Ernest was the youngest of five children of Calvin Tubb, the foreman of a 300-acre cotton farm, and his wife Sarah. In 1920 the family relocated to Benjamin, and then moved again, to Kemp, in 1925. The following year, his parents divorced and initially he stayed with his mother when she moved to her brother’s farm near Lively. His mother, a very religious woman who was one-quarter Cherokee, played the piano and organ and sang hymns around the farms and at the local church. Ernest’s education suffered and he later related that he only went to school when he could not find work. In 1928 he heard a recording of Jimmie Rodgers singing one of his blue yodels. He was immediately fascinated and quickly decided that he wanted to be a singer; he began to learn Rodgers’ songs and whenever he had the money, he bought his records.

In 1930 after his mother remarried, he travelled around, working on various tasks and living at different times with married siblings or his remarried father. Early in 1933, while working on the roads near Benjamin, he became friendly with a young guitarist called Merwyn “Buff” Buffington, who liked Tubb’s singing but suggested he should learn to play guitar. He bought his first guitar from a pawnshop in Abilene and Buffington taught him his first chords. In May 1933 Tubb was greatly distressed by the death of Rodgers, although the event served to strengthen his resolve to emulate his idol. He moved to San Antonio, where he lived with his brother Calvin Jnr. He also renewed his acquaintance with Buffington, who at the time was playing guitar with the Castleman Brothers (Joe and Jim) on Radio KONO. He persuaded Tubb to make some appearances as guest vocalist with them, which led to him being offered his own twice-weekly early morning show. On 26 May 1934 he married Lois Elaine Cook. Still very much the Rodgers imitator, he decided to contact Jimmie Rodgers’ widow; Carrie Rodgers was impressed with Tubb and not only gave him a picture, but also showed him many of her late husband’s possessions and agreed to listen to his radio show. She also offered to help him with his career, and in 1936 she loaned him one of Jimmie’s C.F. Martin guitars.

In October of that year, mainly due to her influence with her late husband’s label, Tubb made his first recordings for RCA Records (she later gave him the guitar, which, after using it for many years, Tubb eventually donated to the Country Music Hall Of Fame Museum). The first two of the six songs recorded were tribute songs written by Elsie McWilliams, Rodgers’ sister-in-law; the others were self-penned numbers. RCA released the first two but sales were poor. A further session in March 1937 saw another single released but again sales were poor. These two singles are so scarce that they represent the most collectable recordings of Tubb’s entire career (the other RCA tracks were not released until 1942, by which time Tubb was a known artist). He played countless small venues and appeared on various radio stations as he struggled to keep his family, which by now comprised Justin (b. 1935) and Violet Elaine (b. 1939). (His son Roger Dale (b. 1938) had died in a car crash when only seven weeks old.)

In spite of Carrie Rodgers’ help, it was not until April 1940 that Tubb recorded again, this time for Decca Records. By now his style and sound had changed, due to the fact that late in 1939 his tonsils had been removed, taking with them his ability to yodel. This effectively stopped him being a Rodgers clone and he began to develop his own identity (in later years, he recalled the event with his song “He Took 50 Dollars And My Yodel, When He Took My Tonsils Out”). Decca were impressed enough to record further sessions. He was sponsored by a flour company and began touring and appearing on KGKO Fort Worth as the Gold Chain Troubadour. Tubb continued to write songs and in April 1941, this time using a backing that included the electric guitar of KGKO’s staff guitarist Fay “Smitty Smith”, he recorded six more numbers. After some argument with Decca over which song to release first, Tubb’s choice of “Walking The Floor Over You” was accepted. In the first year it sold 400,000 copies and went on to become a million-selling record and Tubb’s greatest hit. In 1941 he sang it and three more songs in the Charles Starrett film Fighting Buckeroos, and in 1942 he appeared with Starrett again in Ridin’ West.

