Pete Sayers born 6 November 1942

Pete Sayers (November 6, 1942 - February 11, 2005) was a UK country singer and musician. Not for want of trying, no English performers have become stars in American country music, but Pete Sayers got closer than most. He was an engaging performer, able to sing serious songs and indulge in comedy banter, as well as being a multi-talented musician who could play the guitar, banjo, fiddle, dobro and autoharp. 

He was born Peter Esmond Bernard Sayers in Bath, Somerset. His father taught music and his mother was a fine pianist. The musical humorist Gerard Hoffnung, a friend of his father, gave the young Sayers a small violin. When Sayers was seven, the family moved to Newmarket, where he became a chorister and an adept at playing hymns on a harmonica. He trained as a piano repairer but wanted to be a professional musician. 

As a teen he formed the Bluegrass Cut-Ups, possibly Britain's first bluegrass band, and by the age of 18 he was regularly playing with the U.S. singer Johnny Duncan and his Blue Grass Boys. In 1966, he hosted a country-music series on Tyne-Tees Television and released his first solo single on the Suffolk based label Ralph Tuck Promotions. He was given the mantle The Singing Cowboy, but the name was soon dropped when the single failed to make an impact. 

When he went to Nashville later that year for a holiday, he found employment as a warm-up artist on the Grand Ole Opry radio show. For an Englishman to play country music and bluegrass wasn’t rare; it was unheard of. He was the first British performer to ever play regularly at the Grand Ole Opry. Sayers worked for the Opry for three years and often performed on the show itself. Settling briefly in Atlanta, he performed with the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, appeared on the Porter Waggoner Show, the Flatt and Scruggs television program. He also hosted a US breakfast TV programme (1967-1971) and worked on tour with Kitty Wells and the bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. 

             Here’s “Who You Mockin’Mockin’ Bird" from above LP

                                    

Sayers returned to the UK in 1971 and inaugurated the Grand Ole Opry England (1972-1982) which staged country shows in the Kingsway Cinema in Newmarket. It became very popular and was on the touring schedule for visiting Americans including Bill Monroe and Marvin Rainwater. His debut solo LP, Bye Bye Tennessee, followed on Pye Nashville International in 1973. Two years later, he returned with the Transatlantic label release Grand Ole Opry Road Show, followed in 1976 by Watermelon Summer. In addition to touring and recording, Sayers hosted no fewer than three BBC television series -- Pete Sayers Entertains, Electric Music Show, and Pete Sayers Sings Country -- and in 1979 he traveled to Bogalusa, LA, recording the album Bogalusa Gumbo with producer John D. Loudermilk. 

He appeared at the International Country Music Festival at Wembley and toured with George Hamilton IV. His opening act hardly gave him time to show the range of instruments he could play (guitar, banjo, dobro, autoharp, ukulele) and the variety of material he could perform: he could yodel as well as anyone. Around the time he completed his final studio LP, 1988's Midnight Special, Sayers partnered with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire presenter Christopher South, in the years to follow creating hundreds of comedic characters including the beloved yokel Dennis of Grunty Fen and rock & roller Ricky Storme, both of whom took on additional life during Sayers' concert appearances. 

Sayers’ last album was titled Old Mr. Crow (2002), co-produced by Sayers and BBC radio presenter Nick Barraclough – one-time member of Sayers’ Radio Cowboys band, based in the Cambridge area, who can be heard on their CD Riding the Airwaves (2004). After a long battle with cancer Pete Sayers died on February 11, 2005. 

(Edited from Spencer Leigh obit @ The Independent, East Anglican Music Archive, Early Country News @ Georgia, AllMusic & Flame Tree Pro)