The Story of Guitar Stylist, Beryl Harrell
Beryl Harrell was an innovative lap steel player whose appealing talent was so great that Merle Travis wanted to hire her for his own band. Harrell was a pioneer for western swing ladies and preceded fellow female steel guitarist, Marian Hall at the widely popular mid-1950s Town Hall Party shows.
Long before Barbara Mandrell thrashed strings on her Moseley electric lap-steel guitar, Beryl Harrell was out in the trenches forging a place in the music world for female musicians. Since then, Barbara Mandrell, Allison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, Becky Hobbs and many others have advanced the female presence among noted musicians as did the late Wendy Holcombe.
Today the Beryl Harrell name very rarely appears in print and she and her story is virtually forgotten. However, her inspiring saga is important and worth telling. Her captivating steel guitar work was only equaled by her mesmerizing smile.
Beryl Deane Harrell was born in Vancouver, Washington (Cleo W Harrell and Leona B "Burnett" Harrell) and before the Great Depression, the family moved to California (CA) settling in the Los Angeles area. Her mother was a music enthusiast and at the time, Hawaiian music was immensely popular across America. And the Hawaiian steel guitar was the instrument of choice for aspiring young artists. Pushed into music by her mother, Leona, at age thirteen Beryl Harrell began taking lessons on the steel guitar. Ms. Harrell also fascinated with Hawaiian music, took to playing the Hawaiian guitar quite easily. Her instructor was no ordinary music teacher. He was the Hawaiian steel guitar legend, Sol Hoʻopiʻi (see his note below). Under his instruction and tutoring, Ms. Harrell advanced quickly on the instrument.
During the next few years, Harrell focused on the Hawaiian sound that Mr. Sol Hoʻopiʻi taught her, but she also developed her own techniques while jamming with various local bands. A promotional flyer for the Electro String Instrument Corp. (circa 1938) included a picture of Sol Hoʻopiʻi and a trio called the Sweethearts of the Air. The group consisted of Maxine (ukulele), Boots (electric guitar) and featured the steel guitar styling of Ms. Harrell. The all-girl-band specialized in Hawaiian music. Boots was later murdered as a result of a lesbian love triangle relationship.
After the group broke up Beryl Harrell went on to work with another all-female trio known as the Hula Bluettes. The Bluettes featured two different lineups, the first being a pair of Hawaiian girls, Ula Jewel Nainoa (guitar) and Joyce Kalehua (ukulele). Sometime later the two Hawaiian girls departed and were replaced with two new members; Sunny Vogels (guitar) and Irene Luning (ukulele). The trio played for a time on Catalina Island at the Keyhole Club.
Ms. Harrell met a airplane mechanic named Carl Triolo. In 1943 they were married and the following year, a son, Don Triolo was born into the family. Three months after the birth of Don, Carl Triolo left Ms. Harrell and their marriage legally ended three years later.
Harrell was featured in a Rickenbacker catalog, pictured with one of the first lap steel guitars. In the late-1940s, Paul Rickenbacker designed Harrell a double-neck steel guitar, which she soon mastered. Beryl Harrell maintained a distinct Hawaiian sound from the early influences of her teacher, Sol Hoopii. Harrell continued to use that pedal steel until she purchased a four-neck steel guitar in 1958 from Eddie Bush (steel player for Harry Owen).
During this time (circa 1949) Beryl Harrell was part of yet another all-female group, Eva Harpster and her Four Co-Eds Orchestra. The ensemble played a wide array of instruments including piano, drums, saxophone, clarinet, electric and steel guitar. The Trio performed a record setting twenty-six weeks at the Silver Room in the Glendale Hotel (Glendale, CA).
Beryl Harrell worked several barn dances, playing steel guitar with Eddie Cletro's band in Los Angeles, CA. Eddie Cletro was the bandleader for Doye O'Dell's Western Varieties show, which ran for over five years on KTLA in the 1950s. Ms. Harrell (aka The Hawaiian Cowgirl) also worked with Cliffie Stone on the Hometown Jamboree. The legendary Hometown Jamboree was broadcast over radio station KXLA out of Pasadena, CA, five days a week. On Saturdays, it was broadcast over KCOP, Channel 13 in the Los Angeles area at 7:30 pm. Cliffie Stone was the producer, promoter and emcee as well as all around entertainer on the popular Hometown Jamboree. Like the Town Hall Party, the cast of the Hometown Jamboree also read like a who's who of country music on the west coast.
Harrell made guest appearances on the Town Hall Party show during the time the Collins Kids were a regular act there. The Town Hall Party was a country music radio and television show held in Compton, CA. It was broadcast over KXLA, Pasadena, KFI, Los Angeles and KTTV-TV, Los Angeles beginning in the autumn of 1951. The Town hall Party was a proving ground for aspiring artist. Although many of those singers, who graced the stage of the Town Hall Party, had great potential, only a few were fortunate to advance their career. The program was carried by portions of the NBC Radio network.
Fiddlin' Kate and Jenks "Tex" Carman were regular performers on the show as well. During this period, Ms. Harrell toured with Joe and Rose Maphis, The Collins Kids, Molly Bee, Fiddling Kate, Johnny Bond and Les Anderson. They played to small roadhouses and barn dances through the Southern California area.