That same year, his popularity secured him a release from his Gold Chain contract and he moved to Nashville. By January 1943 the Grand Ole Opry had a new honky-tonk singer who dared to use an electric lead guitar on that sacred stage. When a union strike stopped recordings in 1942 and 1943, he toured extensively on various shows, including tours with Pee Wee King, but he was soon fronting his own band, the Texas Troubadours. In 1944 he appeared in the film Jamboree and the same year, making his first recordings with his own band, he gained his first US country chart number 1 and a pop chart number 16 with “Soldier’s Last Letter”. In February 1946 he was probably only the second modern country artist ever to record in Nashville, Decca having recorded Red Foley the previous year. In 1947, he opened the now world-famous Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville and started his Midnight Jamboree, initially on the Opry, but before long the show was being broadcast direct from the actual record shop itself. He also headlined the first ever country music show held in New York’s Carnegie Hall, telling the audience: “This place could sure hold a lot of hay”. He continued to tour and record and by the end of 1948 he had amassed 16 country Top 5s, including two more number 1s with “It”s Been So Long, Darling’ and “Rainbow At Midnight”, and four songs had made the pop charts. His popularity was increased even further in 1949, when he tallied 12 chart entries (11 Top 10 hits) including number 1 hits with “Slippin’ Around” and “Blue Christmas”, and duet hits with Red Foley (“Tennessee Border No. 2″) and the Andrews Sisters (“I’m Biting My Fingernails And Thinking Of You”). Bing Crosby even asked to record with him but the session never materialized (Bing did record “Walking The Floor Over You” and in 1960 it also became a UK pop hit for Pat Boone ).

In 1948 Tubb’s first marriage ended in divorce but in June 1949, he married Olene Adams Carter (this marriage lasted 26 years and produced five children). Tubb was always ready to offer a helping hand and in 1950 he helped fellow Rodgers admirer Hank Snow to appear on the Grand Ole Opry. He had befriended Hank Williams when he first broke into country music and in 1953, he sang “Beyond The Sunset’ at Williams” funeral. During the 50s he maintained a rigorous touring and recording schedule. By the end of the decade, although only achieving one number 1 with his duet with Red Foley of “Goodnight, Irene”, he totalled 34 hits, the majority being Top 10s. Major hits included “I Love You Because”, “Driftwood On The River” and “Missing In Action”. In 1953 he and Hank Snow, Danny Dill and Lew Childre were the first country acts to tour a live war zone when they played about 40 shows in Korea, many in the open air and within range of enemy guns. Tubb had been advised not to go – on his return his health suffered and for a time he was unable to perform. By the mid-50s, his eldest son Justin Tubb, then establishing himself as an artist and songwriter, became involved with the business organization.

The hits slowed in the 60s but Tubb’s popularity did not, and in spite of his health problems, he kept up a rigorous touring schedule and hosted his network television show. His hits at this time included “Thanks A Lot”, “Pass The Booze”, his nostalgic “Waltz Across Texas” and a duet with Loretta Lynn titled “Mr. & Mrs. Used To Be”. In 1965, in recognition of his important contribution to the music, he became the sixth member of the Country Music Hall Of Fame. The many songs that he had written and successfully recorded also led to him being one of the first writers elected to the Nashville Songwriters’ International Hall Of Fame when it was founded in 1970. During the 70s he played the Grand Ole Opry, hosted the Midnight Jamboree and in spite of the worsening effects of the emphysema that had first developed in 1965, he still kept up a touring schedule that would have taxed younger men.

He finally parted company with Decca and in 1979, to mark his 65th birthday, Pete Drake masterminded a tribute on First Generation Records called The Legend And The Legacy, on which various stars overdubbed vocal contributions on Tubb’s recordings (Tubb was not informed until the project was completed). The album became a bestseller and singles of a Tubb and Willie Nelson duet of “Waltz Across Texas” and a joint Merle Haggard, Chet Atkins , Charlie Daniels and Tubb version of “Walking The Floor Over You” both charted. It was initially released as a double album but ran foul of various claims of conflicting contractual details or unauthorized performances. It was subsequently withdrawn and copies supposedly destroyed. Record One of the original issue soon reappeared as a single album on Cachet, minus only a single track – the Nelson/Tubb duet. By 1982 his failing health forced him to retire. In the last year of touring, he had to rest on his bed in his customized touring bus and take oxygen between and during shows (ironically similar to the latter days of the career of his idol, Jimmie Rodgers, almost 50 years earlier). He made one of his last recordings in 1982, when he spoke a line on the Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jnr. song “Leave Them Boys Alone”.

