The Easy Riders - Biography
By J Poet
The Easy Riders kept folk music alive between the demise of The Weavers who were done in by the Red Scare of 1952 and The Kingston Trio’s hit record of “Tom Dooley” in 1958. With the exception of The Tarriers, they were the only viable folk group of the early 50s. Their first hit was a #1 pop single backing Dean Martin on “Memories Are Made of This” In 1955. Their Columbia single “Maryanne” was one of the first folk hits and they made several successful albums together before breaking up. Everything they ever recorded and released is collected on the boxed set The Easy Riders: Maryanne (1995 Bear Family).
Terry Gilkyson, the Easy Riders main songwriter, was born in 1916 in a small town near Philadelphia, PA. He harmonized on folk songs with his sisters from an early age. He soloed in the church choir in high school and majored in music at the University of Pennsylvania, where he started playing guitar, but dropped out after two years to work at a dude ranch out in Arizona. It was there he started writing songs. He went into the Army, was discharged for poor eyesight and went into his father’s insurance business. Gilkyson wanted to be a songwriter, so after he married he left his father’s business and moved to LA with his family. He landed a show on Armed Forces Radio as The Solitary Singer and sang folk songs and his own folk-like compositions. He met John and Alan Lomax who helped him find material. When the House Un-American Activities Committee started questioning folk singers, he wasn’t popular enough yet to be subpoenaed. He got his first hit in 1950 when Frankie lane cut “Cry of the Wild Goose,” a song he wrote years before with his mother. On the strength of “Wild Goose” he was signed to Decca as a solo artist. “Fast Freight,” later a staple for The Kingston Trio was a minor hit single, but an album was never released. Decca teamed him with The Weavers in 1950 for “On Top of Old Smokey,” cut with the backing of a full pop orchestra. It was a big hit. Gilkyson was also placing songs in western movies and making a good living doing it, but his career took off in 1952 when he met Frank Miller and
Richard Dehr, already singing together as The Easy Riders.
Frank Miller was born in Brooklyn in 1918. His mother was a piano teacher and he took lessons early and learned guitar from the family’s barber. At Purdue University in Indiana he had a country group The Happy Hollow Singers, He moved to Greenwich Village after graduation and hung out with Burl Ives, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and The Almanac Singers. He joined the navy in 1943 and collected folksongs from his crewmates. He moved to LA in 47 and met Richard Dehr. They made a few singles as The Easy Riders before they met Gilkyson in 1951. With Gilkyson as lead singer, they started gigging and writing original songs together. In 1955 the Easy Riders backed up Dean Martin on “Memories Are Made of This,” a song they wrote. It was a #1 pop hit and got them signed to Columbia.