By May 1948, Beryl Harrell was fronting the Saddle Dusters band at Al Royer's Red Barn. The Saddle Dusters were aired over KXLA (Pasadena, CA). Al Royer's Red Barn was located near Redondo Beach Boulevard in Lawndale, CA. An article in the Hermosa Beach Review on May 13, 1948 read, "Al Royers is going to give you a rootin' - tootin' opening Tuesday, May 18, when the Saddle Dusters take over the music making out there...Lovely Beryl Harrell fronts for the band and doubles on the steel guitar."
Harrell and the Saddle Dusters recorded two songs which were released on 78 rpm disc. Side A of the disc contained I' Can't Find the Keyhole, with Harrell providing the catchy vocals, backed by Dusty Ellison on guitar. Released on Side B, a song titled Goofus, is a fast paced instrumental that distinctly highlights the striking Hawaiian steel guitar work of Beryl Harrell, backed by Dusty Ellison (guitar, vocal), Buddy Woody (accordion), Hal Duffy (bass) and Chico (fiddle). The recordings took place on March 11, 1950. It is not known if her gig at the Keyhole Club inspired Ms. Harrell's song, I Can't Find the Keyhole.
Ms. Harrell briefly worked with Porky Freeman, a western swing performer, bandleader and songwriter. Freeman was also an electric guitar pioneer and inventor. In the 1940s Freeman led the Californian based band, the Porky Freeman Trio. One of his early hits, Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings, was very popular in the western swing arena.
Carl Cody and his Red Barn Ranch Hands also entertained crowds at the Red Barn. Harrell played steel guitar with Carl Cody and the Southerners at the Marion Elduayen's Saddle Club. Beryl Harrell later married the drummer in Carl Cody's band, Roy Ball.
Merle Travis (writer of Sixteen Tons and Smoke! Smoke, Smoke! That Cigarette) moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s. Travis was proficient on several instruments, including steel as well as standard guitar. By the early-1950s, he was well established in the West Coast music arena. Travis was a regular member of the Hollywood Barn dance broadcast over radio station KNX, Hollywood, CA and of the Town Hall Party.
Merle Travis was an effective and even charismatic performer and had a knack for spotting talent. During his performances the Town Hall Party, the Hollywood Barn Dance and other venues, he shared the stage with Ms. Harrell many times. Always in the hunt for good talent, and a weakness for attractive women, Travis invited Harrell to join his band several times. He sent a Western Union telegram in March 1952, urging her to contact him. The telegram read, "Call Me Tonight Collect at Beach Corral Velasco Texas." However, as with previous offers, Harrell countered with the understanding that she would only tour with him, if her husband, Roy Ball, came along as the drummer. Travis declined every time.
Beryl Harrell made a recording with Al Vaughn, A Penny Four Thoughts and Don't Look Down On Me For Loving You. Harrell aslo played steel guitar on a recording made by Bonnie Lee (Sloan) And Jack Carter's Black Mountain Band. The song titled Kiss of Fire, was recorded in Hollywood, California in 1952. Bonnie Lee recorded a few sides with Tex Williams, some six years later.
In the early-1950s, the William Morris Agency offered Ms. Harrell a one year gig working in Anchorage, Alaska as a sideman to her husband, Roy Ball. Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians also offered Ms. Harrell a job, around that time, playing at the Pink Palace in Honolulu. However the offer did not include her husband, so the couple took the Anchorage job. By 1954 the Ball's had left Alaska and relocated Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) where they joined up with Polly Possum and her husband Sunny Joe Wolverton. The group played gigs at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and the Riverside Hotel in Reno, NV.
Beryl Harrell and Roy Ball divorced in 1961. Soon after, Ms. Harrell joined a group called the Honey-B's that was entertaining audiences at the El Cortez Hotel. The trio included Clair Smith and Betty Jay Holland as well as Ms. Harrell, who at that time was playing a 4-neck Fender steel guitar. By the early-1960s, Harrell's career was quickly winding down, but she was making a few appearances at the Silver Dollar Club in Las Vegas, NV.
In 1963, Beryl Harrell sold her instruments and quit show business. Don Triolo said that his mother felt she had reached an age where perhaps she was too old to be performing on stage. Subsequently, she took a job working as a PBX operator at the famed Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Life was so much different for Harrell and she suffered from depression.
Throughout her life, it appeared that Beryl Harrell never found real happiness or contentment that one seeks. Her first husband left her when their new born son was just a couple of months old. Working in show business as a single mother presented her with difficult and unending challenges.
In the summer of 1977, Beryl Harrell wrote Don Triolo (her only son) a letter explaining why she didn't want to love anymore and mailed it so it would arrive after the weekend. Don Triolo was out of town at the time. In the meantime, Harrell ended her life. Whatever it was that turned her against life, she harbored those thoughts within. In the letter, Ms. Harrell told her son that he and her music were the two things that brought her the most happiness in her life.
Let not her untimely death eclipse her musical and professional accomplishments. Do not judge or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2).
Brilliantly talented, Beryl Harrell left a great legacy -- the love of music and the desire to share it in a way that made people laugh, dance, smile, and enjoy.
Throughout her many gigs and associations, Ms. Harrell continued to record music and some of her songs were placed on 78 rpm disc. Miraculously, a few have survived.
Beryl Harrell was an innovative lap steel player whose appealing talent was so great that Merle Travis wanted to hire her for his own band. Harrell was a pioneer for western swing ladies and preceded fellow female steel guitarist, Marian Hall at the widely popular mid-1950s Town Hall Party shows.
Long before Barbara Mandrell thrashed strings on her Moseley electric lap-steel guitar, Beryl Harrell was out in the trenches forging a place in the music world for female musicians. Since then, Barbara Mandrell, Allison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, Becky Hobbs and many others have advanced the female presence among noted musicians as did the late Wendy Holcombe.
Today the Beryl Harrell name very rarely appears in print and she and her story is virtually forgotten. However, her inspiring saga is important and worth telling. Her captivating steel guitar work was only equaled by her mesmerizing smile.
Beryl Deane Harrell was born in Vancouver, Washington (Cleo W Harrell and Leona B "Burnett" Harrell) and before the Great Depression, the family moved to California (CA) settling in the Los Angeles area. Her mother was a music enthusiast and at the time, Hawaiian music was immensely popular across America. And the Hawaiian steel guitar was the instrument of choice for aspiring young artists. Pushed into music by her mother, Leona, at age thirteen Beryl Harrell began taking lessons on the steel guitar. Ms. Harrell also fascinated with Hawaiian music, took to playing the Hawaiian guitar quite easily. Her instructor was no ordinary music teacher. He was the Hawaiian steel guitar legend, Sol Hoʻopiʻi (see his note below). Under his instruction and tutoring, Ms. Harrell advanced quickly on the instrument.
During the next few years, Harrell focused on the Hawaiian sound that Mr. Sol Hoʻopiʻi taught her, but she also developed her own techniques while jamming with various local bands. A promotional flyer for the Electro String Instrument Corp. (circa 1938) included a picture of Sol Hoʻopiʻi and a trio called the Sweethearts of the Air. The group consisted of Maxine (ukulele), Boots (electric guitar) and featured the steel guitar styling of Ms. Harrell. The all-girl-band specialized in Hawaiian music. Boots was later murdered as a result of a lesbian love triangle relationship.
After the group broke up Beryl Harrell went on to work with another all-female trio known as the Hula Bluettes. The Bluettes featured two different lineups, the first being a pair of Hawaiian girls, Ula Jewel Nainoa (guitar) and Joyce Kalehua (ukulele). Sometime later the two Hawaiian girls departed and were replaced with two new members; Sunny Vogels (guitar) and Irene Luning (ukulele). The trio played for a time on Catalina Island at the Keyhole Club.
Ms. Harrell met a airplane mechanic named Carl Triolo. In 1943 they were married and the following year, a son, Don Triolo was born into the family. Three months after the birth of Don, Carl Triolo left Ms. Harrell and their marriage legally ended three years later.
Harrell was featured in a Rickenbacker catalog, pictured with one of the first lap steel guitars. In the late-1940s, Paul Rickenbacker designed Harrell a double-neck steel guitar, which she soon mastered. Beryl Harrell maintained a distinct Hawaiian sound from the early influences of her teacher, Sol Hoopii. Harrell continued to use that pedal steel until she purchased a four-neck steel guitar in 1958 from Eddie Bush (steel player for Harry Owen).
During this time (circa 1949) Beryl Harrell was part of yet another all-female group, Eva Harpster and her Four Co-Eds Orchestra. The ensemble played a wide array of instruments including piano, drums, saxophone, clarinet, electric and steel guitar. The Trio performed a record setting twenty-six weeks at the Silver Room in the Glendale Hotel (Glendale, CA).
Beryl Harrell worked several barn dances, playing steel guitar with Eddie Cletro's band in Los Angeles, CA. Eddie Cletro was the bandleader for Doye O'Dell's Western Varieties show, which ran for over five years on KTLA in the 1950s. Ms. Harrell (aka The Hawaiian Cowgirl) also worked with Cliffie Stone on the Hometown Jamboree. The legendary Hometown Jamboree was broadcast over radio station KXLA out of Pasadena, CA, five days a week. On Saturdays, it was broadcast over KCOP, Channel 13 in the Los Angeles area at 7:30 pm. Cliffie Stone was the producer, promoter and emcee as well as all around entertainer on the popular Hometown Jamboree. Like the Town Hall Party, the cast of the Hometown Jamboree also read like a who's who of country music on the west coast.
Harrell made guest appearances on the Town Hall Party show during the time the Collins Kids were a regular act there. The Town Hall Party was a country music radio and television show held in Compton, CA. It was broadcast over KXLA, Pasadena, KFI, Los Angeles and KTTV-TV, Los Angeles beginning in the autumn of 1951. The Town hall Party was a proving ground for aspiring artist. Although many of those singers, who graced the stage of the Town Hall Party, had great potential, only a few were fortunate to advance their career. The program was carried by portions of the NBC Radio network.
Fiddlin' Kate and Jenks "Tex" Carman were regular performers on the show as well. During this period, Ms. Harrell toured with Joe and Rose Maphis, The Collins Kids, Molly Bee, Fiddling Kate, Johnny Bond and Les Anderson. They played to small roadhouses and barn dances through the Southern California area.
