The Brazos Valley Boys  

From 1951 through 1964, The Brazos Valley Boys were voted the No. 1 Country and Western Dance Band by Billboard Magazine. 

For over four decades, Hank Thompson wore a cheerful crown as the purveyor of honky-tonk swing, keeping the style alive with a top-notch band, fabulous showmanship and a versatility that allowed him to expand his repertoire into romantic ballads and hardcore honky-tonk numbers.

Back Row (L-R) unknown, Bob White, unknown, unknown

Middle Row L-R) Billy Stewart, Donny McDaniel, unknown

Front Row (L-R) Billy Gray, Hank Thompson, PeeWee Whitewing, Amos Hedrick

With hits peppering the charts from the late 1940s to the 1980s, Thompson wrote and performed up-beat odes to the highs and lows of western life.   

Born September 3, 1925, in Waco, Texas, Hank Thompson grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and to country artists. He began learning harmonica and guitar as a child, and appeared in local talent shows as a teenager, which eventually led to his own local radio program (billed as Hank the Hired Hand). 

After graduating from high school in 1943, Thompson joined the Navy. Following his discharge, Hank returned to Waco and to the radio business and set about putting together a band he dubbed The Brazos Valley Boys (BVB).  

The BVB quickly became a popular live act around the area and recorded their first single, Whoa Sailor for the Globe label in 1946. A few more singles followed, by which time Tex Ritter had become a Thompson admirer. Ritter helped Thompson land a record deal with Capitol in 1947. 

Thompson scored his first major hit for Capitol with Humpty Dumpty Heart (No. 2, 1948). In 1951, he hooked up with producer Ken Nelson, who would helm many of his most successful recording sessions. One of the songs was The Wild Side of Life (No. 1, 1952), a monster hit that became Thompson's signature song. 

Thompson continued to score hit after hit for three decades, including 30 songs that reached the Top 10 on the country charts. Hank's relationship with Capitol ended in 1965. He first moved to Warner Brothers, then ABC/Dot. Many of Hank's compositions revolved around cheerful imbibing, such as A Six Pack to Go (No. 10, 1960) and On Tap, in the Can, or in a Bottle (No. 7, 1968). But these were often preludes to songs of sorrow, which he sang with the same plucky, ever cheerful and clear tenor voice, like Humpty Dumpty Heart, a playful parry of shattered love. 

Hank continued to record and tour and his singles charted regularly during the 1970s all the way up to the early 80s, though Hank never matched the level of success he'd enjoyed during his heyday. Even after the hits dried up, Thompson maintained a busy concert tour schedule, playing all over the world. Hank Thompson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989. 

Hank was justifiably proud of his band. From 1953 to 1965, for thirteen consecutive years, Billboard Magazine voted The Brazos Valley Boys the Number One Country Western Band. Since their inception the BVB have defied musical convention. The BVB incorporated the American musical art forms of country, jazz, dixieland, blues and big-band swing to produce their own brand of western swing music; an energetic, eclectic style that had wide appeal. 

Thompson began building his new BVB with the help of Billy Gray. Billy, who joined the band in 1950, stayed for almost ten years. Thompson and Gray honed their brand of western swing less jazzy than Bob Wills, less orchestral than Spade Cooley and different and distinctive from popular Oklahoma bandleaders Leon McAuliffe. Still, he had to move beyond the raw honky-tonk of a Hank Williams or Ray Price and even the spare sound of Thompson's own earliest recordings to keep the dance halls hopping. Hank found the sound he wanted with the help of Gray's arrangements and a procession of great musicians.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Billy Gray  (1924~1975)   

Western swing guitarist Billy Gray was born in 1924 in Paris, TX, and raised in a poor family. Gray had origins similar to Hank Thompson. As a boy, he worked in the fields to earn money for his first guitar, which he purchased from a local pawnshop. By age fifteen, he was good enough to be doing some part time performing on his hometown radio station. At 19, Billy organized a band and hosted his own full-blown radio show over KPLT in Paris.   

For the next few years, Gray logged a series of tours around Texas and the Southwest, eventually landing in Dallas. There he joined The Riders of the Silver Sage, before becoming the leader of Hank Thompson’s Brazos Valley Boys. Billy and Thompson eventually founded the Texoma Music Publishing Company and the Brazos Valley Publishing Company and the two co-wrote some of Thompson's greatest hits, including Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart, The New Wears off Too Fast and A Fool, a Faker.  

