Hugh Blair

	Hugh Blair - As a boy of 9 or 10 years of age, Hugh would go to the Saturday matinee in Grand Prairie, Texas to see Gene Autry riding down the trail and singing with unseen musicians in the background.  The sound of an instrument he had never heard caught his attention--the steel guitar.  He knew then he wanted to learn how to play this instrument.  As a young teenager Hugh took lap steel lessons from Alvin Wood in Sweetwater, Texas, who taught Hawaiian steel guitar. When he was 14, Hugh's family moved to Ft Worth, Texas and his steel guitar hero was Jerry Byrd.  Hugh learned to play in the smooth style of Jerry Byrd and began playing with different groups and weekends at a new show in Ft Worth called the Friday Night Frolic.  It was there that he played with Country Music legends Sonny James, Marty Robbins and Jim Reeves who were themselves new artists at the time.  Hugh moved to East Texas in 1953 and through the early 50s and 60s he played on Joe Shelton's Reilly Springs Jamboree for such artists as George Jones, June Carter, Floyd Tillman, Bob Luman and Merle Kilgore.  Hugh's dad was a machinist and with Hugh doing the research, together they built two of Hugh's first pedal steel guitars.  In the 1970s he played in Loretta Lynn's backup band and in the 1980s Hugh began playing for Oprys and Jamborees all across East Texas and Arkansas.  In 1988 he joined the Mt Pleasant Jamboree full time and has been playing there every Saturday night since. Hugh and his wife live in Mt Vernon, where they attend the First Baptist Church in Mt Vernon and his wife is the organist there.  They have two sons and daughters-in-law and 3 grandchildren. Hugh@HigherTrailsBand.com