Leroy Van Dyke, of “Auctioneer” and “Walk On By” fame, star of the movie, “What Am I Bid?” is known around the world as an entertainer, recording artist, radio and television star, actor, auctioneer and veteran of the Nevada circuit.  He has recorded over 500 songs, and probably holds the record for most repeat-performance bookings of any working, name country music entertainer.  He has worked 40 to 70 fairs and livestock events per year for over five decades, in addition to a great variety of other engagements.

              He was born on a farm (not in a hospital) in rural Pettis County, Missouri, without the amenities of running water and electricity.  Elementary schooling was in one-room country schools, then to high school at Sedalia, where he ranked third in a class of 180 graduates.

              Leroy is a graduate of the University of Missouri with a dual major:  Animal Husbandry and Journalism, with a minor in Speech.  He received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, did one semester of graduate work, and was a member of both the junior and senior University of Missouri intercollegiate livestock judging teams.

              After serving as a special agent, U. S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, in Korea, Leroy was catapulted into show business while working as a journalist, when his self-penned “Auctioneer” recording went a million-plus just weeks after its release.  He then joined Red Foley’s ABC-TV Network “Ozark Jubilee” in Springfield, Missouri, as a regular member, and continued in that position for three years until the show left the air.

              He again had a multi-million seller with “Walk On By,” a record that stayed in the charts an incredible 42 weeks, nineteen in the number one position, and was later named by Billboard Magazine as the biggest country music record in history!  Leroy then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and became a regular member of the world-famous Grand Ole Opry.

              Music industry experts named Leroy Van Dyke as the Country Music Entertainer of the Decade for the 1960s.  He had the starring role in the 1967movie “What Am I Bid?.”            

              Leroy was a founding co-host of “Country Crossroads,” the most widely syndicated show in radio history; he hosted his own syndicated television series, “The Leroy Van Dyke Show;” he hosted the 1965 Country Music Association Awards Show at which Ernest Tubb was inducted into the Hall of Fame; he was the first entertainer to receive the prestigious Country Music Association Founding President’s Award for contributing to the advancement and improved image of country music; he served on the board of directors of the Country Music Association, and is currently serving on the board of the International Entertainment Buyers Association.

              He was selected by the Country Music Association to represent it in showcase situations at the Waldorf in New York, The Monteleone in New Orleans, The Edgewater Beach and the Conrad Hilton in Chicago, The Ambassador in Los Angeles and numerous Country Music Association functions in Nashville.

              Van Dyke is considered by industry moguls and by his peers to be the entertainer who put professionalism in country music.  He was the first to blaze a trail and take a staged, produced, choreographed, self-contained country music show to the “Strip” in Las Vegas.  He was the first to take country music to Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter.  He was the only country music performer ever to open a show for Marilyn Monroe.

              Leroy is a 2001 inductee into the North American Country Music Association, International, Hall of Fame.               

              After more than four decades as an entertainer, Leroy still travels in excess of a hundred thousand performing miles yearly around the world . . . he performs in all facets of show business including fairs, festivals, concerts, rodeos, supper clubs, conventions, radio, television, recordings, the Nevada circuit, livestock events, agricultural shows and private functions.

              He has not missed a performance in over four decades as an entertainer.

              On a personal note, should you ask, Leroy will tell you that there are only four things he ever wanted to do:  sing, sell, write, and raise livestock.  He is living his dream.  His name is a household word in country music circles around the world.  He is an auctioneering Hall of Fame member.  He was a successful journalist, and is the author of “Auctioneering, Motivation, Success,” a work that is rapidly becoming the textbook of the auction profession.  His Arabian mules are developing a reputation from New England to California and from Canada to the Deep South.

Bobby Bare

In his own quiet way, Bobby Bare has long been regarded as one of Country Music’s most innovative and talented writer/performers. “I’ve never believed in standing still with my music,” he says, and the diversity of his recordings are testimony to the success of this approach. Called “an outspoken advocate for new directions in Country Music,” “a shrewd judge of talent who helped bring attention to a number of superstars,” “a Country artist who successfully experimented with the Folk genre” and “a storyteller who reinvigorated the storytelling tradition in Country music,” Bare has proven to have all of these attributes and more. One of his closest friends, Waylon Jennings, said he’s never heard anybody say anything bad about Bobby Bare and never heard anybody say Bobby Bare had done something wrong to them. Bare is also funny, smart, very, very laid back and an individualist who has imprinted his brand of Country music permanently on the world.