By May 1948, Beryl Harrell was fronting the Saddle Dusters band at Al Royer's Red Barn. The Saddle Dusters were aired over KXLA (Pasadena, CA). Al Royer's Red Barn was located near Redondo Beach Boulevard in Lawndale, CA. An article in the Hermosa Beach Review on May 13, 1948 read, "Al Royers is going to give you a rootin' - tootin' opening Tuesday, May 18, when the Saddle Dusters take over the music making out there...Lovely Beryl Harrell fronts for the band and doubles on the steel guitar."
Harrell and the Saddle Dusters recorded two songs which were released on 78 rpm disc. Side A of the disc contained I' Can't Find the Keyhole, with Harrell providing the catchy vocals, backed by Dusty Ellison on guitar. Released on Side B, a song titled Goofus, is a fast paced instrumental that distinctly highlights the striking Hawaiian steel guitar work of Beryl Harrell, backed by Dusty Ellison (guitar, vocal), Buddy Woody (accordion), Hal Duffy (bass) and Chico (fiddle). The recordings took place on March 11, 1950. It is not known if her gig at the Keyhole Club inspired Ms. Harrell's song, I Can't Find the Keyhole.
Ms. Harrell briefly worked with Porky Freeman, a western swing performer, bandleader and songwriter. Freeman was also an electric guitar pioneer and inventor. In the 1940s Freeman led the Californian based band, the Porky Freeman Trio. One of his early hits, Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings, was very popular in the western swing arena.
Carl Cody and his Red Barn Ranch Hands also entertained crowds at the Red Barn. Harrell played steel guitar with Carl Cody and the Southerners at the Marion Elduayen's Saddle Club. Beryl Harrell later married the drummer in Carl Cody's band, Roy Ball.
Merle Travis (writer of Sixteen Tons and Smoke! Smoke, Smoke! That Cigarette) moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s. Travis was proficient on several instruments, including steel as well as standard guitar. By the early-1950s, he was well established in the West Coast music arena. Travis was a regular member of the Hollywood Barn dance broadcast over radio station KNX, Hollywood, CA and of the Town Hall Party.
Merle Travis was an effective and even charismatic performer and had a knack for spotting talent. During his performances the Town Hall Party, the Hollywood Barn Dance and other venues, he shared the stage with Ms. Harrell many times. Always in the hunt for good talent, and a weakness for attractive women, Travis invited Harrell to join his band several times. He sent a Western Union telegram in March 1952, urging her to contact him. The telegram read, "Call Me Tonight Collect at Beach Corral Velasco Texas." However, as with previous offers, Harrell countered with the understanding that she would only tour with him, if her husband, Roy Ball, came along as the drummer. Travis declined every time.
Beryl Harrell made a recording with Al Vaughn, A Penny Four Thoughts and Don't Look Down On Me For Loving You. Harrell aslo played steel guitar on a recording made by Bonnie Lee (Sloan) And Jack Carter's Black Mountain Band. The song titled Kiss of Fire, was recorded in Hollywood, California in 1952. Bonnie Lee recorded a few sides with Tex Williams, some six years later.
In the early-1950s, the William Morris Agency offered Ms. Harrell a one year gig working in Anchorage, Alaska as a sideman to her husband, Roy Ball. Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians also offered Ms. Harrell a job, around that time, playing at the Pink Palace in Honolulu. However the offer did not include her husband, so the couple took the Anchorage job. By 1954 the Ball's had left Alaska and relocated Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) where they joined up with Polly Possum and her husband Sunny Joe Wolverton. The group played gigs at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and the Riverside Hotel in Reno, NV.
Beryl Harrell and Roy Ball divorced in 1961. Soon after, Ms. Harrell joined a group called the Honey-B's that was entertaining audiences at the El Cortez Hotel. The trio included Clair Smith and Betty Jay Holland as well as Ms. Harrell, who at that time was playing a 4-neck Fender steel guitar. By the early-1960s, Harrell's career was quickly winding down, but she was making a few appearances at the Silver Dollar Club in Las Vegas, NV.
In 1963, Beryl Harrell sold her instruments and quit show business. Don Triolo said that his mother felt she had reached an age where perhaps she was too old to be performing on stage. Subsequently, she took a job working as a PBX operator at the famed Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Life was so much different for Harrell and she suffered from depression.
Throughout her life, it appeared that Beryl Harrell never found real happiness or contentment that one seeks. Her first husband left her when their new born son was just a couple of months old. Working in show business as a single mother presented her with difficult and unending challenges.
In the summer of 1977, Beryl Harrell wrote Don Triolo (her only son) a letter explaining why she didn't want to love anymore and mailed it so it would arrive after the weekend. Don Triolo was out of town at the time. In the meantime, Harrell ended her life. Whatever it was that turned her against life, she harbored those thoughts within. In the letter, Ms. Harrell told her son that he and her music were the two things that brought her the most happiness in her life.
Let not her untimely death eclipse her musical and professional accomplishments. Do not judge or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2).
Brilliantly talented, Beryl Harrell left a great legacy -- the love of music and the desire to share it in a way that made people laugh, dance, smile, and enjoy.
Throughout her many gigs and associations, Ms. Harrell continued to record music and some of her songs were placed on 78 rpm disc. Miraculously, a few have survived.
