Wilson "Lefty" Perkins

Lefty Perkins, born Robert Wilson Perkins, was most famous in the 1930's for his work with Bill Boyd & The Cowboy Ramblers, with whom he recorded "New Steel Guitar Rag" in 1937. He started his professional career playing steel guitar, but in the 1940's switched over to conventional guitar. Perkins joined the Lightcrust Doughboys out of Fort Worth, where he specialized in playing western swing. Beginning in 1951, he was heavily featured on radio when the Lightcrust Doughboys were picked as the second house band (calling themselves the Country Gentlemen) for the Big D Jamboree out of Dallas, which broadcast on KRLD. The Doughboys' line-up in those days, in addition to Perkins, included Carroll Hubbard (fiddle) and Paul Blunt (piano, steel guitar). He switched his playing vocabulary easily in those busy year, and in 1956, Perkins played electric guitar on a trio of Buck Griffin rockabilly numbers, "Stutterin' Papa, " "Watchin' The 7:10 Roll By, " and "You'll Never Come Back, " for the Lin label, which were issued by M-G-M Records.