Larry Groce
| Larry Groce | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born |
April 22, 1948 Dallas, Texas |
| Genres | Country, Folk, Children's music |
| Instruments | vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1971–Present |
| Labels | Warner Bros. Records, Walt Disney Records |
Larry Groce (born April 22, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and radio host. Since 1983, Groce has served as the host and artistic director of Mountain Stage, a two-hour live music program produced by West Virginia Public Radio and distributed by NPR. He first entered the national spotlight in 1976 when his novelty song "Junk Food Junkie" became a Top Ten hit. After that, Groce's voice became well known by children and parents alike as a result of his Platinum recordings of classic children’s songs for Walt Disney Records Children’s Favorites 4-volume series: Volume 1 (1979), Volume 2 (1979), Volume 3 (1986), and Volume 4 (1990).
Groce was born in Dallas, Texas, to H.T. and Bobbie Groce. He had a brother, Gary, and a sister, Janna. Groce became interested in music while in elementary school. He attended Adamson High School in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, with fellow aspiring singer-songwriters Michael Martin Murphy, Ray Wylie Hubbard and B. W. Stevenson. Other music notables from the Oak Cliff area include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan and Edie Brickell.
Groce’s first album, collection of hymns called Peace and Joy and Power, was recorded in 1969 while he was still a college student at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. After graduating in 1970, he moved to New York and became a regular performer at a “Focus”, an Upper West Side organic food restaurant and coffeehouse co-owned by future Hollywood producer and manager Larry Brezner. (Brezner’s wife at that time, Melissa Manchester, was also a regular.) Later that year, Groce signed a recording contract with Daybreak Records, a subsidiary of RCA Records. His first album of original songs, The Wheat Lies Low, was released in 1970. From 1972 to 1985 he was a National Endowment for the Arts sponsored "musician-in- residence", visiting schools in twenty different states. One of those residencies brought him to West Virginia in 1972, where he continues to make his home.
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