The Story of Guitar Stylist, Beryl Harrell
Beryl Harrell was an innovative lap steel player whose appealing talent was so great that Merle Travis wanted to hire her for his own band. Harrell was a pioneer for western swing ladies and preceded fellow female steel guitarist, Marian Hall at the widely popular mid-1950s Town Hall Party shows.
Long before Barbara Mandrell thrashed strings on her Moseley electric lap-steel guitar, Beryl Harrell was out in the trenches forging a place in the music world for female musicians. Since then, Barbara Mandrell, Allison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, Becky Hobbs and many others have advanced the female presence among noted musicians as did the late Wendy Holcombe.
Today the Beryl Harrell name very rarely appears in print and she and her story is virtually forgotten. However, her inspiring saga is important and worth telling. Her captivating steel guitar work was only equaled by her mesmerizing smile.
Beryl Deane Harrell was born in Vancouver, Washington (Cleo W Harrell and Leona B "Burnett" Harrell) and before the Great Depression, the family moved to California (CA) settling in the Los Angeles area. Her mother was a music enthusiast and at the time, Hawaiian music was immensely popular across America. And the Hawaiian steel guitar was the instrument of choice for aspiring young artists. Pushed into music by her mother, Leona, at age thirteen Beryl Harrell began taking lessons on the steel guitar. Ms. Harrell also fascinated with Hawaiian music, took to playing the Hawaiian guitar quite easily. Her instructor was no ordinary music teacher. He was the Hawaiian steel guitar legend, Sol Hoʻopiʻi (see his note below). Under his instruction and tutoring, Ms. Harrell advanced quickly on the instrument.
During the next few years, Harrell focused on the Hawaiian sound that Mr. Sol Hoʻopiʻi taught her, but she also developed her own techniques while jamming with various local bands. A promotional flyer for the Electro String Instrument Corp. (circa 1938) included a picture of Sol Hoʻopiʻi and a trio called the Sweethearts of the Air. The group consisted of Maxine (ukulele), Boots (electric guitar) and featured the steel guitar styling of Ms. Harrell. The all-girl-band specialized in Hawaiian music. Boots was later murdered as a result of a lesbian love triangle relationship.
After the group broke up Beryl Harrell went on to work with another all-female trio known as the Hula Bluettes. The Bluettes featured two different lineups, the first being a pair of Hawaiian girls, Ula Jewel Nainoa (guitar) and Joyce Kalehua (ukulele). Sometime later the two Hawaiian girls departed and were replaced with two new members; Sunny Vogels (guitar) and Irene Luning (ukulele). The trio played for a time on Catalina Island at the Keyhole Club.
Ms. Harrell met a airplane mechanic named Carl Triolo. In 1943 they were married and the following year, a son, Don Triolo was born into the family. Three months after the birth of Don, Carl Triolo left Ms. Harrell and their marriage legally ended three years later.
Harrell was featured in a Rickenbacker catalog, pictured with one of the first lap steel guitars. In the late-1940s, Paul Rickenbacker designed Harrell a double-neck steel guitar, which she soon mastered. Beryl Harrell maintained a distinct Hawaiian sound from the early influences of her teacher, Sol Hoopii. Harrell continued to use that pedal steel until she purchased a four-neck steel guitar in 1958 from Eddie Bush (steel player for Harry Owen).
During this time (circa 1949) Beryl Harrell was part of yet another all-female group, Eva Harpster and her Four Co-Eds Orchestra. The ensemble played a wide array of instruments including piano, drums, saxophone, clarinet, electric and steel guitar. The Trio performed a record setting twenty-six weeks at the Silver Room in the Glendale Hotel (Glendale, CA).
Beryl Harrell worked several barn dances, playing steel guitar with Eddie Cletro's band in Los Angeles, CA. Eddie Cletro was the bandleader for Doye O'Dell's Western Varieties show, which ran for over five years on KTLA in the 1950s. Ms. Harrell (aka The Hawaiian Cowgirl) also worked with Cliffie Stone on the Hometown Jamboree. The legendary Hometown Jamboree was broadcast over radio station KXLA out of Pasadena, CA, five days a week. On Saturdays, it was broadcast over KCOP, Channel 13 in the Los Angeles area at 7:30 pm. Cliffie Stone was the producer, promoter and emcee as well as all around entertainer on the popular Hometown Jamboree. Like the Town Hall Party, the cast of the Hometown Jamboree also read like a who's who of country music on the west coast.
Harrell made guest appearances on the Town Hall Party show during the time the Collins Kids were a regular act there. The Town Hall Party was a country music radio and television show held in Compton, CA. It was broadcast over KXLA, Pasadena, KFI, Los Angeles and KTTV-TV, Los Angeles beginning in the autumn of 1951. The Town hall Party was a proving ground for aspiring artist. Although many of those singers, who graced the stage of the Town Hall Party, had great potential, only a few were fortunate to advance their career. The program was carried by portions of the NBC Radio network.
Fiddlin' Kate and Jenks "Tex" Carman were regular performers on the show as well. During this period, Ms. Harrell toured with Joe and Rose Maphis, The Collins Kids, Molly Bee, Fiddling Kate, Johnny Bond and Les Anderson. They played to small roadhouses and barn dances through the Southern California area.
