Ed Cassady

In 1948 at the age of 18, Edgar Niles Cassady began playing rhythm guitar and singing lead with the Virginia Mountain Boys on station WMVA in nearby Martinsville, VA. The band played a brand of old-time country very close to bluegrass. Besides Cassady, members were Curtis “Slim” Manning (leader) – lap steel, Herbert Turner – mandolin and tenor vocals, Clinton Crewes – electric guitar and mandolin, and Roy Biggs – bass and comedian. The Virginia Mountain Boys played for Saturday night dances and appeared at local schools and theatres. Ed Cassady later formed the Dixie Rhythm Boys, who functioned mainly as a bluegrass band, but if country music was needed for a dance, they could play that as well. They began working at WMVA radio and playing personal appearances. Cassady spent 1951 and 1952 in the Marine Corps. Upon his return to civilian life, he reformed the Dixie Rhythm Boys and began working personals again. When radio station WHEE went on the air in Martinsville in August 1954, Ed and the band started playing there. The Dixie Rhythm Boys at that time were Bill Haskins – banjo, Little Johnny Haskins – fiddle, Clinton Crewes – lead guitar, and Roy Biggs – bass. A little later, Bill Foley replaced Johnny Haskins on fiddle. Cassady recalled that Mac Wiseman, and Hack and Clyde Johnson were among the groups who also played at WPAQ during this period. Sometime around 1949 or the very early 1950s, Ed Cassady & The Dixie Rhythm Boys made some 78 rpm recordings for the Martinsville-based Liberty Record label, which was operated by Ted Prillaman, a Charlie Poole-styled banjo player and singer from Collinsville, Va. Ed believed that they waxed probably four sides, including “Will You Love Me Darling” b/w “Dixie Special”. Ed also worked with several other groups in the Martinsville area during the late 1940s and early ‘50s. In September of 1957, Ed moved to northern Virginia, and went to work for the Alexandria, Va., Police Department. Sometime in 1958, he put together another bluegrass band, the Hidden Valley Ramblers, and they began playing some of the local clubs around the greater Washington, DC, area. Through his cousin, Cassady met Ben Adelman, who had a record distributing business and was recording some of the local talent in and around Washington. Ed recorded one album for Adelman, at a studio in Washington, DC. The Hidden Valley Ramblers at the time of the session were Ed – guitar and lead vocals, Wayne Yates – mandolin and baritone vocals, Bill Yates – tenor vocals, Bucky Harris – banjo, Don Miller – fiddle, and Tater Pierce – bass. The album, “From The Heart Of Bluegrass Country” which featured ten of Ed’s original numbers, came out on the Mount Vernon Music label (MVM 166) in late 1962 or early 1963, as Ed Cassady and The Hidden Valley Ramblers. Sometime in the middle to late 1960s, the same recordings (some with slightly different titles) were released on the Coronet label (CX 207) as Ed Cassady and The Georgia Corn Stompers, “Bluegrass Banjo Hootenanny.”