In 1954, Gray's lone charting hit was issued. You Can't Have My Love, was a duet with rockabilly screamer Wanda Jackson. The following year, he and his band, the Western Oakies, released Dance-O-Rama, but the album failed at charting any singles. Billy recorded a single under the Decca Records label: 

A Side: Lovin' Country Style 

B Side: We Just Don't See Things Alike Anymore 

Gray went on to work as a sideman for other bands, including the Nuggets and the Cowtowners, and also appeared on the syndicated TV show Music Country Style. He recorded one more album in 1965 on Longhorn Records, but faded from the public eye soon after. Billy Gray died in 1975 while undergoing heart surgery.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Brazos Valley Boys 

Some of the finest musicians and biggest names in western swing music have graced the stage and recording studio as The Brazos Valley Boys. 

1. Hank Thompson (lead vocal, guitar)
2. Amos Hendrick (fiddle, 1952~1956)#
3. Ben Dorsey (road mgr., 1955)
4. Bernard Young (drums, 1961)
5. Bert Rivera (steel, guitar, 1961-1970)
6. Bill Carson (guitar -1952)
7. Billy Armstrong (fiddle, 1957-1959)
8. Billy Jack Saucer (fiddle, 1961)
9. Billy Peters (fiddle, 1957)
10. Billy Gray (band leader, gtr -1949-1966)#
11. Billy Stewart (bass fiddle -1950-1961)#
12. Billy Thompson (rhythm guitar, 1966)
13. Billy Walker (vocalist, rhythm guitar)*
14. Bob Bain (guitar, 1957)
15. Bob White (fiddle-1952~1961)#
16. Bobbie White (steel, 1953-1958)#
17. Bobby Garrett (steel, 1960-1963)
18. Curly Chalker (steel guitar,1963)
19. Curly Lewis (fiddle, 1955~1961, 1963-1971)
20. Curtis Potter (bass, vocals, 1960-1972)
21. Donald McDaniel (piano, 1954)
22. Doug Rogers (drums)
23. Dubert Dobson (trumpet, 1952-1961)#
24. Dusty Stewart (pedal steel guitar -1951)
25. Gil Baca (piano, 1951)#
26. Gwin Nichols (drums, 1958-1961)
27. Harold Lee Curly Chalker (pedal steel, 1949)
28. Harold Hensley (fiddle, 1957-1959)
29. Henry Boatman (fiddle, 1958)
30. Hugo Chambers, drums, 1963-1965)
31. Jack Greenbach (drums, 1954)#
32. Jack Saucer (bass)
33. J. D. Walters (steel guitar)
34. Jimmy Pruett (piano, 1959)
35. Joe Losciuto (piano, 1958)
36. Johnny Magetto (drums, 1954)#
37. Johnny Manson (fiddle, 1951)#
38. Junior Nichols (drums, 1961)
39. Keith Coleman (fiddle, 1956~1957, 1966)
40. Kermit Baca (1954)#
41. Lefty Nason (bass & stl guitar -1949-1951)#
42. Ludy Harris (vocal, guitar, drums -1949)*
43. Mark Jordan (keyboard)
44. Marvin Bredemeier (fiddle)
45. Merle Travis (band leader, gtr, 1952-1961)#
46. Morey Sullivan (bass guitar)
47. Paul NcGhee (drums -1952-1954)#
48. Pee Wee Reed (bass & steel guitar -1949)#
49. PeeWee Whitewing (steel -1952-1960)#
50. Pete Burke (bass, 1958)
51. R.D. Thatcher (drums, 1965)
52. Red Hayes (fiddle, 1951)#
53. Roy Harte (drums)
54. Tom Bresh (guitar)
55. Tommy Camfield (fiddle, 1958)
56. Vic Davis (piano, 1957-1958)#
57. Wade Wood (fiddle -1950-1951)#
58. Wanda Jackson (vocals, 1954)#
59. Wayne Foster (drums 1951-1952)

#Brazos Valley Band Member

*Worked as a session musician or toured with the Brazos Valley Boys band, paid by the job.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Aug. 11, 2009