By May 1948, Beryl Harrell was fronting the Saddle Dusters band at Al Royer's Red Barn. The Saddle Dusters were aired over KXLA (Pasadena, CA). Al Royer's Red Barn was located near Redondo Beach Boulevard in Lawndale, CA. An article in the Hermosa Beach Review on May 13, 1948 read, "Al Royers is going to give you a rootin' - tootin' opening Tuesday, May 18, when the Saddle Dusters take over the music making out there...Lovely Beryl Harrell fronts for the band and doubles on the steel guitar."
Harrell and the Saddle Dusters recorded two songs which were released on 78 rpm disc. Side A of the disc contained I' Can't Find the Keyhole, with Harrell providing the catchy vocals, backed by Dusty Ellison on guitar. Released on Side B, a song titled Goofus, is a fast paced instrumental that distinctly highlights the striking Hawaiian steel guitar work of Beryl Harrell, backed by Dusty Ellison (guitar, vocal), Buddy Woody (accordion), Hal Duffy (bass) and Chico (fiddle). The recordings took place on March 11, 1950. It is not known if her gig at the Keyhole Club inspired Ms. Harrell's song, I Can't Find the Keyhole.
Ms. Harrell briefly worked with Porky Freeman, a western swing performer, bandleader and songwriter. Freeman was also an electric guitar pioneer and inventor. In the 1940s Freeman led the Californian based band, the Porky Freeman Trio. One of his early hits, Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings, was very popular in the western swing arena.
Carl Cody and his Red Barn Ranch Hands also entertained crowds at the Red Barn. Harrell played steel guitar with Carl Cody and the Southerners at the Marion Elduayen's Saddle Club. Beryl Harrell later married the drummer in Carl Cody's band, Roy Ball.
Merle Travis (writer of Sixteen Tons and Smoke! Smoke, Smoke! That Cigarette) moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s. Travis was proficient on several instruments, including steel as well as standard guitar. By the early-1950s, he was well established in the West Coast music arena. Travis was a regular member of the Hollywood Barn dance broadcast over radio station KNX, Hollywood, CA and of the Town Hall Party.
Merle Travis was an effective and even charismatic performer and had a knack for spotting talent. During his performances the Town Hall Party, the Hollywood Barn Dance and other venues, he shared the stage with Ms. Harrell many times. Always in the hunt for good talent, and a weakness for attractive women, Travis invited Harrell to join his band several times. He sent a Western Union telegram in March 1952, urging her to contact him. The telegram read, "Call Me Tonight Collect at Beach Corral Velasco Texas." However, as with previous offers, Harrell countered with the understanding that she would only tour with him, if her husband, Roy Ball, came along as the drummer. Travis declined every time.
Beryl Harrell made a recording with Al Vaughn, A Penny Four Thoughts and Don't Look Down On Me For Loving You. Harrell aslo played steel guitar on a recording made by Bonnie Lee (Sloan) And Jack Carter's Black Mountain Band. The song titled Kiss of Fire, was recorded in Hollywood, California in 1952. Bonnie Lee recorded a few sides with Tex Williams, some six years later.
In the early-1950s, the William Morris Agency offered Ms. Harrell a one year gig working in Anchorage, Alaska as a sideman to her husband, Roy Ball. Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians also offered Ms. Harrell a job, around that time, playing at the Pink Palace in Honolulu. However the offer did not include her husband, so the couple took the Anchorage job. By 1954 the Ball's had left Alaska and relocated Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) where they joined up with Polly Possum and her husband Sunny Joe Wolverton. The group played gigs at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and the Riverside Hotel in Reno, NV.
Beryl Harrell and Roy Ball divorced in 1961. Soon after, Ms. Harrell joined a group called the Honey-B's that was entertaining audiences at the El Cortez Hotel. The trio included Clair Smith and Betty Jay Holland as well as Ms. Harrell, who at that time was playing a 4-neck Fender steel guitar. By the early-1960s, Harrell's career was quickly winding down, but she was making a few appearances at the Silver Dollar Club in Las Vegas, NV.
In 1963, Beryl Harrell sold her instruments and quit show business. Don Triolo said that his mother felt she had reached an age where perhaps she was too old to be performing on stage. Subsequently, she took a job working as a PBX operator at the famed Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Life was so much different for Harrell and she suffered from depression.
Throughout her life, it appeared that Beryl Harrell never found real happiness or contentment that one seeks. Her first husband left her when their new born son was just a couple of months old. Working in show business as a single mother presented her with difficult and unending challenges.
In the summer of 1977, Beryl Harrell wrote Don Triolo (her only son) a letter explaining why she didn't want to love anymore and mailed it so it would arrive after the weekend. Don Triolo was out of town at the time. In the meantime, Harrell ended her life. Whatever it was that turned her against life, she harbored those thoughts within. In the letter, Ms. Harrell told her son that he and her music were the two things that brought her the most happiness in her life.
Let not her untimely death eclipse her musical and professional accomplishments. Do not judge or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2).
Brilliantly talented, Beryl Harrell left a great legacy -- the love of music and the desire to share it in a way that made people laugh, dance, smile, and enjoy.
Throughout her many gigs and associations, Ms. Harrell continued to record music and some of her songs were placed on 78 rpm disc. Miraculously, a few have survived.
