Buck Page

Buck Page (June 18, 1922 – August 21, 2006) was an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who founded the western band Riders of the Purple Sage, one of three unrelated bands by that name.

Life Buck Page was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1922. He began his performing career at age 11, as a string bass and rhythm guitar player for a western band called The Valley Ranch Boys. He then established his own group, the Riders of the Purple Sage – named for Zane Grey's novel by that title – in 1936. The Riders were a quartet that played on Pittsburgh's KDKA radio station. In 1939, the band moved to New York City, where they performed on radio station WOR and at the Village Barn nightclub.

Page served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. During the war, Californian singer Foy Willing organized an unrelated western band using the name Riders of the Purple Sage Foy Willing; however, Willing disbanded his Riders in 1952, and Page resumed using the Riders of the Purple Sage name in the early 1960s.