Toby Stroud Born:  August 19, 1921 Died:  May 3, 1996 WRVA Old Dominion Barn Dance WWVA Original Jamboree WDAE Tampa, FL WPAR Parkersburg, WV WSVA Harrisonburg, VA WWVA Wheeling, WV WALR Zanesville, OH (1936) WRVA Richmond, VA (1950)

About The Artist Toby Stroud made a name for himself in country music as fiddler, singer and comedian. A native of the little mining town of Byesville, Ohio, Stroud first learned fiddle and initially played on a small radio station in Zanesville. A little later he moved on to the larger WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia with its Jamboree as a member of Big Slim, the Lone Cowboy's Happy Ranch Gang. The other members were Johnny Hill on tenor banjo and Ray "Quarantine" Brown on comedy. Stroud later told an interviewer that he soon learned that the only way to make it in country music was to learn to play guitar and sing. So he accommodated to what seemed reality and by 1944 had his own program on WWVA. Over the next several years, he alternated his base between Wheeling with its Jamboree and WRVA Richmond with its Old Dominion Barn Dance, as well as smaller stations. His band varied between honky-tonk country and near bluegrass with band members including Bill Bailey (mandolin) and Buck Ryan (fiddle). He recorded sparingly, but did cut four sides for Decca about 1949, four for MGM (only two released), and two sides for the small New Star label. Some years later, Toby went to work with Doc Williams' Border Riders playing fiddle and doing comedy. In that period, he recorded a fiddle album on the Doxx label. After leaving Williams, he went to Florida and joined a bluegrass band, the Sandy Valley Boys. With them he recorded an album that included three of his original fiddle tunes. Credits & Sources Hillbilly-Music.com would like to express its thanks to Ivan M. Tribe, author of Mountaineer Jamboree — Country Music in West Virginia and other books that can be found on Amazon.com and numerous articles in other publications for providing us with information about this artist.

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Recordings (78rpm/45rpm)   Decca Rec. No. Side Song Title   46217 A You Don't Need Me Anymore   46217 B I'm Gonna Tear Down The Mail   46248 A I'll Forget By And By   46248 B Those Blue Skies In Your Eyes   Eagle Records Rec. No. Side Song Title   100 A Jesse James (w/Blue Mountain Boys)   100 B Tragic Romance (w/Blue Mountain Boys)   MGM Rec. No. Side Song Title   11524 A My P'roxide Blond   11524 B I'm Cutting Paper Hearts   New Star Rec. No. Side Song Title   100 A Jesse James   100 B Tragic Romance