Beryl Harrell was an innovative lap steel player whose appealing talent was so great that Merle Travis wanted to hire her for his own band. Harrell was a pioneer for western swing ladies and preceded fellow female steel guitarist, Marian Hall at the widely popular mid-1950s Town Hall Party shows.
Long before Barbara Mandrell thrashed strings on her Moseley electric lap-steel guitar, Beryl Harrell was out in the trenches forging a place in the music world for female musicians. Since then, Barbara Mandrell, Allison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, Becky Hobbs and many others have advanced the female presence among noted musicians as did the late Wendy Holcombe.
Today the Beryl Harrell name very rarely appears in print and she and her story is virtually forgotten. However, her inspiring saga is important and worth telling. Her captivating steel guitar work was only equaled by her mesmerizing smile.
Beryl Deane Harrell was born in Vancouver, Washington (Cleo W Harrell and Leona B "Burnett" Harrell) and before the Great Depression, the family moved to California (CA) settling in the Los Angeles area. Her mother was a music enthusiast and at the time, Hawaiian music was immensely popular across America. And the Hawaiian steel guitar was the instrument of choice for aspiring young artists. Pushed into music by her mother, Leona, at age thirteen Beryl Harrell began taking lessons on the steel guitar. Ms. Harrell also fascinated with Hawaiian music, took to playing the Hawaiian guitar quite easily. Her instructor was no ordinary music teacher. He was the Hawaiian steel guitar legend, Sol Hoʻopiʻi (see his note below). Under his instruction and tutoring, Ms. Harrell advanced quickly on the instrument.
During the next few years, Harrell focused on the Hawaiian sound that Mr. Sol Hoʻopiʻi taught her, but she also developed her own techniques while jamming with various local bands. A promotional flyer for the Electro String Instrument Corp. (circa 1938) included a picture of Sol Hoʻopiʻi and a trio called the Sweethearts of the Air. The group consisted of Maxine (ukulele), Boots (electric guitar) and featured the steel guitar styling of Ms. Harrell. The all-girl-band specialized in Hawaiian music. Boots was later murdered as a result of a lesbian love triangle relationship.
After the group broke up Beryl Harrell went on to work with another all-female trio known as the Hula Bluettes. The Bluettes featured two different lineups, the first being a pair of Hawaiian girls, Ula Jewel Nainoa (guitar) and Joyce Kalehua (ukulele). Sometime later the two Hawaiian girls departed and were replaced with two new members; Sunny Vogels (guitar) and Irene Luning (ukulele). The trio played for a time on Catalina Island at the Keyhole Club.
Ms. Harrell met a airplane mechanic named Carl Triolo. In 1943 they were married and the following year, a son, Don Triolo was born into the family. Three months after the birth of Don, Carl Triolo left Ms. Harrell and their marriage legally ended three years later.
Harrell was featured in a Rickenbacker catalog, pictured with one of the first lap steel guitars. In the late-1940s, Paul Rickenbacker designed Harrell a double-neck steel guitar, which she soon mastered. Beryl Harrell maintained a distinct Hawaiian sound from the early influences of her teacher, Sol Hoopii. Harrell continued to use that pedal steel until she purchased a four-neck steel guitar in 1958 from Eddie Bush (steel player for Harry Owen).
During this time (circa 1949) Beryl Harrell was part of yet another all-female group, Eva Harpster and her Four Co-Eds Orchestra. The ensemble played a wide array of instruments including piano, drums, saxophone, clarinet, electric and steel guitar. The Trio performed a record setting twenty-six weeks at the Silver Room in the Glendale Hotel (Glendale, CA).
Beryl Harrell worked several barn dances, playing steel guitar with Eddie Cletro's band in Los Angeles, CA. Eddie Cletro was the bandleader for Doye O'Dell's Western Varieties show, which ran for over five years on KTLA in the 1950s. Ms. Harrell (aka The Hawaiian Cowgirl) also worked with Cliffie Stone on the Hometown Jamboree. The legendary Hometown Jamboree was broadcast over radio station KXLA out of Pasadena, CA, five days a week. On Saturdays, it was broadcast over KCOP, Channel 13 in the Los Angeles area at 7:30 pm. Cliffie Stone was the producer, promoter and emcee as well as all around entertainer on the popular Hometown Jamboree. Like the Town Hall Party, the cast of the Hometown Jamboree also read like a who's who of country music on the west coast.
Harrell made guest appearances on the Town Hall Party show during the time the Collins Kids were a regular act there. The Town Hall Party was a country music radio and television show held in Compton, CA. It was broadcast over KXLA, Pasadena, KFI, Los Angeles and KTTV-TV, Los Angeles beginning in the autumn of 1951. The Town hall Party was a proving ground for aspiring artist. Although many of those singers, who graced the stage of the Town Hall Party, had great potential, only a few were fortunate to advance their career. The program was carried by portions of the NBC Radio network.
Fiddlin' Kate and Jenks "Tex" Carman were regular performers on the show as well. During this period, Ms. Harrell toured with Joe and Rose Maphis, The Collins Kids, Molly Bee, Fiddling Kate, Johnny Bond and Les Anderson. They played to small roadhouses and barn dances through the Southern California area.