Robert Joseph Bare was born and raised around Ironton, in rural Lawrence County, Ohio, at the southernmost tip of the state. He got his start on WKOV radio in Wellston, about 40 miles north of his hometown, then moved out west to the Los Angeles area at the age of eighteen. Accepted immediately into the music scene there, Bare soon had his first hit single with a talking blues type of song called All American Boy, on the Fraternity label. He had written and recorded the song only a couple of days before he was to be drafted into the Army, but had no idea it was going to be released. It soared to #2 on the Pop charts, but at first was erroneously credited to Bill Parsons, a friend of Bare’s with whom he had recorded the session.

During and after his tenure in the Army, Bare continued to record for Fraternity. His reputation grew with the release of songs such as Lorena and Book of Love, and during this time he toured with Pop artists such as Roy Orbison, Jay and the Americans and Bobby Darin, and made his first appearances on the TV show “American Bandstand.” It was on the strength of his Fraternity recordings that Chet Atkins was persuaded to sign him to RCA.

Bare’s first single on RCA, Shame On Me, was both a Pop and a Country hit. A year later he recorded one of his best-known songs, Detroit City (written by Mel Tillis and Danny Dill) and it too

was a huge Country/Pop chart success. Followed by such other top 10 hits as 500 Miles (Away From Home), Miller’s Cave, Four Strong Winds, It’s Alright, The Streets of Baltimore, and (Margie’s At) The Lincoln Park Inn, Bare’s RCA recordings solidified his standing as a major artist in both the Country and Pop fields. He won a Grammy for “Best Country Recording” with Detroit City and also was nominated over the next several years for “Best Country Single” and “Best Male Country Vocal Performance.”

Bobby Bare, Chet Atkins, Jim Reeves and the Anita Kerr Singers made the first ever commercial Country Music tour of Europe, playing to sold-out crowds at some of the biggest venues there. Bare returned to Germany the following year for three months and has toured overseas almost every year since, establishing himself as one of Europe’s most popular American Music artists. Bare married the love of his life, Jeannie Sterling (a fine singer in her own right) and the two

relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. He had tried his hand at acting in a movie with Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette titled “A Distant Trumpet” and also in some pilots for a TV series called “No Time For Sergeants,” but decided that what he really wanted to do was get married, raise some children and be a Country music singer. And that’s exactly what he did.

Bare recorded two duet albums with Skeeter Davis, each of which produced a charted single and also had a top 5 hit with Liz Anderson and Norma Jean, The Game Of Triangles, for which he was nominated for another Grammy. He recorded an album with Liverpool’s Hillsiders and later recorded songs with Rosanne Cash and Lacy J. Dalton. But it has been his collaborative efforts with poet/author/cartoonist/songwriter Shel Silverstein that have received worldwide critical acclaim for their artistic and original musical directions.

Bare was the first Country artist to be entrusted with complete artistic control over his recordings. The results were fully justified when he and Shel recoded “Bobby Bare Sings Lullaby’s, Legends

and Lies,” often described as Country Music’s first concept album. Shel had written all the songs, including the smash hits Daddy What If, a duet featuring Bare and his 5 year old son, Bobby Jr., and Marie Leveau, the story of a Cajun queen. The following year Shel assisted the entire Bare family in recording a children’s album called “Singin’ In The Kitchen.”

Bare was signed next to the Columbia label, with whom he recorded a number of albums, including “Bare” (with guests Willie and Waylon, Chet Atkins, Shel and Dr. Hook) and a variety of

collaborative projects with Shel, songwriter Rodney Crowell and others.

