Curley Collins Collection

Ruel Culbertson (Curley) Collins (1915-1986) played the fiddle, guitar, and banjo in country and western bands of the 1930s-1980s. Born near the Boyd County seat town of Catlettsburg in northeastern Kentucky, Curley Collins grew up hearing the music of his father, Neal, on banjo and his mother, Maggie, on the pump organ at church. He also was listening to country music on records, nearby radio stations, and major network programs such as the National Barn Dance and the Grand Ole Opry. He began playing music professionally at age 14 with Catlettsburg area bands such as Dolpha Skaggs' Mountain Melody Boys and the Prairie Pals, both in live performance and on radio stations WSAZ and WCMI in Huntington, WV and Ashland, KY respectively. Collins went on to perform with popular Kentucky band Pop Eckler and His Young'uns, first on station WLW and WKRC in Cincinnati and then WSB in Atlanta on its "Cross Roads Follies" broadcasts. The band performed variety shows throughout the Southeast, in which Collins, who won a national fiddling contest in 1938, played, sang, and danced. Following Army service during the Second World War, Collins partnered with singer Benny Kissinger, and they were featured on the "Old Dominion Barn Dance" show on WRVA (Richmond, Va.), 1946-1957. After some years out of the music business, Collins and Kissinger revived their act in 1979, playing to appreciative audiences until Collins' death in 1986.