Everyone who loves bluegrass and traditional country music knows the song, The Auctioneer. It’s been a hit multiple times in both genres, most recently by The Kody Norris Show in the bluegrass realm. Their cut was awarded as Song of the Year at the 2026 SPBGMA National Convention in January.
In 2026, its songwriter and original recording artist, Leroy Van Dyke is celebrating 70 years of this iconic song which memorializes the call of an auctioneer. He wrote it while stationed in Korea, and The Auctioneer was his first single in 1956, kicking off a long career in music with more than 500 tracks recorded, dozens of them making the charts.
A native Missourian, Leroy wrote The Auctioneer about his cousin, Ray Sims, a member of the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame. Its lyrics tell of a boy who didn’t want to go to school, do his chores, or anything but practice the rapid-fire sequence of words and phrases used by auctioneers when selling their wares. Of course, eventually his family relents and sends him off to auction school to be trained, and he becomes the best in all the land.
Van Dyke says that he only changed one little detail in the song, using his cousin’s story almost exactly.
“The only artistic license I took with writing the song was changing my cousin’s home state from Missouri to Arkansas for scansion purposes. Nothing rhymed with Missouri.”
The song won him a record contract with Dot Records when he played it in a Chicago talent contest once he got home from the Army.
Here’s Van Dyke in 1962 performing the song on television.
With the 70th anniversary of the first recording, Leroy is celebrating his own 70th year in music. Now 96 years of age, he still performs on occasion.
Quite a momentous achievement for a song, one that remains popular and continues to be performed recorded today.
