Foy Willing and Riders of the Purple Sage

Most people probably remember Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage from their work in Roy Rogers movies. But their career began late in 1942, several years before their first appearance in one of Roy's films. Foy Willing was born in Bosque County, Texas on May 14, 1914, and began his musical career on local radio while still in high school. Subsequently, he traveled East and landed a job on New York radio with the Crazy Water Crystals Gang from 1933-35, after which he returned to Texas. In 1940, he moved to Oklahoma where he formed a life-long friendship with Al Sloey, from Iowa.

Al and Foy were to become the core of the group, Foy Willing & the Riders of the Purple Sage, for the duration of the group's 10-year existence.

In 1942, Foy and Al moved to California where they worked with Jimmy Wakely & his Saddle Pals. When Wakely's movie career took off at Monogram, he didn't have the time required to manage a band, so he handed that chore to Foy Willing and the band became Foy Willing & the Riders of the Purple Sage. According to British historian Kevin Coffey, the initial members were Foy and Al, with Dick Reinhart, a solo artist and outstanding lead singer who had been alternating with Scotty Harrell as a member of the Jimmy Wakely Trio.

Al sang a beautiful, smooth tenor, Foy had a rich baritone, and Dick sang lead. They appeared in several films and performed regularly on the Hollywood Barn Dance in 1943. In 1944, they had their first hit record for the Capitol label, "Texas Blues," a Foy Willing composition. By this time, Reinhart had been replaced by Jimmy Dean (Eddie Dean's older brother). For a short time, Charlie Morgan, who was soon to become the super-smooth lead singer with Andy Parker & the Plainsmen, was also a member of this particular group (Foy, Al & Jimmy). From 1945 to 1947, they were featured on the All Star Western Theater, hosted by Cottonseed Clark. Later, the group became part of The Roy Rogers Quaker Oats Show cast.

Much of their radio work was broadcast nationally, so they developed a strong following. When they became the musical group backing Monte Hale (1946) and Roy Rogers for Republic Studios, the heightened exposure provided by the movies allowed their fan base to grow significantly. They had appeared in several Charles Starrett films for Columbia Studios in 1944, but were not billed as the Riders of the Purple Sage, in spite of their use of the name on radio. That was to change early in 1945, with Columbia’s February release of Tom Tyler’s Sing Me a Song of Texas, when they were billed as Foy Willing & the Riders of the Purple Sage. They made their last film for Columbia with singing cowboy Ken Curtis early in 1946, and in December that year moved to Republic to appear in Monte Hale’s Out California Way.

Their first film with Roy Rogers was Grand Canyon Trail (1948). Roy's group, the Sons of the Pioneers, was extremely popular, but Republic wouldn't pay the 6 Pioneers what they were asking, and Foy and his 3 "Sagers" (as Roy used to call them) were ready to fill the gap. They worked beautifully with Roy and recorded with both Roy and Dale Evans for RCA Victor.

There were many personnel changes over the years, but the group we first saw on screen in those Republic films consisted of Foy, Al and Scotty Harrell forming the basic trio, with Johnny Paul Girardi on fiddle. Bud Sievert (accordion) and often, Jerry Vaughn on rhythm guitar were added later. Johnny Paul's Western swing fiddle was an especially important part of the group's sound in those years, and he was as good at accompaniment as he was at hot solos. The musicians were superbly skilled, and the vocal harmonies throughout the group's history were as smooth as silk.

For recordings, they added steel (Freddy Taveres), clarinet (Neely Plumb, Darol Rice or Maury Stein) and bass (Irving Edelman or Cliffie Stone). And there were other members from time to time, e.g. Billy Liebert, George Bamby, Fred Pugh or Paul Sells (accordion), Sammy Wisor (fiddle on their Capitol recordings) and Tex Atchison, who played fiddle on their Decca recordings before Johnny Paul joined. Shortly before Foy disbanded the group in 1952, Dale Warren became the third member of the trio. When Foy disbanded the group, Dale moved to the Sons of the Pioneers to replace Ken Curtis. By this time, the Sagers were no longer making pictures with Roy Rogers, their last film with him being Heart of the Rockies in 1951.

As the era of the singing cowboy on the silver screen ended, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage were "called into service" one more time to accompany Gene Autry on his last tour with a full troupe, in 1957. That year, they performed with Gene at the Illinois State Fair and on the Perry Como television show in N.Y., and recorded with Gene on his Columbia single, “Johnny Reb and Billy Yank.”

Over the years, Foy and The Sagers recorded for Decca, Capitol, Columbia, Majestic, Roulette and Jubilee, and they recorded a number of transcriptions for Lang-Worth and Teleways as well. The number of commercial sides was not impressive, but there were a large number of transcriptions, most of which reflect the full group at its best. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage (Foy, Al & Dale Warren) were reunited in 1958 to record an outstanding LP, Cowboy, for Roulette. In 1962, Foy, Al and guitarist Bobby Summers (Mary Ford's brother) joined Mary Ford on a final LP, The New Sound of American Folk, for Jubilee. These last two albums have been re-issued by Soundies, and are still available on one CD (SCD 4108).

Foy recorded once more, on the Big Boss label in 1977. The result was an LP which consisted of a collection of the group's originals on one side (most welcome because they had all gone out-of-print by then), backed with new recordings by Foy without the Sagers. Foy Willing passed away July 24, 1978.
O.J. Sikes