Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies is a musical/variety group that performs at

Knott's Berry Farm Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In 2015, it was the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America and averages approximately 4 million visitors per year. It features 40 ...

. Prior to 2014, they performed for 26+ years at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

as Billy Hill and the Hillbillies.Disneyland Live press release, ''Billy Hill and the Hillbillies Find A New Home at Knott's Berry Farm''
/ref> The group performs a bluegrass country-music-centered show along with classic rock and rap (performed in a country and bluegrass style).

History

The group had four original members, all using the stage name of Billy Hill, who performed from August 5, 1992 until November 1994. The original members are: * Kirk Wall (master of ceremonies and sometime-

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

impersonator),

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

* Mario Hildago,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

* Dennis Fetchet,

* John Marshall (founder), bass Mario was later replaced before the opening inside the

Golden Horseshoe Saloon The Golden Horseshoe Saloon (referred to as Pecos Bill's Golden Horseshoe Saloon during construction) is a restaurant and attraction at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California in the United States. It opened in 1955 with several other original att ...

on December 18, 1994 by Evan Marshall (

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

), who left the band in 2003. Billy Hill and the Hillbillies plays music from all genres in a folk/bluegrass style while interacting with audiences. The roster consists of a regular rotation of 10 to 12 musicians, with Wall generally serving as the lead singer while playing fiddle and guitar. Wall, who got his start in show business as a comedian, said he geared his jokes to adults in the crowd more than the children. "The kids might not get the jokes," Wall said, "but they at least get a kick out of seeing their mom and dad crack up." A sometime Elvis impersonator, Wall noted that Disney did not prohibit him, or any other Disney musician, from pursuing side projects. One such show took place in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

in 1997 as part of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's TGIF series. According to Mary Kunz of ''

Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

'', the group performed classical pieces together with the orchestra which "proved how much bluegrass and classical music have in common". After intermission, Hill and the Hillbillies re-emerged dressed in overalls, "like some kind of Appalachian Marx Brothers", and performed another hour of country standards including " Hey Good Lookin'", "

Tennessee Waltz "Tennessee Waltz" is a popular country music song with lyrics by Redd Stewart and music by Pee Wee King written in 1946 and first released in January 1948. The song became a multimillion seller via a 1950 recording – as "The Tennessee Waltz" � ...

", and " Orange Blossom Special". Prior to February 3, 2009, Billy Hill and the Hillbillies were performing 7 days a week inside the Golden Horseshoe Saloon as three different teams: On November 6, 2013, a press release on the Disney Parks official blog announced that the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies Show would retire as of January 6, 2014, ending a run of 21 consecutive years performing in

Frontierland Frontierland is one of the "themed lands" at the many Disneyland-style parks run by Disney around the world. Themed to the American Frontier of the 19th century, Frontierlands are home to cowboys and pioneers, saloons, red rock buttes and gol ...

. A group called "Save The Billys" started a petition and Facebook event in an attempt to persuade Disney to change its mind on retiring the show. In late 2013 the "Blue Team" consisting of Kirk Wall, Anders Swanson, Dennis Fetchet, and Rick Storey, started their own group named "Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies". The show is planned to have the same music, comedy style, and members of Disneyland's Billy Hill & The Hillbillies but performing outside of Disneyland in both public and private events. The first performance for this group was on New Year's Eve 12/31/2013 at Knott's Berry Farm.

Locations

* Critter Country from 1986 until 1990: The original home of Billy and the Hillbillies. * Disneyland's

from 1992 to June 17, 2012. (scheduled) * Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch: 1999-2000 while the Golden Horseshoe was occupied by the Woody's Roundup show based on

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...

's ''

Toy Story 2 ''Toy Story 2'' is a 1999 American computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The second installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the sequel to ''Toy Story'' (1995), it wa ...

''. * Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch: June 18, 2012 to January 6, 2014: The last home of the act. (scheduled) * Knott's Berry Farm's Birdcage Theater: January 12, 2014 to 2019:Now known as "Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies" * Knott's Berry Farm's Wagon Camp: 2019 to the present

References

External links

History of the Golden Horseshoe Saloon: Billy Hill and the Hillbillies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillbillies, Billy Hill And The American bluegrass music groups Walt Disney Parks and Resorts entertainment Disneyland American country music groups

History

Locations

References

Further reading

External links