Born 105 Years Ago Today on an Arkansas Farm, the Harmonica-Playing Country Star Who Got His Start With These Grand Ole Opry Brothers

Country singer Wayne Raney—who got his start playing with the Delmore Brothers post-World War II—was born on a farm near Wolf Bayou, Arkansas, on this day (August 17) in 1921.

Later embarking on a solo career, Raney scored his first and only career number-one hit in 1949 with “Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me”.

Along with longtime musical partner Lonnie Glosson, he also helped popularize the harmonica on a national level.

Raney died of cancer on January 23, 1993, at age 71. Today, we’re honoring his life and musical career.

Wayne Raney Started Out in Music as a Teenager

The youngest of five children, Wayne Raney couldn’t pitch in on the family farm due to a foot deformity he’d had from birth.

Instead, he took up music, taking up the harmonica at an early age after hearing a street performer play the instrument.

At just 13 years old, Raney hitchhiked to Eagle Pass, Texas. From there, he crossed the river into Piedras Negras, Mexico, to perform on the well-known “border radio” station XEPN.

Finding His Musical (And Business) Partner

In 1936, Wayne Raney met fellow Arkansan and harmonica enthusiast Lonnie Glosson, sparking a lucrative, decades-long musical partnership.

The two teamed up in 1938 to perform on a radio station in Little Rock before moving on to the Cincinnati station WCKY, and later to national syndicated radio.

They also established a wildly successful harmonica mail-order business. Selling millions of harmonicas, they helped broaden the instrument’s popularity on a national scale.

Going Solo

In the years immediately following World War II, Wayne Raney performed with the Delmore Brothers before launching a solo career in 1948.

After scoring two Top 15 singles in “Lost John Boogie” and “Jack and Jill Boogie”, Raney hit number one on the Country & Western chart in 1949 with “Why Don’t You Haul Off and Love Me”, which he co-wrote with Glosson.

The song also reached the top 25 on the pop charts.

During the early 1950s, Raney played the Grand Ole Opry, toured with Lefty Frizzell, and performed on the California Hayride and WWVA Jamboree radio programs.

The latter part of the decade saw him take up work as a DJ and open his own recording studio, Rimrock Records. He also wrote the 1959 Christian country song “We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock and Roll)”, which has been covered by Cowboy Copas, Skeeter Davis, and Linda Ronstadt.

After the harmonica craze subsided in the early 1960s, Raney returned to Arkansas and recorded a gospel album, Don’t Try to Be What You Ain’t.

A period of semi-retirement followed, during which he ran his own chicken farm. He made occasional appearances on the popular country music variety show Hee Haw throughout the 1970s, until he lost his voicebox.

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images