Bill Gatton Chevy Show - 1972

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Here are some rare audio recordings from the 1972 "Bill Gatton Chevy" TV show on WCYB in Bristol, Tn. They were sourced from a now defunct youtube channel, but originate from tapes held in a US University archive vault. The audio was originally recorded by Ed May from the TV, so the quality is quite rough in places, but the performances are great and the recordings are definitely worth a listen.

Probably the best sounding of the shows, from the 11th June 1972 has been reloaded to youtube by Billy Q. Smith and can be heard here.

All the shows can also be downloaded as zipped MP3 file (84 Mb).

From the dialog on the 11th June set, it sounds like it was a short-lived venture - as Ralph says: "We'll be here in Bristol, Saturday July the 1st from 11 o'clock until around 5 right at the Bill Gatton Chevrolet company on 11th and State Street. We'll be there all day picking and singing for you and we'd like to invite anybody that picks or sings or dances or anything else to come by and join in the fun with us..... We'd like to see a large turnout because if enough of you come's out and does enough business with Bill, well he's liable to sign us up for about year and we'd like nothing better than that, so be sure and come out be with us, that's July 1st - we'll be there form 11 o'clock in the morning until 5 in the afternoon..."

Presumably not enough business was generated for Bill Gatton to extend the show?

The dates which are given for these shows must refer to broadcast rather than recording date, as on the earliest date, Sunday 28th May 1972, Ralph was holding his "Second Annual Memorial Festival" at the Old homeplace in McClure, Va...

Ralph also plugs the 1st July appearance at Bill Gatton's Chevrolet dealership on the 'Unknown date' show, along with their next festival appearance at the James Monroe "2nd Annual Bluegrass Festival" at 'Kineauvista' Cosby/Newport, Tn the same weekend.

The recordings are presumably some of the last to feature Ricky Skaggs/Keith Whitley line up; and a couple of the tapes feature Dr. Bruce Mongle, who was Carter & Ralph's physician. He also played at the Hills Of Home Memorial festival in the 1970's (at least 1973, 1975 & 1977).

The undated show features Stanford Stanley & His Clinch Valley Boys. Stanford was billed at Ralph's Hills Of Home Memorial festival in McClure between 1976-84... In the introduction Ralph describes Stanford as "Distant kin I guess". From a quick scan of a geneology site and David W Johnson's 'Lonesome Melodies' book it looks like Stanford and Ralph had the same great grandparents (James Stanley and Rebecca Beverly), but I could be wrong. His full name was Donald Stanford Stanley (1924-2005).

I've not been able to dig up any information on The Coeburns.

Bill Gatton, aka Carol Martin "Bill" Gatton was born on 25th May 1932 near Bremen, Kentucky. He is described on Wikipedia as an American entreprenuer and philantropist^[1]. He died 18 April 2022.

As Billy Q. Smith notes - the theme tune may sound familiar, as it's a reworking of the Jim Walter Jamboree theme which can be heard on the Stanley Brothers On Radio releases.

I wonder if the video tape for these shows still exist somewhere...

Thanks to Chris Wing & Billy Q. Smith for help resurrecting this page.

• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
• Roy Lee Centers: guitar, vocals
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Jack Cooke: bass
• Ricky Skaggs: mandolin
• Keith Whitley: lead guitar

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gatton