Davey Gibbs and his Country Hoppers

Davey Gibbs, billed as “The Country Kid,” was a central Ontario country singer, guitarist, and bandleader best remembered for his work with Davey Gibbs and His Country Hoppers. Born David William Gibbs, he emerged from the postwar Ontario country circuit with a group originally known as the Riders of the Southern Trails, whose history was traced in the original RCA Camden liner notes to 1948. By the mid-1950s the Riders of the Southern Trails name was appearing in Ontario newspaper advertising connected with CKWS radio and television, placing Gibbs and his musicians within the regional broadcast, dance-hall, and jamboree circuit that linked Kingston, Peterborough, the Ottawa Valley, and eastern Ontario.

Gibbs’ group later became Davey Gibbs and His Country Hoppers, a five-piece country outfit built around Gibbs’ vocals and guitar, Garry “Gizz” Watt’s fiddle, Fred “Pappy” Ryan’s steel guitar and dobro, Paul “Hiker” Gurry’s Spanish guitar and related string work, and Larry “Dooley” Protheroe’s bass fiddle. Their RCA Camden debut, Davey Gibbs (The Country Kid) and His Country Hoppers, documented a group already seasoned by years of radio, television, dances, and touring. The album notes credited them with ten years on CKWS Radio in Kingston, two years on Kingston’s Channel 11, and a current television series on Peterborough’s Channel 12. They were also reported to have played the Massey-Ferguson International Plowing Match and the World’s Original Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia, as well as touring with Grand Ole Opry favourites Wilma Lee, Stoney Cooper and the Clinch Mountain Clan.

The Country Hoppers’ recorded work shows why the group had such a strong regional following. Across their RCA Camden albums, they moved easily through fiddle pieces, steel guitar features, honky-tonk country, sentimental ballads, square-dance material, and western-swing-flavoured instrumentals. Gibbs himself sang sparingly on record, but his vocal features, especially “Love’s A Losing Game,” reveal a warm, direct country ballad style that deserved wider exposure. The band’s instrumental side was equally important, with Watt, Ryan, and Gurry all contributing to the group’s bright, flexible sound.

Their second RCA Camden album, Mister Hoedown, continued the same approach, emphasizing danceable instrumentals and original contributions from the band members alongside country and western repertoire. Although issued on RCA’s budget Camden imprint, the two albums captured a polished and highly capable Ontario country band at its early-1960s peak. The group’s public image was also distinctive: both album covers included Smokey, the band’s border collie mascot, described in the original liner notes as a favourite of concert and television audiences.

Gibbs’ recording career appears to have been brief, but his regional impact was larger than his discography suggests. The Country Hoppers were remembered as a popular draw at eastern Ontario venues such as Antler Lodge in Rideau Ferry, where local-history accounts place them as regular dance entertainment through the early and mid-1960s. Davey Gibbs died in 2000, leaving behind two scarce RCA Camden albums and an unusually vivid recorded snapshot of central Ontario country music before the Canadian country recording boom of the later 1960s and 1970s.

-Robert Williston

Lineup
Davey Gibbs: vocals, guitar, leader
Garry “Gizz” Watt: fiddle
Fred “Pappy” Ryan: steel guitar, dobro
Paul “Hiker” Gurry: Spanish guitar, mandolin
Larry “Dooley” Protheroe: bass fiddle