Art Adams and The Rhytm Knights - Dancing doll

Born in Carrolton, Kentucky in the 1930's. There were seven kids in the family and we were poor dirt farmers. I grew up listening to country music and the Grand Ole Opry. I never took lessons. I've been singing all my life but never took singing lessons. I dreamed about being an entertainer from the time I was a little kid. I never played an instrument until I get older.
My sister married a young guy who played guitar. I practiced a lot on a borrow guitar and learned how to play pretty well. I then bought myself a Martin. I've had the same guitar since 1952 and I just had it re-done as Martin has a lifetime guarantee. It sounds as good as it ever did.

The first rockabilly song that got to me was a song by Ernest Tubb. I always thought Ernest was a rockabilly type singer and "Walkin' the Floor Over You" was a neat country song. I didn't go much for ballads, but rather enjoyed the up tempo music. I also enjoyed Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Elvis and Carl Perkins. I really liked Carl Perkins and thought he was one of the better rockabillies.

My first band was called The Kentucky Drifters, In it was myself, Dave Logston (my brother-in-law) who played lead guitar, Danny Cole on bass and Ray Paley on steel guitar. We didn't have drums.

After the Drifters, I decided to do something different, so I formed the Rhythm Knights. I added twin guitars and drums plus I still had the bass and I played the rhythm guitar. The original band members were Dave Logston and Roy Robinette on lead guitars. Danny Cole on bass and Harold Knight on drums. That didn't last long because Dave wanted to do more country, so I added a guitar player by the name of Eddie Weil and a drummer by the name of Bennie Abbott. Harold took over duties on bass.
With the first band, The Kentucky Drifters, we played fairs, etc., but weren't old enough to play the bars. But with the Rhythm Knights we played the bars and opened shows for other artists. One place we played was called The Old Barn which had a country show every Sunday night and we did some shows with people like the McCormick Brothers. Haskell McCormick was an excellent banjo player and would sometimes sit in with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. They were really great.

There was a store here called Arthurs Music Store and that's where we all bought our instruments and Arthur would book us in various places.

The Rhythm Knights had one of the best sounds in the city. There were other rockabilly bands here, but we had a unique sound and we had other bands coming and saying that our twin guitars were just great. We were all young and had great showmanship. We all had black hair and had no problems drawing crowds of girls.