Four boys from a family of nine children have so far been associated with the Busby Brothers, a country and western and bluegrass outfit in the brother-band sub-category whose activities were both important and innovative in the related fields of indie country and D.I.Y. recording, publishing, and marketing.

Listed in order of relative fame as solo artists, the group has featured Buzz Busby, Wayne Busby, LeMoyne Busby, and Bobby Gene Busbice. The actual family surname was Busbice, so real names of these individuals are {"Bernarr

Busbice"}, Wayne Busbice, and LeMoyne Busbice, respectively, the fourth brother not having apparently toyed with Busby as a credit.

Individually and as a brother band, the talented members of the Busby clan performed on radio and television as well as live gigs on recordings. Wayne Busby started the Webco label in 1981, the catalog of which eventually wound up part of the excellent Pinecastle imprint of indie country and bluegrass. He continues to run his own publishing firm.

Buzz Busby enjoyed a series of country and western hits, his collaborations apart from family including his own Bayou Boys band as well as a duo with the talented Jack Clement. He also seems to have the "black sheep" status in the family, at least among the on-stage Busby Brothers, with both drug addiction and subsequent legal problems part of the story.

A rough rural upbringing was something all the brothers shared, although their attitude about it may have been misconstrued through a snappy cynicism attributed at first to Wayne Busby, who in 2006 countered that this was more like "something Buzz might have said." The quote, which may have never been said by anyone at all in the Busby family, is "It was horrible -- best I can say for it."

Documentation of the Busby Brothers on Webco includes the albums Louisiana Grass, originally released in 1986 and the colorful Stained Glass Bluegrass from a year later. Bobby Gene Busbice, a retired vocational teacher and an agricultural extension agent, rejoined the Busby Brothers for live gigs in the late '90s. He died in 2005 due to complications with an aneurysm. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi