There isn’t much evidence these days that this city was once the scene of a lively country music industry. But in the 1930s and ’40s many famous country singers and musicians lived in Chicago and recorded their classics here. Many of them were drawn by what at the tune was the most popular country music radio show in the United States: the WLS Barn Dance. Although the Barn Dance died in 1960 and many members of its cast have retired, country-western singer and songwriter Patsy Montana–one of the show’s biggest stars–has yet to quit.
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Patsy Montana’s dear old Chicago centered on the Barn Dance and the show’s loyal audiences.
“The Barn Dance belonged to the old Eighth Street Theatre,” recalls Montana. “I’d see people stand out there with snow up to their eyeballs. Every place I work now, even in remote places, somebody will ask about WLS. I don’t think they’ll ever forget it.”
Montana kept her cowgirl image, which was popular at the time, and eventually the Kentucky Ramblers adopted it, too, changing their costume to western and their name to the Prairie Ramblers. She made all her early records with the Prairie Ramblers, and they were regular performers on the Barn Dance and in the show’s road units. Having seen “the writing on the wall” for the National Barn Dance, in 1952 Montana and her husband left Chicago for southern California.
