Performer Information

Born in Warroad, Minnesota in 1914, Enright August (“High-Pockets”) Busse was accordionist for Jack Dalton’s Riders of the Purple Sage on KFI (1933), the first band so-named receiving permission directly from Zane Grey.  It was Dalton who awarded “Hi” the nickname.  Following a stint with Shorty Lefevre’s Oklahoma Night Riders, Hi next joined the Texas Ramblers (hailed by author/historian Ken Griffis as being “one of the top pre-Pioneers Western groups”).  They formed the basis of The Saddle Tramps.  With them Hi appeared in movies backing Buck Jones and Smith Ballew.  Later Hi and several Frontiersmen musicians (billed as “The Sagebrush Serenaders”) also lent musical support to Monte Hale.  The Saddle Tramps with Hi also cut syndicated radio transcriptions with Rex Allen’s cousin “Cactus Mack.”  In 1938 Hi selected some of the Saddle Tramps’ players and formed The Frontiersmen to back his friend Len Slye at the Capitol Theater in Dallas in his first live performance using the “Roy Rogers” name.  There they introducing Cindy Walker’s song “Dust.”  This group disbanded shortly afterward, but Hi resuscitated The Frontiersmen in 1945, this time featuring a remarkable double trio partly drawn from Red Murrell’s popular West Coast band to handle the intricate harmony work.  It was this version of The Frontiersmen who helped introduce into Western Music band member Eddie Martin’s invention, the triple-bank steel guitar with tone changers.  Touring with Roy Rogers, Hi (with Ray Whitley and Frontiersmen Frank “Li’l Abner” Wilder and William “Shorty” Scott) introduced “Along the Navajo Trail” and  “Don’t Fence Me In” at Madison Square Garden.  Hi also created the comedy contingents 3 Shif’less Skonks (those Madison Square Garden players) and The Simp-Phonies (appearing with Charles Starrett among others).  The core band was known variously as The Frontiersmen; The Frontiersmen Hi, Wayne (West) & Hal (Southern), the first Western group to wear bespangled Nudie suits; The Frontiersmen & Joanie (seen in episodes of “The Red Foley Show,”  “Stoney Burke” and “The Joey Bishop Show” among others) and The Frontiersmen Family.  As The Frontiersmen & Joanie (Hall), the band backed Rex Allen, Jr. in his first live performance of “Can You Hear Those Pioneers.”  With Eddie Dean, Hi & The Frontiersmen recorded the first hit versions of “One Has My Name….” and “Hillbilly Heaven” (literally ‘dreamed’ one night by Frontiersmen band member Hal Southern).  In addition to Western movies and recordings, Hi & company performed on commercial jingles (“Conoco, Hottest Brand Going” for one), radio programs including two years on Roy & Dale’s ABC radio show and eventually weekly TV (notably two and a half years as the house band for NBC’s first color telecast “Doye O’Dell’s Western Varieties”).  Future Sons Of The Pioneers members Rusty Richards and Billy Armstrong were both Frontiersmen members as well.  The band toured with Tex Ritter, Rex Allen, Hugh O’Brien, Duncan Renaldo, the casts of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Big Valley, and dozens more at fairs, rodeos and stage shows.  Additionally, Hi was primarily responsible for Ray Price’s successful career, at first coaching him on delivery and stage presence and then performing on and helping underwrite Price’s first four Country sides (reissued by Bear Family).  Hi introduced Rex Allen to The Reinsmen, Tommy Doss to The Sons of the Pioneers and he helped enable Ken Curtis’ long run on Gunsmoke.

Starting in 1986 Hi Busse hosted the Western Music radio feature “Song and Story” created with Rick Huff, the video “Ghosts Of New Mexico” and his career was profiled in the 1991 PBS Special “High Pockets Busse & The Frontiersmen,” narrated by Huff.  The program remains available for viewing online.  In it the final incarnation of The Frontiersmen can be seen and appreciated.  In accepting his induction into the Hall of Fame, Hi called it “the proudest moment of my career.”  He passed away July 13, 1997.  Riders In The Sky’s Ranger Doug Green wrote:  “The Frontiersmen and Hi Busse were a profound influence on our group.”  Rex Allen said “I owe the world to Hi Busse & The Frontiersmen.”  Don Edwards summed it up. “The world should know Hi Busse, one of the true pioneers of Western Music.”