Fans knew this popular duo as Pie Plant Pete and Bashful Harmonica Joe. They each had their own career prior to meeting up one year. Pie Plant Pete was really a fellow named Claude Moye, born in Shawneetown, Illinois. Bashful Harmonica Joe was born Joseph Troyan in Pleasant City, Ohio.
Pie Plant Pete took a liking to music at a very early age, learning not only the guitar, but also the harmonica and would wear a shoulder brace so he could play both at the same time. When he was just about 20 years old, he left the family farm to try his luck in Chicago. He auditioned for WLS on May 4, 1927 and he must have did well, for his musical career had started.
WLS was a popular station in those days and other stations would sometimes raid the station's roster for talent. After a couple of years, Pie Plant was offered a job at WTAM, a radio station in Cleveland, Ohio. The National Broadcasting Company put him on its nationwide network for fans coast to coast to hear and he began to receive fan mail by the thousands. Their M. M. Cole Song Folio from 1937 pointed out that Pie Plant Pete had received over 500,000 pieces of fan mail in the ten years he had been on the air up to that point.