Ernest Tubb died in September 1984 of emphysema and related complications in Nashville’s Baptist Hospital. He was buried on 10 September in Nashville’s Hermitage Memorial Gardens. Over the years the Texas Troubadours included some of country music’s finest musicians, such as Jimmie Short, Leon Rhodes, Billy Byrd, Jerry Byrd and Red Herron. Two others, Jack Greene and Cal Smith, went on to successful solo careers. Ernest Tubb registered in total 91 country chart hits, of which only 17 failed to reach the Top 20. His distinctive growling vocals, in a voice that deepened but softened as the years went by, usually began somewhat off-key, and by some unique means, he managed to use this flatness to emphasize and convey the songs, whether they were happy or sad. After starting out as a blatant imitator, no one could deny that he became a completely original and unique artist.

They have won more awards than any group in the history of country music, including three Grammy Awards, 36 Music City News Awards and the Country Music Association’s “Vocal Group Of The Year” an astounding 11 times!

In addition, the group has earned a total of 12 Gold and Platinum albums and sold an astronomical 15 million units.

Yet the men Kurt Vonnegut called “America’s Poets” still live in their hometown of 22,000 with their offices located in their old elementary school.

How in the world did four boys from Staunton, Virginia make it to the pinnacle of the music business? They even answer questions in harmony.

“I think it’s something beyond the harmony, the singing. Up on stage, out in public, we’re an extension of what we truly are,” according to Don.

“We don’t have a big act to put on, as far as show business and flash. I think the sincerity that goes along with our image has had as much to do with it as the harmony.”

Brother Harold says, “I think people like to see people do things together. It may go beyond even harmony. It might even go to the emotion and energy from seeing people do things together. We have a friend…he’s a product of World War II. He said, of that particular time, it’s the last time people did things close together. We were united during the war…he said people haven’t even danced close together since the war. I thought it was a great analogy.”

Phil said the harmony and togetherness excited him first. “I used to sing in the church, standing next to my momma. She sang alto and she was the first person who tried to explain harmony to me. I guess I got a little of her gift, and my dad’s.”

Jimmy said it’s nice four guys each have a part. “They may not necessarily be able to go out and knock the world off it’s feet separately, but together they can really create something that’s appealing to everybody.”

The Statlers may have invented modern-day nostalgia. How has it affected their success? “A lot,” Don says. “We felt so comfortable with it. After doing so much of that kind of music, we consciously backed off from it a little bit. Now we’re doing a little bit more of it. It was more than a fad. It became a style.”

The Statler style has changed very little through the years. While they admit to working at their sound, they still want it to be natural.

“I think it’s something that you just let happen. If you try too hard…Sometimes it doesn’t come off as good as if you just relax,)’ Jimmy said.

In unison they say travel is the toughest part of their careers.

Also, Phil said, “Just getting it ready for a recording is tough too. Sometimes, even when you get to the studio, you’re not quite ready.  You don’t feel like it’s there yet.

“Thanks to everybody’s hard work – including (Producer) Jerry KeMedy’s – it comes out alright, thank goodness.”

Jimmy said Statler songs feel like he had written them or lived them himself. “Even though I really didn’t live that (the experiences found in some of the songs), it became a part of my life when I started singing them. You can really feel what they have written about.”

“My biggest problem is that I don’t have as much talent as my brothers do, I mean, they’ve carried me longer than my mother did,” Harold says, always ready with a one-liner. “My brothers learn a song the first day. Then after they teach me my part, I’m ready the third or fourth day.”

“I think there’s a thin line between the spontaneity and being over-rehearsed. A lot of the time you can work on it too much,” Don said.  “Sometimes you get it too tight. Johnny Cash once told us not to sing too pretty, to keep an edge in your voice.

“I don’t think we would be who we are or would have done what we’ve done if we hadn’t lived here like we have. We write about memories, people and old friends. But those are not just memories to us. We still have those friends. We still see them every day. We
come every day to our old school.”

“And so we’re reminded of these memories, they’re still fresh in our minds, where they wouldn’t have been if we had moved away 30 years ago,” Don said.

“What most people ride around in the car and cut up about, we’ve been able to share with the world. That’s kind of neat,” Harold said.

They want to be remembered as pioneers and “That the four of us gave something to this business, we made a contribution,” Phil said.

“I’d like for people to remember our little contribution and that, while we were doing it, we may not have done it better than somebody else, but we were original. And we never stole anything,” Harold said.

Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Jimmy Fortune and Don Reid – the most awarded act in the history of country music.

