Rhythm Ramblers to perform in Mount Morris

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MOUNT MORRIS – The Rhythm Ramblers will perform 8-11 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Mount Morris Moose Lodge.

The public is invited to listen to the band which is comprised of area
residents.

The Rhythm Ramblers were formed 60 years ago, born of Polo native Lyle Grobe’s interest in music.

While most 5-year-olds are playing with toys and learning to ride bicycles, Grobe picked up a guitar and began his 60-year musical odyssey.

With vivid memories of his maternal grandfather teaching him how to play the mandolin while his mother played the piano, Grobe became the leader of this popular band in the early 1960s.

The group began performing at various venues around the Sauk Valley and ran the former Skyline Lounge, Dixon, until the early 1980s, when traveling and families became their focus.

It was not uncommon for the band to be the opening act for such greats as Chubby Checker, Ricky Nelson, Little Jimmy Dickens, Thom Paul and the Glaser Brothers.

Grobe also emceed for country singers Conway Twitty, David Houston and Barbara Mandrell, and was a deejay and announcer for WIXN Radio in Dixon back in the 1970s.

The band’s musical exposure led songwriter Orville Westcore to look up Grobe in 1969 to see whether he and the band would be interested in recording a song Westcore wrote the year before for the Petunia Festival in Dixon – “It’s Petunia Time in Dixon.”

Forty years later, this song can be heard on local radio stations WRVC 101.7 and WLLT 107.7 during the Petunia Festival.

Last July, Grobe served as grand marshal for the Petunia Festival.

These days the Rhythm Ramblers – Grobe, Frank Evans of Rock Falls, Marv Kunde of Oregon and Dennis Milby of Sterling – lean toward country music, but they also throw in some of the pop and rock ’n’ roll of their youth.

The Moose Lodge is at 101 Moose Drive, Mount Morris. Take Mud Creek Road (East Hitt Street) and then turn right after Plum Electric.

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