Val Stoecklein

Best remembered for fronting the cult-favorite folk-rock combo The Blue Things, Val Stöecklein also cut a solo LP, Grey Life, now celebrated in the same pantheon of such masterpieces of melancholy and madness as Alexander "skip" Spence's Oar and Scott Walker's Scott 4. Born Valerian Richard Stecklein in Hutchinson, Kansas in 1941, he played as a high schooler in the rock & roll band the Dukes but gravitated towards folk music upon entering Ft. Hays State College, where he made his recorded debut performing original songs "Desert Wind" and "Nancy Whiskey" on a demo credited to the Hi-Plains Singers. Stecklein next joined a 14-piece collegiate folk troupe known as the Impromptwos and was the featured vocalist on a self-titled LP the group cut in late 1963. The following year, he joined roommate Mike Chapman and fellow Dukes alum Richard Scott in the Blue Boys, a popular local group that, in mid-1964, cut a series of acetates at Damon Studios in Kansas City and resulted in a recording contract with producer Ray Ruff's Amarillo, Texas-based Ruff label. Their debut single, "Mary Lou," followed in early 1965. To avoid confusion with the late Jim Reeves' backing unit, the Blue Boys were credited as The Blue Things.

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