Pete Pike Biography

Pete and Buck played a lot of places where his brother Frank couldn't go because he was only fourteen years old at the time. One place was an old fashion square dance in Meherrin, VA. They played the dance with The Clark Brothers who asked them to play with them in a fiddlers contest in Crewe,Va. the very next Friday. There was not a contest for singers but the Clark Brothers asked Pete to sing a Little Jimmy Dickens' song called The Brides Bouquet and the people applauded so long that they made up a prize and awarded it to Pete. They began playing regularly with The Clarks and one Saturday night, Roy Clark's dad was sitting in on guitar, and after the show Mr. Clark told Pete and Buck that they should come up to Washington D.C. and play some with Roy. The next Fall, Pete, Buck, Franklin, and another friend loaded up Pete's car and headed for Washington D.C.
They rented an unfurnished house and moved in. Roy was fascinated with the five-string banjo and would come over and play with them. After about four or five weeks Buck, Roy and Pete got a job working at a little place called The Camden Tavern. Franklin couldn't play with them because he was too young and decided to go back home. These shows were the first performances in the Washington DC area of what is now known as bluegrass music today.
	This picture was taken in the winter of 1948. Roy Clark and Pete on guitar and Buck Austin is playing the five-string banjo. This picture is also inlcuded in Roy Clark's Autobiography book.
In the Fall of 1949, Pete, Roy Clark and a bass player named Curley Irvin, worked through the winter at a place called Joe Del's Bar and Grill and would became the last time that Pete and Roy worked together as a band.