CONNIE AND BABE AND THE BACKWOODS BOYS

• From middle Tennessee.
• Connie Gately (guitar) and Babe Lofton (guitar). Band members included Thayer Washer (vocals), Red Roberts (fiddle), Fred Gately (bass) and Joe Drumright (banjo).
• Recorded in the 1950’s for Starday Records.
• They also recorded as “Connie and Joe and the Backwoods Boys.”
• Drumright and Gately both worked for a short time with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.
• Babe Lofton’s real name was Ernest Ward Lofton. He was given the nickname “Babe” when he was a baby.
• The group’s sound is continuing with the music of Jody Drumright (son of Joe) and Fred Lofton (son of Babe) and their group “The Sons of the Backwoods.”
• Babe Lofton died in 1993.
• Connie Gately died in 2012.