Radio

The Prior Five

The Prior Five — 1968 From left: Ray Ketcham, Nick Conger, Edgar Jaynes, Blake Boggess, Ed Bowes

2022 – The Prior Five — This is a sweet story Jean put together for Inside Appalachia on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.  It celebrates the joy and longevity of friendship.

In the spring of 1968, during the height of the Vietnam War and the folk music resurgence of the late 1960s, five guys at West Virginia University formed a band.  They called themselves The Prior Five.  But after just a few weeks together – and a handful of very successful gigs – three members of the group graduated and The Prior Five was no more.  After more than 50 years, and lives that took them in very different directions, the four surviving bandmates found each other again – and are playing music once more.

Listen to The Prior Five profile:

You can also read their story (written by Jean and edited by Suzanne Higgins at West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

THESE days, the four men in their mid-70s can often be found on a beautiful farm outside of Beverly, West Virginia in Randolph County, having the time of their lives playing a mix of folk, rock, pop, country and bluegrass. Their passion for the music and the gratitude for their friendship is obvious.

From left: Nick Conger, Edgar Jaynes, Blake Boggess, Ed Bowes

Singer Blake Boggess and bass guitarist Edgar Jaynes – both from Fairmont – met more than 70 years ago.

“We’ve known each other since we were about three – in nursery school – and started singing together when we were probably five, in a church choir,” explained Boggess.

“Then we were in Choraliers, which was a Fairmont Senior High School choral group,” Jaynes added. “There were 60 people chosen out of about a thousand.”

At West Virginia University Boggess and Jaynes met Nick Conger, a guitar player raised on the north shore of Long Island and educated at Fishburne Military School in Virginia.

“I ended up being captain of the rifle team in high school and was looking for a school with a good rifle team. And WVU had a really, really good team even back then,” Conger said.  “That’s where I met Blake (Boggess) – we were fraternity brothers.”

And just before graduation they met another guitar player, Ed Bowes from Charleston, WV.

“I was a sophomore at WVU and was interviewing to pledge a fraternity.  Blake Boggess was the first person I met,” Bowes remembered. “We became good friends and just hit it off right away.”

Bowes went on to fondly remember the one bandmate who has passed away, but who remains an integral part of their story.

“I had a friend, Ray Ketcham, who was one of my old friends, dearest friends, who was actually in post-graduate school at WVU.  Ray was a great banjo player,” he said. “So, the five of us kind of coalesced just to play music together.”

The spring of 1968 was one of the most turbulent times in U.S. history. The Vietnam War was raging. Martin Luther King Jr had just been assassinated. Civil unrest was common – and folk, rock, and protest songs were in the air. Jaynes remembers one day hanging out with the newly formed band right outside the brand new WVU Mountainlair student center, just standing there singing and playing.

“We saw the manager of the Mountainlair come to the door. So I said, ‘Quick, put your instruments away like we’re leaving!’ And he hurried over. And he wanted to know if we could sing at the Mountainlair.  We said, ‘Sure!’”

“We knew three songs! So, in about two or three weeks we put together about 15 songs and sang them there,” Jaynes continued. “We were the first local group to sing in the Mountainlair (up until that time – all the groups who played at the Mountainlair had come from New York City).  They’ve since had many local groups, but we were the first ones not to be hired from outside.”

Amazingly, someone recorded that first Prior Five concert at the Mountainlair, a concert that wowed the audience. Bowes described the evening as magical.

The audio tape captured a special moment in the lives of these men, and remains a treasured keepsake for the musicians today.

Commencement ceremonies for Boggess, Jaynes, and Conger came in a matter of weeks after that concert, and all five men thought that was the end of the band’s story.

But not quite.  The band members went their separate ways, and led very interesting lives.

After graduating from West Virginia University lead singer Blake Boggess joined the Navy and worked in intelligence.  Later he became a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill, then returned to Fairmont and ran a hospital there for most of his career.  Today Blake divides his time between a family farm west of Morgantown and a home in Florida.

Bass guitarist Edgar Jaynes became a chemist and worked in corporate America – General Foods, Campbell’s Soup and pharmaceutical companies.  Today, in his so-called “retirement,” he teaches chemistry part-time at High Point University in North Carolina.

Lead guitarist Nick Conger became an Army intelligence officer, first in Chicago, then in Vietnam. Then following graduate school he spent 30 years as a bank examiner for the federal government.  In retirement Nick finished a PhD and taught at West Virginia Wesleyan in Buckhannon before retiring fully in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Guitarist and banjo player Ed Bowes spent most of his career as an engineer with Dominion Power in Richmond.  Today he divides his time between homes in Richmond and Beverly, West Virginia.

And banjo player Ray Ketcham went on to WVU Medical School, became a psychiatrist and practiced in Maine for many years. He died in 2009.

The men say they never forgot the group that briefly brought them together at WVU. And after about 50 years passed, Ed Bowes decided it was time to try to find his former band mates. It took some sleuthing, but after finding Conger, both Boggess and Jaynes were found as well. By the summer of 2018 they were back together practicing.

“Somebody got out an old play list. And BOOM! It was like we had been together for 50 years,” said Jaynes. “It’s as though we had not been apart.  It’s very, very familiar – it’s warm, it’s inviting — it’s just FUN to get back and sing with them again.”

“Fifty years! It is like a miracle for us,” added Boggess. “We all met in West Virginia. I think all four of us feel as though that’s where our roots are.  That has played into our cohesiveness.”

The men have been getting together periodically ever since. While at a get-together at Snowshoe Resort, they ended up playing a couple of sets at the restaurant at the end of the Cass Scenic Railroad.

“They said we can come back any time,” laughed Jaynes. “But because of the pandemic we didn’t get back.”

The Prior Five during one of their musical weekends in Pocahontas County.

While there are four surviving members of The Prior Five, the memory of Ray Ketcham is still very much present when the group gathers. Upon his death, Ketcham’s daughter Amy gifted his prized banjo to his very dear friend – band mate Ed Bowes.

“And I try to play the way he did, and when we’re together, play the songs he played on the banjo that he played,” said Bowes. “So that is very meaningful to me, and to the other guys.”

The guys are now talking about recording a CD for themselves, and joke about the possibility of a “Farewell Tour” with accompanying T-shirts emblazoned with all the potential tour stops of little West Virginia towns.

“Our one-and-only CD is going to be our greatest hits CD!” laughed Conger. “It’s just so much fun – the camaraderie and the personality of The Prior Five – it’s magical! So, I guess it’s never too late!”

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