Al Duvall (b. Algernon Otmer Duvall, 31 June 1877 in Pahrump, WV, USA), began his musical career on the vaudeville stage, as end-man in Lew Dockstader's Minstrels. He fought in a bicycle squadron in Ypres, during World War I — where he received a crippling dose of the Hun's mustard. Upon return to the US, he made ends meet working at a sausage factory, in Harrington Delaware (1921 to 1989). In 1991, he took up the banjo, as physical therapy for his pleurisy.