Such popularity did not escape the attention of Canada's national radio network, the CBC. As their fame spread, so did their appearances across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland with radio stations like CJLS, CKBW, VOCM, CFBC, CFNB. They were regular performers on radio stations like WCOU in Lewiston, Maine and their 'Noisiest Gang in the Radio' show regularly crossed the border into Canada with performances on stations like CKCW in Moncton, New Brunswick, CJRW in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, CKCL in Truro, Nova Scotia. They virtually owned the country charts in the State of Maine and the adjoining Maritime Canadian provinces. Husband and wife team Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody became stars of American regional music. Breau and Cody were married in June, 1940. Our voices blended well, our personalities did too."Pretty soon, the compatibility went beyond the act. She recalls, "We were very good together. Betty became part of the stage show almost immediately. It was singing he had in mind, not conversation. I couldn't have carried on a conversation with you, but I could sing in English. "I could barely speak any English back then.
They were looking for a gig at the local radio station and needed a female singer. I was the seventh child of 12." Some time in late 1938, local guitarist Ray Couture brought Harold Breau to Betty's family home in Auburn to introduce them. There was almost no English spoken in our home. "We moved to Auburn when I was 9 months old but it didn't change things much in our home. Cote) was born on the 17th of August 1921 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, although most biographies list her birthplace as Auburn, Maine. Breau's former wife and recording partner Betty Cody doesn't remember hearing about any Indian playmates, and believes the origins of his name are a lot more prosaic.īetty Cody (real name Rita M. The RCA Publicity machine cooked up some romantic tales of Breau saving the Penobscott chief's daughter from a drowning accident back when he was a lad, and being named 'Lone Pine' by his Indian playmates. In the 1930s, Breau was a member of the Lone Pine Mountaineers (Maine is known as the Pine Tree State), a group that slowly dissolved, leaving him the lone Lone Pine Mountaineer, so to speak. He spent his youthful years around Old Town, just a hop, skip and a jump from the Penobscot Indian Reservation. Breau was born in Pea Cove, Maine on the 5th of June 1916. Critics often use the phrase "dumbed down"to describe the process.īut back in the late 1940s and early '50s when the recordings on this disc were made, there was plenty of regional music in America. Country music styles, like pop and R&B music, have today become homogenized to suit the lowest common denominators of taste. One of the biggest differences - indeed, many would call it a loss - is the fate of regional music. Both the industry and the music were quite different from what they have become today. Harold 'Lone Pine' Breau and Betty Cody were stars back when the country music business was still in its relative infancy. We hope this package will help remedy that. Their story is not often told any more and their music has all but faded from public awareness. They had their own careers and left many fine vocal recordings, both solo and duet. But there is more to the legacy of Lone Pine and Betty Cody.
Only his self-destructive personal habits kept him from achieving the ultimate rewards his talent might have afforded. According to many fellow musicians and critics, Breau was quite simply the best ever. When Hal 'Lone Pine' and Betty Cody are remembered at all these days, it is often as the parents of guitar virtuoso, Lenny Breau. Hal Lone Pine & Betty Cody On The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine
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