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The High Peaks Boys

The "High Peaks Boys" grew into a very popular band back in the late sixties and through the seventies.

The band was started by Wallace "Pete" Richardson, a life-long lover of traditional Bluegrass music. The core group consisted of his son, Rocky Richardson on lead and rhythm guitar, his brother-in-law Ricky Parro on Dobro, Tom Wallace on mandolin, my brother, David Warner on rhythm guitar and yours truly, Fred Warner on banjo. Pete played upright bass. All band members sang.

Pete was the key to my entering Bluegrass. I have spent literally thousands of hours sitting by his side singing and playing throughout the years. I was also in at least four bands with him: "The High Peaks Boys", "Dreadnought", "Lonesome Road" and "Up On Blocks". He had a collection of Bluegrass songs all hand written in an old Red Songbook he had compiled over the years and that was the book many of us young musicians would learn from at his side with his guidance. Pete passed away a few years back and we all miss him very much.

I first had become interested by listening to a Flatt & Scruggs album loaned to me through my good friend Jerry Beck. Jerry's father, Bernard Beck was the night managing supervisor at Columbia Studios in NYC for many years and he just simply loved Bluegrass. My brother, David actually went to the Studios and got to meet "Laura Nero" and "Blood Sweat & Tears" while there. My friend, John Nye and I would spend countless hours listening to that album of Flatt & Scruggs and we learned to play along with everything on it. I got a hold of an old banjo and recorded a song I wanted to learn onto my old reel-to-reel recorder. I would record it on high speed (7&1/2) and then slow it down one speed (3&3/4) for the difficult parts of the banjo breaks. Slowing it down one speed would also lower the pitch by one octave, so I would then transpose the notes on music paper back up to where they belonged. When I got to especially difficult areas of a tune, I would lower the recorded tune all the way down to 1&7/8 and two octaves lower and then transpose. It was cumbersome, but it all worked out just fine. It was in this manner that I learned to play banjo. Ricky Parrow showed me the alternating thumb roll early on which was a tremendous help in getting started.

"The High Peaks Boys" formed at Pete's house as we would all gather to sing and play. 

I shall cherish those memories forever and ever.