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Show Wayne County Native to Appear In American Fork American Fork area residents resi-dents are looking forward to the forthcoming Lowrence Welk Musical program to be presented present-ed Friday, November 26 in the American Fork High School auditorium. Tickets are now on sale or can be purchased at the door the night of the performance. per-formance. Among the performers who will appear at the concert will be Buddy Merrill, native Utahn from Wayne County, who is a talented guitarist with several albums on the market.. Myron Floreni, assistant director of the famous Lawrence Welk Band and performer on the ac-cordian, ac-cordian, will also appear on the program. If Buddy Merrill had his way he'd be a "background" man in Lawrence Welk's organization, organiza-tion, keeping busy composing special arrangements for guitars gui-tars and strings and for the entire Welk Band. The fact is, however, his demeanor and obvious shyness found immediate favor, when at 10, he was acclaimed winner of Lawrence's "All American Music Competition" on a national nat-ional sales in 1955, and in addition ad-dition to winning a $500 prize award, as well as a large trophy tro-phy and tape recorder, he was signed by Welk, who was astonished with the youngster's musical versatility. Born in Cainville, Utah, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Behunin, the family moved to California when Buddy was a year old. Christened Merrill, he decided to use his given name professionally as his last name, preceded by the nickname nick-name "Buddy" given him by family and friends. When he was four, he began picking out notes and chords on his dads Spanish guitar. At 11, his parents presented him with a steel guitar and with it, he became a popular favorite playing in his dad's orchestra. Despite his present prowess and popularity, the modest Buddy continues studying music with ardent enthusiasum and religiously practicies a minimum of two hours daily. |