Things were about to get rougher. Following the Bayou Boys’ gig on July 3, 1957, Buzz, Eddie (who was filling in on guitar that night) and a couple of others decided to go to North Beach, Maryland, as Bill Emerson puts it, “to drink and have some . . . revelry. They asked me to go and I thought, ‘You know, it’s a long drive and I’m not in the mood, so I’ll just go home.’ I’m glad I did.”

On the way back from North Beach, in the early morning hours of July 4, the driver of the vehicle fell asleep and crashed into a large utility pole, seriously injuring all the occupants. Determined to hold on to the Admiral Grill job until Buzz and the others recovered, Bill launched into one of his greatest improvisations. He hurriedly enlisted the aid of mandolinist John Duffey, guitarist Charlie Waller and bassist Larry Leahy to perform that evening’s show. “John lived about a mile from me—he’s the guy that really got me started playing the banjo,” Bill explains. “I also knew Charlie. We all hung out at the same places. We had performed informally with each other before, but never as a band.”

That night, however, the quartet made the crowd temporarily forget all about the Bayou Boys. “We played the traditional standards. Songs like ‘Love and Wealth,’ Stanley Brothers material and Bill Monroe songs,” Bill recalls, admitting none of them had any inkling of the greatness to come.

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