Lead, fiddle and vocals

Danny Ponder

I started out in 1960, at the ripe old age of 6, singing on the local radio station. My dad, Marl Ponder, was a self-taught pianist playing in early country and Rock-a-Billy bands. My dad bought my brother Dean and I our first guitars when I was eight years old. Daddy knew a few chords so, we basically learned on our own. It wasn’t long before Dean switched to the bass guitar. Daddy started a band with us three, my aunt Wanda and Uncle Ricky. We named the group "The Ponder Family”. Go figure! A couple of years later Dean switched to the pedal steel guitar. The group evolved into one of the top country bands in the area, performing with the likes of Dan Gibson, George Jones, Bill Anderson and others. My mom, Sybil, was our manager, booking agent and seamstress. She was the glue that held us together.
Danny

I joined the Air Force in 1973, bringing an end to "The Ponder Family". I lost two of the greatest influences in my music and my life when my uncle Ricky was killed in an auto accident in 1972 at the age of 21. Two years later, Dean died from an accident. He was 21 also. After his death I taught myself to play the steel guitar. To this day, I still can’t play it as good as Dean. Daddy gave me a fiddle in 1984 that belonged to my great grandpa. I just about ran everybody nuts trying to teach myself to play that thing.

Ray and I started playing together when we were about sixteen. I think Ray might have known three or four songs the first time Daddy put him stage. By the time we graduated from high school we had been playing bars three or four years. After a stint in the Air Force, I came home and joined Daddy’s group ‘The Versatile Squires”.

During the 70's and early 80’s, Ray and I played in several different bands. We played a lot of Country, Southern Rock and Current Rock. (What you hear on Classic Rock Stations now!) If I remember correctly, Ray took a job in North Carolina around 1983. Not long after that, I started playing full time with Micky Fowler and the Variation Band. Our drummer was Scotty Hawkins who later played with Reba McEntire, T. Graham Brown and Brooks and Dunn. Micky and Toy Caldwell of The Marshall Tucker Band were close friends. Toy would set in with us just about every time he was in town. We became fishing buddies. I’ve got some pretty funny fishing and picking stories about him. I left the band in 1983. I played in a couple more local bands until 1989. I put my guitars up for eight and half years. I started back in 1997 with Trik Alley. We stayed together five years. Playing with Andre Kerr, Mike Webb and George Roland was great. In 2003 we broke up and I put the guitars up again.

In March of 2006, my wife Gina organized a big birthday bash for Daddy. She invited everybody that had been in a band with him. That was a pile of people! Ray came and played the bass. We decided to start another band after almost twenty years. He knew Dave. That’s where HickryStix began. It has been awesome the way we have gelled. I think we have one of the better bands around and there are just three of us!

Gina and I live in Pauline, SC. I have three sons, Danny Ray, Berry Jay and Justin and two daughters-in-law, Amy, BJ’s wife, and Heather, Danny Ray’s wife. They have given me FOUR grandkids, Hayden, Mya, Jacob and Grayson. Now that’s a handful!