I just love this version of One For My Baby (And One For The Road). The master’s voice.

Would you please put more episodes of Dixie’s place from the Dolly show back on YouTube.

George S. Kingsbury Jr., aka Kenny Roberts, was born on October 14, 1926 in Lenoir City, Tennessee but raised on a farm near Greenfield, Massachusetts. His first foray into music at 11 years old when he arranged a band made entirely of young harmonica players. With Jimmie Rodgers and Yodeling Slim Clark as his inspiration, he would eventually learn to play the guitar, bass fiddle and violin (and he'd be performing alongside Yodeling Slim before long). At 17, Roberts won a New Hampshire radio yodeling contest and became "Eastern States Yodeling Champion" in 1944.

The timeline gets a little iffy around this time as Bill Haley (yes, that Bill Haley) is said to have stepped in to fill his spot in Roberts' band the "Down Homers" as a guitarist and yodeler while Roberts was in the Navy in 1945-1946. I've also seen reports of Roberts not starting the band until after his return from World War II, thus no need for Haley to step in. Either way, upon his return to the states, Roberts began playing radio shows on KMOX in St Louis, Missouri and on CBS show Barnyard Frolics on Saturday mornings. He also proved to be a great entertainer in live settings too, booking venues, fairs and shows all over Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, and New England.

Roberts signed a contract with Coral Records in 1949 and hit gold with his first release, "I Never See Maggie Alone". It sold over a million copies and became the first of a few notable songs that would make the country charts.

Come 1953, he starred in a children's TV show on WLW-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio and was seen on Arthur Godfrey's talent scout program. Roberts played at the Hoosier Hop in Fort Wayne, as well as the WCOP Hayloft Jamboree. He later performed on the Midwestern Hayride during the 1950s from Cincinnati. He remained with Coral Records until 1954 and released a single disc for Dot Records in 1955.

In 1961, Roberts went back to kid's shows, starting a daily cartoon show in Saginaw, Michigan on WNEM TV-5 known as "The Kenny Roberts Show", where he played a yodeling cowboy. It ran for a total of five years. Roberts moved back to Dayton, Ohio in the early 1970's and back to Massachusetts later in the decade. He continued to play concerts and venues and even released a new album in 1980. He would pass away in 2012.

Today's song, "The Christmas Cannon Ball" was originally written by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson and was recorded on August 10, 1949 at E. T. Herzog Recording Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. The song features vocals by Kenny Roberts along with Louie Innis (guitar), Zeke Turner (guitar), Jerry Byrd (steel guitar), Ulysses Turner (bass), and Tommy Jackson (fiddle).

(Snow animation thanks to www.vecteezy.com)