Crowell’s introduction to playing music came before he was a teenager, when he played drums in his Kentucky-born father’s bar band in Houston. He dropped out of college in the early 70s to move to Nashville, where he was briefly signed as a songwriter at Jerry Reed’s publishing company, and in 1973 was appearing on local “writers’ night” with contemporaries such as Clark, John Hiatt and Richard Dobson. In 1974, a demo tape of his songs was heard by Brian Ahern, who was about to produce Pieces Of The Sky for Emmylou Harris, and that album eventually began with Crowell’s “Bluebird Wine”.

Harris’s 1975 album Elite Hotel included Crowell’s “Till I Gain Control Again”, and her 1979 release, Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town, featured his “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” and “Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight”. During this period, Crowell also worked as a permanent member of Harris’ Hot Band, playing rhythm guitar and singing harmony and duet vocals.

In 1978, he also recorded his own debut album for Warner Brothers Records, Ain’t Living Long Like This, using Ahern as producer and an all-star line-up of musicians including the entire Hot Band plus Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and Willie Nelson. Although it included two minor US country hit singles, the album was not a commercial success.

In 1979, Crowell married Rosanne Cash, and subsequently produced most of her albums. In 1980, he tried again on his own account with But What Will The Neighbors Think, which he co-produced with Craig Leon. It remained in the US album charts for 10 weeks, and included a US Top 40 single, “Ashes By Now”; in 1981, he released the self-produced Rodney Crowell, which just failed to reach the Top 100 of the US album chart. These albums were later the basis for The Rodney Crowell Collection, a 1989 compilation that was virtually a “Best Of” of his early career.

In 1984, he delivered Street Language to Warner Brothers, who rejected it, whereupon Crowell changed four tracks and leased it to Columbia Records. The album, released in 1986, included three US country chart singles, and established him as a country artist. Diamonds And Dirt, co-produced by Crowell and his erstwhile Hot Band colleague Tony Brown, was much more successful, spawning five US country number 1 singles, “It’s Such A Small World” (a duet with Rosanne Cash), “I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried” and “She’s Crazy For Leavin’”.

In 1989, Crowell and Brown co-produced Keys To The Highway, which was largely recorded with his fine band, the Dixie Pearls, whose personnel included Stewart Smith (lead guitar), Jim Hanson (bass), Vince Santoro (drums) and another erstwhile Hot Band colleague, Hank DeVito (pedal steel). Crowell’s songs have been covered by Bob Seger, Waylon Jennings, George Jones and others, while he has also produced albums for Sissy Spacek, Guy Clark and Bobby Bare.

His 1992 album, Life Is Messy, followed shortly after the revelation that his marriage to Rosanne Cash had broken down. Taken by most observers as a reply to Cash’s stunning Interiors, the album attempted – with some success – to marry melancholy themes to up-tempo songs. Subsequent albums such as Let The Picture Paint Itself and Jewel Of The South also chronicled his personal problems. As long as life is messy it appears Crowell will be able to write great songs, although his marriage to Claudia Church in September 1998 indicated he had found personal happiness once more.

The self-financed album The Houston Kid, released in 2001, was regarded as one of the finest albums of Crowell’s career.

Waylon Jennings is one of a handful of towering figures behind country music’s current phenomenal success. At a time when country’s audience easily embraces diversity and when platinum albums are getting to be more and more common, Waylon stands as a true forerunner, a pioneer who was among the first to pull north and south, rural and city, college kids and blue collar workers into a unified movement and who was the first, both as a solo artist and on the collaboration Wanted: The Outlaws, to go platinum as a country artist. 

Modern country music owes much of its broad-based appeal and rugged individualism to Waylon, a man whose career stretches from the mid-’5Os, when he was a protege of Buddy Holly, through four decades whose music he has helped shape. He has influenced instrumental and vocal styles, shaped attitudes and launched major trends, all by staying true to himself and his vision.

Along the way, he has won Grammys and CMA awards while connecting with his audience in a way that few have, becoming one of the industry’s true all-time legends in the process.

Born in 1937 in Littlefield, Texas, he grew up listening to folk songs and the music of seminal artists like Jimmie Rodgers, and later, to singers that ranged from Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Webb Pierce to B.B. King and Bobbie “Blue” Bland. He was a disc jockey at 14, and had already formed his own band at the age of 12, making guest appearances on local station KDAV’s “Sunday Party,” where he met Holly in 1955.

Holly produced Waylon’s first record and used him as a bass player–it was Waylon who gave up his seat to the big bopper on the plane that would crash, killing Holly and Ritchie Valens as well. By the early- to mid-’60s, Waylon was headlining a club called JD’s in Phoenix, putting out a sound that combined his “chicken-pickin’” Telecaster guitar style, his rough-edged, soulful vocal style and an eclectic repertoire that often borrowed from rock and rockabilly.

