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WLS Rangers
WLS National Barn Dance

About The Group

Came onto the WLS scene around 1934-5. They were often heard on "Morning Devotions", "Today's Kitchen" and on the Barn Dance on Saturday nights. They sang quartet numbers as well as a 'wide variety of instrumental numbers'.

One of the songs that was sang each day (on "Today's Kitchen"?) was "The Old Kitchen Kettle Keeps Singing a Song" had a bass voice that was well known and that voice belonged to Walter Tuite.

Back about 1945 or so, the group included a fellow named Eli Haney, who had also appeared on WMMN's Sagebrush Roundup early on.

The group was pretty versatile and could peform anything from the simple tunes such as Turkey in the Straw to Opera. Though they seem to have had some turnover over the years, they appeared on many WLS broadcasts besides the National Barn Dance.

Timeline and Trivia Notes

Group members included:

  • Merton Minnich, fiddle
  • Clyde Moffet
  • Osgood Westley
  • Lea Story
  • Walter Tuite
  • Augie Klein, accordionist, was part of the group in 1941
  • Harry Sims, fiddle, was with them in 1941, too
  • Doc Swalley, 1945
  • Tony Dialmo, 1945
  • Eli Haney, 1945
  • Chuck Hurta, 1947, fiddle
  • Arthur "Holly" "Little Tilford" Swanson, 1947, bass fiddle
  • Verne Fiedler, 1947, guitar

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