Pete went to North Carolina and spent a week with Smitty Irvin and convinced him to come back with him, and the three of them started playing the clubs all over the DC area.

In January of 1951, they went to Atlanta to work with MovieTime USA for about three months and also played a radio show on WEAS in Decaded, Georgia but wasn't long before they returned back to Washington playing the clubs again.

In the fall of 1951, Johnnie and Jack were booked in the Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. areas and Pete and Smitty palled around with them on some of their show dates. They decided that performing shows was what they wanted to do, not just playing the clubs.

The next Saturday night, after returning home from a club date, they were listening to Bill Monroe who was playing the last act on The Grand Ole Opry and Pete called Bill to see if he needed any musicians.

Bill told Pete that he couldn't use anyone at that time, but he knew someone that could and told him that Don Reno was being inducted into the armed services and Toby Stroud, who was working on the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling,WV and would need someone to replace him.

As soon as Pete got off the phone with Bill, he called Toby in Wheeling and they auditioned over the phone. Toby told them to be in the WWVA studio at 5am on Monday morning and they loaded the car and headed for West Virginia. They arrived at the station by 5am that morning to play the first show.

Their first song was a duet by Johnny and Jack (Let Your Conscience be Your Guide), and they were now doing what they really wanted to do: playing shows.

Curley Irvin, who is Smitty's dad, took over their club dates in DC and they worked at WWVA until Pete was inducted into the service in 1952.

Smitty was called into the service about six months later and that became the last time they worked together until about 1955.

WWVA Jamboree

Wheeling, WV - 1952