbilly music circuit. Between 1941 and 1946 both brothers served in the military; after their discharge they returned to Atlanta and resumed recording with RCA. Some of their sides feature fiddle playing, from Sam Parker, Joe Tyson, Leslie Keith, Richard Hicks, and others. They enjoyed a number of hits just after the war, but disliked the burgeoning honky tonk style and refused to record it; when RCA asked them to play with an electric guitar, they stopped recording in 1948, but returned the next year. A trickle of recordings continued on RCA until mid-1950.

Frustrated with the changing musical climate, the Blue Sky Boys retired in 1951; Bill became a postal clerk in his birth state and Earl took a job at Lockheed in Atlanta. It was not until 1962, when Starday Records released an LP of their radio recordings, that they decided to reunite and record again. Two LPs of new material followed, one secular ("Together Again") and one religious ("Precious Moments"). They occasionally played live at folk festivals; Capitol Records recorded one of these, at the UCLA Folk Festival, and released it as an album. But by the end of the 1960s they had decided to call it quits again.

Once more, in 1975, they were convinced to record again, this time for Rounder Records, and another round of folk and bluegrass circuit touring ensued. Following this Bill moved back to his birthplace and lived in Longview NC and Earl retired to Tucker, Georgia.

References

* [http://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifwxql5ldae~T1 The Blue Sky Boys] at Allmusic