DEL RIO, BOB

Homebase: Yakima, WA.
Stats: March 25,1923 -- December 23, 2012
Misc Notes: Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1923, Bob Del Rio ran away from home at the age of 11 and hitchhiked to Salinas, California, where he played guitar and sang in a musical trio. Thus began his years of nomadic travel. In Tennessee he crossed paths with many great artists, even opening a show one time for Elvis Presley. Over the years he formed several bands -- including the Blue Mountain Drifters -- and performed in many nightclubs and bars. After settling in Yakima, Washington, he began cutting a number of records for local labels including Jerry Merritt’s Tell International, as well as Bobby Gibson's Vancouver-based Ripcord Records. As his daughter, Nicci Del Rio, informed us: “I don’t know when he decided that he was going to take his musical art another direction, but he started writing and recording gospel music, he started a new band, called the Country Gospel Drifters -- which included Bee and Art O’Neal -- and that’s exactly what they were. He and his band would go anywhere that would let him setup and play. I got to go most the time. We went to the different nursing homes, the Selah school, he played at any church that would let him … he also was a member of the Old Time Fiddlers, and we sang at the Yakima State Fair and the Mission in Yakima.” Del Rio also performed for inmates at various local prisons and for patients at treatment centers. Then, after suffering two strokes in 1998 Bob Del Rio neccessarily withdrew from performing, finally passing in 2012.

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