Among the first to recognize the talents (and record the songs) of Harlan Howard, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Tom T. Hall, Billy Joe Shaver, Mickey Newberry, Bob McDill and Rodney Crowell, Bobby Bare has long been known as a friend of the songwriter/artist. When “The

Nashville Network” debuted in 1983, it was fitting that one of its first programs was “Bobby Bare and Friends,” a highly regarded one-hour weekly show spotlighting the importance of the songwriter. Reflecting Bare’s renowned laid-back personality, the show featured him shooting the breeze with his writer friends, followed by a little informal pickin’ and singin’.

Over the years, Bare has built up a huge core of loyal fans in the U.S. and abroad who turn out for his every appearance, creating a party atmosphere by shouting out their requests and singing and clapping along with every song. He continues to write and record as well. A lifelong fisherman, he and Jeannie live on the shores of Old Hickory Lake just outside of Nashville. And today, just like in the past, if Bare’s little traveling bag is sitting on the dining room table, he’s home; otherwise, he’s out on the road.

Jim Ed Brown

Over the past four decades, Jim Ed Brown has firmly established himself in the minds of Country Music Fans as a masterful presence in every aspect of the Country Music Industry Field.  Born in 1934, the Native of Sparkman, Arkansas was one of five children (two boys and three girls) of a struggling lumberman and his wife.  Some of his earliest memories are of close family times, when all of the members of the houshold would gather on Saturday nights to listen to the Grand Ole Opry on a battery powered radio.  Jim Ed and his older sister, Maxine, were fascinated by what they heard and soon began harmonizing together.  A few years later, Jim Ed and Maxine began to perform occasionally on the local radio shows.

By Jim Ed's second year in college, he and Maxine were regular members of the 'Barnyard Frolic' on KRLA in Little Rock, and together, they penned what was to become their first hit record, 'Looking Back To See'.

Released on a small label in 1954, 'Looking Back To See' provided the necessary momentum to bring the pair to national attention.  They became members of the Louisiana Hayride, and went on to join Red Foley as featured regulars on the Ozark Jubilee in 1955.

Later that year, younger sister Bonnie joined them as 'The Browns', and they scored immediate top-10 hit, 'Here Today and Gone Tomorrow.'  The group signed with RCA Victor in 1956, and two number-one releases followed in quick succession, 'I Take the Chance' and 'I Heard the Bluebird Sing.'

Jim Ed's career took a vastly different turn when he was called to a two year stint in the service.  After his discharge, he rejoined his sisters to record the song which would leave the indelible mark on musical history, 'The Three Bells.'

Released in 1959, 'The Three Bells' sold over a million copies and created a sensation as the first number one country song ever to cross over to number one on the pop and rhythm & blues charts as well.  After a two year break, the Browns were not only back, but they were more in demand than ever.  Other classic hits including, 'The Old Lamplighter' and 'Scarlet RIbbons' soon followed, and in 1962, the trio joined the Grand Ole Opry.

By the mid 1960's, however, the rigors of combining busy careers with caring for their growing families brought both Bonnie and Maxine to the decision to permanently retire from the group.  Jim Ed was left to carry on alone, and in 1966, he scored his first solo success with, 'Pop-A-Top Again.'  Through the 60's and 70's, he continued to grow as a star in his own right with more hit singles including, 'Southern Loving,' 'Sometime Sunshine,' and memorable 'Morning.'

A six-season run as co-host of the syndicated weekly television series, 'Nashville On The Road' began in 1975, further enhancing Jim Ed's career and leading to his being selected as a national spokesperson for Dollar General Stores.

Then in 1976, he teamed up with Helen Cornelius to form one of the most successful recording duos of all time.  With smash releases like, 'Don't Bother to Knock' and 'Saying Hello, Saying I Love You, Saying Goodbye.'  Jim Ed and Helen also set an industry record when 'Lying in Love With You' made the largest single Country chart leap in history, vaulting from 0 to 19.

 In 1983, Jim Ed started working with TNN, the Nashville Network.  'You Can Be A Star' for six years, and he co-hosted a show with his wife, Becky, 'Going Our Way.'  Jim Ed still remains with the Grand Ole Opry where he is an audience favorite.  Jim Ed still performs around 30 shows per year on the Opry, as well as performing a number of shows on the road.  In addition to his radio and television committments, Jim Ed continues to tour throughout the nation where he presents his down-to-earth brand of family entertainment to an ever growing legion of fans.

If there is one word best suited to describe Jim Ed Brown, it is veratile.  As a dynamic component in duets and a trio, as a solo recording artist, and as a popular television host, in the course of his professional lifetime, he has filled role after role with shining success.  The last career of this balladeer from Arkansas can easily be likened to a well-cut gem, with its facets reflecting light on many different planes, yet collectively achieving the warm, enduring brilliance of an unforgettable star, a TRUE LEGEND...

Moe Bandy

Just imagine that you were a sheet metal worker in Adkins, Texas and you had a dream to become a big entertainer. In addition, just imagine every time you tried to reach that success, a very large door was slammed in your face. Imagine traveling all the way to Nashville four times with no luck, and being flat broke to boot. Can you even imagine that in the last attempt at the big times, you would pawn your entire household of furniture so that you might achieve your dreams? Well believe it or not, that is just the way it happened for Moe Bandy.

Not many people get the chance to live out their life’s dream, especially in the field of entertainment. Country star Moe Bandy happily counts himself as one of the fortunate few. In a career that spans three decades, Moe has achieved success at every level of country music. From his start in the honky-tonks of south Texas, to performing before thousands around the world, Moe Bandy is living out his dream. 

In The Beginning:

In the early 1970’s, Moe was working as a cowboy on his grandfathers ranch in San Antonio, while there he began competing professionally in the rodeo riding bareback broncos and bulls, but as in the case for most cowboy, Moe’s professional rodeo career was short lived due to repeated injuries. It is at this time that Moe turned to his music.

Moe’s first love had always been music, and with his rodeo days over, he had time to pursue this interest. He played with his band, The Mavericks, through out South Texas and soon opened for such headliners as Loretta Lynn, and the late Bob Wills. Moe was enjoying success in the honky-tonks and clubs, but yearned for something more. In 1974, after several failed attempts at landing a record deal, Moe was at the crossroads. He worked during the day in the sheet metal industry, and performed at night. Moe knew that if he wanted to ever make it big in the music industry, he had to put it all on the line. 

So Moe pawned all of his furniture to cover the cost of a $900 recording session. "It was the hardest decision I ever made, but I knew I had to risk it all, or I would always wonder, and have regrets later", Moe said. The gamble worked, from that recording came Moe’s first hit song “ I Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today”, which led to his first recording contract with Columbia Records. His career then skyrocketed with hits, “Its A Cheating Situation”, “Bandy The Rodeo Clown”, and “Hank Williams You Wrote My Life”. During the late 1970’s and early 80’s, Moe continued to rise in country music. He teamed up with label mate Joe Stampley for the album “Good Ole Boys".

Throughout the early ‘80’s’, Moe had several successful duets with Joe Stampley, Janie Frickie and Becky Hobbs. In 1987, he moved to MCA / Curb Records and released the album, “You Haven’t Heard The Last Of Me”. This album spawned such top ten hits as the title cut “Till I’m Too Old To Die Young’, as well as the classic song “Americana”.

Over his thirty plus year career, Moe has recorded thirty-five albums producing over sixty chart hits. His has earned four Academy of Country Music awards, and a 1980 Country Music Association award.

Moe is now on the SweetSong Nashville Label, and he has a new album titled "Legendary Country", that  he is very proud of. The album was produced by Dennis Money, and the current single from the album is "Long Shadow". Also, Moe and SweetSong are currently working on a new "Greatest Hits Boxed Set" that should be out before the end of the year.

Moe is still touring all over the country, at fairs, clubs, arenas and rodeos, so be sure to check out a live show of this legendary entertainer. Or, if you are traveling to Branson, Mo, you might catch Moe at the famous Moe Bandy Theatre (as seen in the Walt Disney Movie "Gordy".)

A Note From Moe 

It takes a lot of people, a lot of planning, and a lot of hard work to take my show on the road around the world.  I hope each and everyone of you get a chance to come out and see me perform and hope that you enjoy the show as much as we enjoy performing for you.  

On behalf of The Americana Band, the management, all my theatre family, and myself,  thanks for choosing our kind of country... our kind of comedy... and our kind of fun.  We look forward to seeing you at our show!

Helen Cornelius