Wade Ray

Fiddler Wade Ray made his name playing traditional country and Western swing from a very young age but made very few recordings of his own over his lengthy career. Born Lyman Wade Ray in Evansville, IN, in 1913, he grew up in Boynton, AR, and at age four began playing a homemade fiddle his father fashioned from a cigar box. Just a year later, he was touring the vaudeville circuit as the World's Youngest Violin Player; he also learned to play tenor banjo and remained a vaudeville regular until his 18th birthday in 1931. He then moved to St. Louis and spent the next 12 years as ...