Claude Boone
Musician · b. 1916 · Asheville, North Carolina
Claude Boone was a North Carolina-born singer-songwriter and rhythm guitarist whose roughly 25 years with Carl Story's Rambling Mountaineers and 20-plus years on Cas Walker's Knoxville television show made him one of the longest-tenured sidemen of postwar bluegrass and Appalachian country music — and the credited writer of the country standard "Wedding Bells."
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- Born February 18, 1916 in Asheville, North Carolina; died February 23, 2007.
- Multi-instrumentalist on rhythm guitar, bass fiddle, and fiddle whose career spanned roughly half a century from the mid-1930s.
- Began professionally in his late teens with Cliff Carlisle's band on WWNC Asheville (until 1938) before moving into the WNOX Knoxville circle.
- Served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then spent roughly 25 years as a member of Carl Story's Rambling Mountaineers, playing rhythm guitar or bass on their Mercury, Columbia, Starday, and small-label sessions.
- Sang harmony parts and occasional solos with the Rambling Mountaineers and recorded briefly under his own name (a Mercury solo contract in 1949).
- Credited as the writer of the country standard "Wedding Bells" (a major Hank Williams hit and a Margaret Whiting / Jimmy Wakely hit), though it is generally accepted that he purchased the song from Arthur Q. Smith. Also wrote "Have You Come to Say Goodbye" and "You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover."
- From the early 1960s until 1983 was a staff musician on Cas Walker's long-running show on WBIR-TV Knoxville — more than 20 years in that role.
- Lived almost his entire career outside Nashville, working primarily out of Knoxville, Asheville, and Charlotte.
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Carl Story and His Rambling MountaineersPlayed on recordings with Carl Story and His Rambling Mountaineers