FARMER BOYS Flash, Crash & Thunder

The Farmer Boys

Though both were born into families that headed west from Arkansas, Bobby Adamson and Woody Wayne Murray met in Farmersville, California in the 1940s. They began performing together at local venues, including the Happy-Go-Lucky club in Tulare, 65 miles from Bakersfield. Cousin Herb Henson happened to hear them there one night, invited the duo to join the cast of his TV show, and dubbed them the Farmer Boys.

"We weren't at the show long before he took us down to Hollywood and got us an audition with Capitol Records,” Adamson told Cary Ginell in 1991. Ken Nelson signed them and they began recording in 1955, backed by a cast of Bakersfield players that included Bill Woods, Lewis Talley, Johnny Cuviello, Roy Nichols, and Jelly Sanders. They hit the road, and even toured briefly with Elvis in 1955. By the time they recorded Flash, Crash And Thunder in 1957, the Farmer Boys were backed by the Desert Stars, a band that included Gene Breeden and future Merle Haggard steel guitarist Norm Hamlet. Buck Owens, who co-wrote the song, played guitar on the session.

It was immediately after this session that Ken Nelson offered Owens an artist deal of his own that eventually brought the Bakersfield Sound to national prominence. "It was a rawer sound in Bakersfield,” Norm Hamlet explained, "and it started with groups like the Farmer Boys.”

FARMER BOYS Flash, Crash & Thunder
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