Pianist Peck Kelley led this influential territory band in Texas in the 1920s. Kelley’s style was said to be ahead of his time and more harmonically advanced than other bands of that era. Pee Wee Russell and Jack Teagarden played in the band as well as Leon Roppolo of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. They never recorded.

Peck Kelley refused to leave Texas to play although he was offered jobs by Paul Whiteman, Red Nichols. The Andrews Sisters’ big hit song “Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar” is said to be about Kelley. Peck Kelley joined the Dick Shannon quartet with Glen Boyd on Bass Fiddle in 1957, from which the only studio recordings from this musician survive.