By May 1948, Beryl Harrell was fronting the Saddle Dusters band at Al Royer's Red Barn. The Saddle Dusters were aired over KXLA (Pasadena, CA). Al Royer's Red Barn was located near Redondo Beach Boulevard in Lawndale, CA. An article in the Hermosa Beach Review on May 13, 1948 read, "Al Royers is going to give you a rootin' - tootin' opening Tuesday, May 18, when the Saddle Dusters take over the music making out there...Lovely Beryl Harrell fronts for the band and doubles on the steel guitar."
Harrell and the Saddle Dusters recorded two songs which were released on 78 rpm disc. Side A of the disc contained I' Can't Find the Keyhole, with Harrell providing the catchy vocals, backed by Dusty Ellison on guitar. Released on Side B, a song titled Goofus, is a fast paced instrumental that distinctly highlights the striking Hawaiian steel guitar work of Beryl Harrell, backed by Dusty Ellison (guitar, vocal), Buddy Woody (accordion), Hal Duffy (bass) and Chico (fiddle). The recordings took place on March 11, 1950. It is not known if her gig at the Keyhole Club inspired Ms. Harrell's song, I Can't Find the Keyhole.
Ms. Harrell briefly worked with Porky Freeman, a western swing performer, bandleader and songwriter. Freeman was also an electric guitar pioneer and inventor. In the 1940s Freeman led the Californian based band, the Porky Freeman Trio. One of his early hits, Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings, was very popular in the western swing arena.
Carl Cody and his Red Barn Ranch Hands also entertained crowds at the Red Barn. Harrell played steel guitar with Carl Cody and the Southerners at the Marion Elduayen's Saddle Club. Beryl Harrell later married the drummer in Carl Cody's band, Roy Ball.
Merle Travis (writer of Sixteen Tons and Smoke! Smoke, Smoke! That Cigarette) moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s. Travis was proficient on several instruments, including steel as well as standard guitar. By the early-1950s, he was well established in the West Coast music arena. Travis was a regular member of the Hollywood Barn dance broadcast over radio station KNX, Hollywood, CA and of the Town Hall Party.
Merle Travis was an effective and even charismatic performer and had a knack for spotting talent. During his performances the Town Hall Party, the Hollywood Barn Dance and other venues, he shared the stage with Ms. Harrell many times. Always in the hunt for good talent, and a weakness for attractive women, Travis invited Harrell to join his band several times. He sent a Western Union telegram in March 1952, urging her to contact him. The telegram read, "Call Me Tonight Collect at Beach Corral Velasco Texas." However, as with previous offers, Harrell countered with the understanding that she would only tour with him, if her husband, Roy Ball, came along as the drummer. Travis declined every time.
Beryl Harrell made a recording with Al Vaughn, A Penny Four Thoughts and Don't Look Down On Me For Loving You. Harrell aslo played steel guitar on a recording made by Bonnie Lee (Sloan) And Jack Carter's Black Mountain Band. The song titled Kiss of Fire, was recorded in Hollywood, California in 1952. Bonnie Lee recorded a few sides with Tex Williams, some six years later.
In the early-1950s, the William Morris Agency offered Ms. Harrell a one year gig working in Anchorage, Alaska as a sideman to her husband, Roy Ball. Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians also offered Ms. Harrell a job, around that time, playing at the Pink Palace in Honolulu. However the offer did not include her husband, so the couple took the Anchorage job. By 1954 the Ball's had left Alaska and relocated Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) where they joined up with Polly Possum and her husband Sunny Joe Wolverton. The group played gigs at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and the Riverside Hotel in Reno, NV.
Beryl Harrell and Roy Ball divorced in 1961. Soon after, Ms. Harrell joined a group called the Honey-B's that was entertaining audiences at the El Cortez Hotel. The trio included Clair Smith and Betty Jay Holland as well as Ms. Harrell, who at that time was playing a 4-neck Fender steel guitar. By the early-1960s, Harrell's career was quickly winding down, but she was making a few appearances at the Silver Dollar Club in Las Vegas, NV.
In 1963, Beryl Harrell sold her instruments and quit show business. Don Triolo said that his mother felt she had reached an age where perhaps she was too old to be performing on stage. Subsequently, she took a job working as a PBX operator at the famed Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Life was so much different for Harrell and she suffered from depression.
Throughout her life, it appeared that Beryl Harrell never found real happiness or contentment that one seeks. Her first husband left her when their new born son was just a couple of months old. Working in show business as a single mother presented her with difficult and unending challenges.
In the summer of 1977, Beryl Harrell wrote Don Triolo (her only son) a letter explaining why she didn't want to love anymore and mailed it so it would arrive after the weekend. Don Triolo was out of town at the time. In the meantime, Harrell ended her life. Whatever it was that turned her against life, she harbored those thoughts within. In the letter, Ms. Harrell told her son that he and her music were the two things that brought her the most happiness in her life.
Let not her untimely death eclipse her musical and professional accomplishments. Do not judge or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2).
Brilliantly talented, Beryl Harrell left a great legacy -- the love of music and the desire to share it in a way that made people laugh, dance, smile, and enjoy.
Throughout her many gigs and associations, Ms. Harrell continued to record music and some of her songs were placed on 78 rpm disc. Miraculously, a few have survived.
Family Members
Children
