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The Lee Bell Band

About the Group

About The Group

The leader of this band, Lee Bell, was born in Fred, Texas. Lee Bell led a western band in the early 1950s and had a recording contract with the RCA Victor label. The band had their own 15-minute radio show that aired on KSWS in Roswell, New Mexico. On Thursday nights, they had a half hour televsion show that aired from 8:00 to 8:30pm over KSWS-TV.

The band did personal appearances and were quite popular in the southeastern and easter New Mexico as well as west Texas areas. Lee had played with such acts as Moon Mullican and Cliff Bruner before he started off on his own.

In 1952/1953, the band was playing regularly at Scotty's Night Club, which was one of the largest clubs in New Mexico at the time. They were playing six days a week, taking Sundays off.

Timeline and Trivia Notes

Group Members included:

  • Lee Bell, guitar, vocals
  • Jimmy Blakely, steel guitar
  • George Clayburn, fiddle
  • James "Red" Pope, fiddle and bass
  • Dorothy Blakely, bass and piano