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He debuted at the Mother Church of Country Music, the Grand Ole Opry, in 1988, and he’s returned there many times. Charles Wolfe’s production of “Tennessee Strings”. Toward the end of the 1980s he got into theater, performing in the late Dr. #DOES MARTY STUART HAVE A BROTHER TV#He’s sung and played his fiddle and banjo at countless refightings of the old battles from what Minnie Pearl called “The Recent Unpleasantness of 1861”.īy the mid-1980s young Leroy became a faculty member at the Tennessee Banjo Institute, and started getting regular TV exposure on TNN’s “Nashville Now” and the late, lamented “Hee Haw” where he appeared for two years as “Billy Bob“. He even became a War Between the States re-enactor, with the rank of “Musician”. In any case, while still a high school student, Leroy got addicted to the smell of the crowd and the roar of the greasepaint, and brought a relentless focus to the OLD forms of banjoistic entertaining. Leroy hit the big time with his banjo and old songs at the Knoxville World Fair in the early 1980s (or maybe it was the late 1890s). #DOES MARTY STUART HAVE A BROTHER SERIES#Leroy started his career in show business appearing on the old Carl Tipton Family TV series on Channel 5 in Nashville, and touring with his mentors, the Bailes Brothers (1940s stars of the Opry). Just think for a minute how “dull” high school must have seemed when you’re palling around with old time entertainers like Roy Acuff and Cordell Kemp thinking about Uncle Dave Macon… Uncle Dave himself learned from circus and vaudeville performers before 1900. Cordell learned directly from Uncle Dave Macon. Leroy was fortunate to have been taught “how to cut a shine” by old Cordell Kemp of Defeated Tennessee. These are the circus and vaudeville routines with clever, comical lyrics, and “monkeyshines” like twirling the instrument in time to the music. Along the way he was taught the 19th century skills of a banjo man. Young Leroy began playing the banjo in Grandpa Jones’ style, and then “graduated” to the more complex mix of entertainment skills that Uncle Dave was known for. #DOES MARTY STUART HAVE A BROTHER FULL#Acuff took a shine to young Leroy and filled his head full of stories about Uncle Dave Macon - the Dixie Dewdrop, the first true “star” of the WSM Grand Ole Opry. One of the participants in this weekly jam was none other than Roy Acuff, the King of Country Music. 13 year old Leroy was taken by the fiddling, but his dad bought him a banjo. His dad used to take him to musical “gatherings” at a local grocery store in Goodlettsville. ‘Troy has been playing the old time banjo since he was a very young lad. He knew a number of these folks as neighbors when he was a boy. Leroy isn’t quite that old, but he is definitely SOAKED in that old time country entertainment spirit. Back then you couldn’t help but be a neighbor to Stringbean, Bashful Brother Oswald, Bill Monroe, Grandpa Jones, the Carlisles and many others of the first generation of country music. But long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, it was out-in-the-country home to a great number of Grand Ole Opry performers. To begin, Banjoist & Songster Leroy Troy is a true good ol’ boy from Goodlettsville Tennessee, which is now a northern suburb of metro Nashville. ![]()
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