Charlie Waller
Musician · 1935–2004 · Joinerville, Texas
Best known for
Guitar
Lead Vocals
Charlie Waller was the lead singer and guitarist of the Country Gentlemen for 47 years — the sole consistent member through every era of one of the most influential bluegrass bands ever. His resonant baritone voice and steady rhythm guitar anchored the band's progressive repertoire of folk, pop, and bluegrass material, while his easygoing stage presence and stream of one-liners between songs made him one of the most beloved performers on the festival circuit. Named IBMA Contemporary Male Vocalist of the Year ten times.
- Born Charles Otis Waller in Joinerville, Texas. Moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana at age 2 with his family; later moved with his mother to Baltimore, Maryland. Picked up guitar at age 10.
- As a teenager in Washington, D.C., parked cars near where Roy Clark worked and jammed with Clark between customers.
- Joined Earl Taylor's Stoney Mountain Boys in 1952 in Baltimore. Returned to Louisiana in 1955 as guitarist with Buzz Busby and the Bayou Boys, performing on the Louisiana Hayride radio show alongside George Jones, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley.
- Busby and Waller moved to Washington, D.C. in 1957. When Busby and new guitarist Eddie Adcock were hospitalized after a July 1957 auto wreck, banjoist Bill Emerson hastily assembled Waller, John Duffey (mandolin), and Larry Leahy (bass) to fill a booking at the Admiral Grill in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia on July 4, 1957. Waller and Duffey had never met before but immediately clicked vocally.
- The group adopted the name the Country Gentlemen. Self-produced Carter Stanley's “Going to the Races” and Duffey's “Heavenward Bound” on the Dixie label later that year.
- Classic 1959–1969 lineup of Waller, Duffey, Eddie Adcock (banjo), and Tom Gray (bass) defined the band's peak. Recorded for Starday, Folkways, Mercury, and Rebel; landmark albums Country Songs, Old and New (1960), Folk Songs and Bluegrass (1961), and Yesterday & Today (1968).
- The band played a 12-year weekly residency at the Shamrock Club in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood — an informal setting of country music fans, college students, and government workers that allowed experimentation and a mixed urban-southern repertoire to flourish.
- When Duffey quit in 1969 citing fear of flying (just before a Japan tour), Waller assembled the “second classic lineup” in 1971 with Bill Emerson (banjo, returning), Doyle Lawson (mandolin), and Bill Yates (bass). This lineup's hits included “Fox on the Run,” “Teach Your Children,” and “Legend of the Rebel Soldier.”
- Ricky Skaggs played fiddle with this 1970s lineup. Jerry Douglas also played Dobro with the band in the mid-1970s. The Country Gentlemen were a key training ground for the next generation.
- Recorded more than 50 albums across his 47 years leading the band.
- Named Charlie Waller also gave the Seldom Scene its name in 1971 — remembering a short-lived D.C. rock band that had shared a bill with the Country Gentlemen at the Brickskellar club.
- Inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1996 (with the Country Gentlemen). Inducted into the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame in 2009.
- Although he never composed an original song, BMI credits him as an arranger or co-arranger of 35 songs and instrumentals — many of which became bluegrass standards.
- Died of a heart attack in his vegetable garden at home in Gordonsville, Virginia on August 18, 2004 at age 69. Son Randy Waller, whose voice closely resembles his father's, had begun touring with the band in 2003 and now leads Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen.
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The Country GentlemenPlayed on recordings with The Country Gentlemen
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Bill CliftonPlayed on recording with Bill Clifton
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Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain BoysPlayed on recording with Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys
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Bill EmersonPlayed on recording with Bill Emerson
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Buzz Busby and the Bayou BoysPlayed on recording with Buzz Busby and the Bayou Boys