The Rhythm Pals
Pictured here (top
picture) with the Sons of Pioneers, are Marc Wald,
front row left, Mike Ferbey front row right and Jack
Jensen, back row forth from the left.
And that's CKNW owner Bill Rea back row second from the left.
Country
trio The Rhythm Pals, whose career spanned six decades, came together in
Although
accordionist and baritone Marc Wald (born in
Bismarck, North Dakota, and raised in Wilkie,
Saskatchewan), bassist and tenor Mike Ferbey (of
Saskatoon) and guitarist and tenor Jack Jensen (of Prince Rupert) got their
start on the CKNW radio show "Bill Rea's Roundup", Wald and Ferbey had already
toured western Canada during the late '30's with Sleepy and Swede and the
Tumbleweeds.
Bill
Rea’s show on CKNW
led to regular gigs on CBC Radio and, in 1948, a performance on American
television with Spade Cooley, making them one of the first Canadian acts to
appear on TV south of the border. Throughout the '50's, '60's and '70's they
had their own CBC Radio shows, "Swing Easy" and "The Burns Chuckwagon Show", were regulars on Tommy Hunter's
radio and television programs, continually toured North America with acts like
Hunter and Wilf Carter and made occasional trips
overseas (Marc Wald's site claims they played the
North Pole), and won Juno Awards for best country group in 1965, '67 and '68.
Wald
retired from the group in 1987, but Ferby and Jensen
kept the act going until 1991, a full 45 years after The Rhythm Pals' first
performance.
Jack
Jensen was awarded The Order Of British Columbia in
2005.
***
The
Rhythm Pals
Bluebird
on my Windowsill - 1948
Inspired
by a bird perched on the windowsill of a
For over
four decades, The Rhythm Pals were one of
The
Rhythm Pals, from B.C., became one of
country
vocal groups in the 1940s and 50s. The group was the
first
to record Bluebird On My Windowsill.
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