Wayne Raney (August 17, 1921[1] – January 23, 1993)[2] was an American country singer and harmonica player. Raney was born on a farm near Wolf Bayou, Cleburne County, Arkansas, United States,[1] the youngest of five children of William Franklin (Frank) Raney and Bonnie Davis Raney. Born with a foot deformity, he could not do heavy labor.[3] After learning to play harmonica at an early age, he moved to Piedras Negras, Mexico at age 13, where he played on radio station XEPN.[1] He met Lonnie Glosson, his long-time musical associate, in 1936, and together they found work on radio in Little Rock in 1938.[1] Later the pair worked for WCKY out of Cincinnati and played on syndicated radio.[1] They also established a harmonica mail order business which ended up being enormously successful; they sold millions of harmonicas and played a major role in turning the harmonica into a popular instrument.[1] Read more on Wikipedia |