Roy Lanham

Roy Lanham was born in Corbin, Kentucky. He learned to play the guitar at an early age, and by his teenage years he was playing rhythm guitar for different bands' radio performances. In 1939, country singer and humorist Archie Campbell auditioned Lanham for inclusion in his group, and was so impressed by the youngster's playing that Lanham left with Campbell's group on the very next day.[2] After moving to Knoxville, TN, he worked with the band The Stringdusters, which included two eclectic musicians also well versed in jazz—Homer Haynes and Jethro Burns (who would later become the musical humor duo Homer and Jethro). The two introduced Lanham to jazz, and he soon became influenced by the guitar-playing of the likes of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.[3]

In 1940, Lanham formed a group called The Fidgety Four, which was soon joined by singer and composer Gene Austin. The name of the band was soon changed to The Whippoorwills because of a line from Austin's classic song My Blue Heaven.[4] Lanham played with the Whippoorwills until 1955, when they disbanded. During the 1940s he also played with the Delmore Brothers and his Gibson L-5 guitar, electrified by means of a DeArmond pickup, can be heard in the majority of the brothers' King recording sessions, a guitar that he later discarded in favor of a hollow-body Epiphone Emperor.[5] Other notable names for which he performed was Western swing Hank Penny's, in which Lanham's driving, jazzy guitar soloing were a signature feature; also, Loretta Lynn, Spade Cooley and others.

In 1950, a busy Lanham would join the Los Angeles cast of the Smiley Burnette radio show. He would appear in between 300 and 400 episodes of the show.[6]

Upon the death of Sons of the Pioneers' guitarist Karl Farr in 1961, Lanham joined the band—a band with which he would remain for nearly three decades. During this time, Lanham appeared in several motion pictures alongside the Pioneers, among which probably his most memorable performance was on 1963's short film 30 Minutes at Gunsight.[7][8]

In the course of the 1980s, Lanham suffered several major health setbacks. In 1980, he had to have open heart surgery, which, however, did not stop him from returning to the stage alongside the Pioneers. Later in the decade, however, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and shortly after surgery he suffered a stroke, from which he somewhat recovered, although not sufficiently to rejoin the band.[9] Finally, in 1989 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, of which he eventually died two years later.