Clyde Red Foley

Born in Blue Lick, Kentucky, Red Foley learned the guitar and the harmonica very early in life. When he was in college, he came to the attention of a talent scout who signed him for a radio broadcast out of Chicago, (WLS) known as the National Barn Dance.

In 1939, Foley became the first country music performer to host his own national radio program, NBC’s Avalon Time (his co-host there was Red Skelton). It is likely that the best known of his songs to this day is “Old Shep.” Its lyrics tell a timeless boy-and-dog story. “When I was a lad, old Shep was a pup/Over hills and meadows we’d stray/ Just a boy and his dog, we were both full of fun/ We grew up together that way….” Foley was one of the biggest country music stars of the 1940s and ‘50s, regularly serving for example as an emcee at the Grand Ole Opry, where he became of necessity a straight man for its comedians, Minnie Pearls and Rod Brasfield.