Hillbilly-Music.comThe People. The Music. The History.
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About The Artist Pete Pike was a Virginia native who eventually settled in the Washington, DC area and performed both country and bluegrass music over several decades. He also worked with the late Buzz Busby as part of the comedy duo Ham and Scram. The bluegrass festival held in Amelia, Virginia actually took place on a farm owned by him. Pike's first musical job was performing on the small radio station WKLV in Blackstone, Virginia in 1947. In 1949 he settled in the DC area where he remained musically active for more or less the rest of his life. For six months in 1949-1955, he and Buzz Busby appeared regularly as leaders of a band called the Bayou Boys on a program called the Hayloft Hoedown which usually included a parody number by Ham and Scram on each show. Some of these were recorded and subsequently released as a budget album on the Mt. Vernon label.
Despite Pike's long career in the District of Columbia and surrounding area, details are not readily available. How much material beyond the Ham and Scram songs for Ben Adelman is not known. He did some material at Wynwood studio in Falls Church. He recorded ten sides on the Rebel label and apparently other songs for Dick Freeland's company that were not released. Later in life Pete recorded several songs with a southern West Virginia bluegrass outfit called Black Diamond. These cuts along with some older material were released on a Copper Creek compact disc titled Rolling Again (CCDC-0239) in 2005. Evidently more releases were planned, but Pike passed away before they could be consummated. Credits & Sources
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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)
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