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In
1963, when Buzz and Pete again decided to go separate ways,
and Pete decided to take flight training lessons and got
his pilots license. He bought a new Cessna Sky Hawk in 1965,
and used it to do a lot of traveling until 1972.
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| In
1967 and 1968, Pete started a record label, VRC
Records, and recorded four or five artists. He found
that to be to very confining and not giving him very much
free time. He also started LeRite Publishing
Co., registered with BMI,
and bought a 46-foot yacht and in 1967 he cut I'm
Just Not Sure and Through
None Stop Express, released on his label. The following
year he released I Can See An Angel
and a Hank Williams' number entitled Alone
and Forsaken, also on this label. These were done
in the Archer Moore Studio in
Nashville. |
| In
1969, Pete recorded some songs for the John
Major Studios in Waynesboro, VA which were not all
released. The numbers he did then were Somewhere
in Georgia, Baby Go Bye
Bye, I Had to Have Her,
Have Told You Lately That I Love You.
The first two were released on the John Major label MRC;
the last was released on Pete's label. |
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In
1970, with the help of Carlton Haney,
Pete began holding bluegrass festivals on a 110-acre farm
that he owned down in Amelia, VA.. At the time, Carlton
was having festivals at Watermelon
Park in Berryville, VA. He was the manager for Don
Reno, Red Smiley, and
The Tennessee Cutups and also
ran the New Dominion Barn Dance
and promoted shows up and down the East Coast.
Pete
worked with Carlton a lot at that time and it was his record
label that Little Bitty Teardrops
was released on. They had a reunion of 'The
Hayloft Gang' at one of the festivals in 1970. The
Hayloft Gang back together again: Don
Stover, John Hall, Buzz
Busby, and Pete Pike,
along with Jack Stoneman on
the bass for that show. After playing the festivals until
1974, they didn't do as much music as they had been, mostly
just on the weekends.
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In
1978, the Pike Family bought a farm equipment dealership
and worked at that until 1982 then sold out and went into
the timber business. On October 13, 1996, they held an auction
sale and sold the timber equipment.
Pete
opened a restaurant in Amelia the same day they had the
sale and wasn't expecting a booming business, but as it
turned out, Pete employed sixteen people and I had to add
1000 square feet on to the building to accommodate customers.
It became too much for Pete to keep up with so he leased
the restaurant out and Namaw's Country
Diner is still thriving today.
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This
past Spring, Pete went back into the studio in Salem, VA.
and employed the musical talents of the Black
Diamond band from Princeton, West Virginia to make
a bluegrass recording which also includes Little
Bitty Teardrops, Make
Him Stop and some newly written material and
is due for release in 2005.
A
4-cd box set of Pete's recordings is also in the works and
to also be released sometime in 2005.
At
age 75, Pete is proving, that he still is very much capable
of producing those fine song of old and new in that days
of old 'hillbilly' fashion.
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Pete
Pike
Flat
Five Recording Studios
Salem, Va. (2004)
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