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Hillbilly-Music.com—The People. The Music. The History.
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About The Artist William "Red" Rector spent much of his career as an ace mandolin picker and band member in his home of western North Carolina and east Tennessee as both sideman and solo performer often based on radio and/or television outlets in Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, and especially Knoxville, Tennessee. Wherever, he always earned great respect for his vocal and instrumental skills. Red first gained notice when he and sometime partner Fred Smith accompanied Wade Mainer to New York to appear in a BBC Production, "The Chisholm Trail" during World War II. By the time he was twenty, Red had worked as a band member and recorded with such name acts as those of Charlie Monroe and especially Carl Story and the Rambling Mountaineers often handling lead vocals almost as much as Story.
Back in Knoxville, Red continued working with Carl Story, but also became a part of the cast of the weekday morning Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour, remaining there until the program terminated in 1983. During that time he also did recording sessions with a wide variety of bluegrass figures including Bill Clifton, Tater Tate, Don Stover, Fred Smith, and country figures such as Grandpa Jones and Jethro Burns. Red also recorded several long play albums of both instrumental and vocal numbers and toured Europe two or three times, especially with Clifton. Ironically, although in relatively good health, he and Clifton were preparing another trip abroad when he had a fatal heart attack while mowing his lawn.
Credits & Sources
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In 1953, Rector recorded a session with Don Reno and Red Smiley on King Records
and somewhat later became part of another classic bluegrass ensemble Hylo Brown and
the Timberliners on a circuit of TV stations and recorded twenty numbers with him for
Capitol in 1958.