This combination was as popular as it was groundbreaking.

“We got long-haired people, lawyers, doctors, and all the cowboys,” he says. Word got around, and after a short stint at Herb Alpert’s A&M Records, he was signed to RCA by Chet Atkins. By 1968, he had hit the top five with “Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line” and “Walk On Out Of My Mind,” and a year later he would win a Grammy for a version of “MacArthur Park,” recorded with the Kimberleys, and record several songs for the soundtrack album of Ned Kelly, a feature film starring Mick Jagger.

Albums like 1973′s Lonesome, On’ry and Mean and 1974′s This Time, which he co-produced with Willie Nelson, caught the attention of critics outside of country circles and reasserted him as one of the genre’s truly innovative stylists. He also teamed up with Nelson for the first of the Fourth of July picnics in Texas that solidified the demographic mix that would turn into country’s modern audience.

In 1975, Waylon was named the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year and, in 1976, he helped found a movement that would change the face of country.

In that year, Waylon, Willie, Jessi Colter (who married Waylon in 1969) and Tompall Glaser teamed up for Wanted: The Outlaws that became the first platinum (one million units) album ever recorded in Nashville. It also helped Waylon and Willie sweep that year’s CMA Awards, winning Best Album, Best Single and Best Vocal Duo (for Good-Hearted Woman).

This period found Waylon hitting Billboard’s Number One singles spot with song after song. In 1978, he would win his second Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” with Willie Nelson.

His albums were great chart and sales successes as well, with eight consecutive LPs going gold (there have been 13 altogether).

Although he has known success for three decades and has long since been accorded legend status, Waylon is still both highly active and highly visible and continues to make his mark in several areas of show business.

Since the mid-’80′s, he has been part of another superstar foursome: The Highwaymen (Waylon and Willie, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson), who have turned their four-way collaboration into hit records and highly successful tours to packed out venues, most recently of Australia, Singapore, China and Thailand.

He has released a children’s album, Cowboys, Sisters, Rascals & Dirt, and has spoken to schoolchildren about the importance of staying in school. A 10th grade dropout, Waylon successfully completed studies for his GED in 1989, and has been a spokesperson for that program

In 1993, RCA Records assembled a 40-song retrospective boxed set called Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line: The RCA Years, celebrating Waylon’s 20 years on the label from 1965 to 1985. Admiring the respect and care which he was accorded in the collection, Waylon re-signed with RCA in the fall of 1994 to record Waymore’s Blues (Part II), with Don Was producing.

Waylon’s contributions to the country music industry he helped shape continue unabated. The man who has done so much to define the edge and the attitudes that are part of the current parameters of country continues, through his records and performances, to add to his status as one of the true giants of the business.

Awards

•Academy of Country Music Single of the Year 1985
•Grammy Best Country Performance by Duo/Group W/Vocals 1978
•CMA Album of the Year 1976
•CMA Single of the Year 1976
•CMA Vocal Duo of the Year 1976
•CMA Male Vocalist of the Year 1975
•Grammy Best Country Performance by Duo/Group W/Vocals 1969

Fan Club Information

1117 17th Ave. South
Nashville, TN 37212

Ferlin Husky had three separate careers. Out of the three, the best-known is his country-pop career, which brought him to the top of the charts in the late ’50s, but he was also known as a honky tonk singer called Terry Preston and a country comic named Simon Crum. Of course, Preston and Crum are just footnotes to Husky’s very popular career, even though Crum nearly became a household name as well. During the late ’50s and early ’60s, he had a string of Top 40 country hits, highlighted by two number one hits – “Gone” and “Wings of a Dove” – which each spent ten weeks at the top of the charts. Husky wasn’t able to sustain that momentum, but both of the songs became country classics.

Born and raised outside on a Missouri farm, Ferlin Husky became infatuated with music and began to play guitar as a child. During World War II, he enlisted in the Merchant Marines, where he occasionally entertained the troops on board his ship. Following the war, he became a DJ in Missouri, then in Bakersfield, CA.

While he was in California, Ferlin began using the name Terry Preston, because he believed his given name sounded too rural. He also began singing in honky tonks, using the Preston name. At one of his gigs, Tennessee Ernie Ford’s manager Cliffie Stone heard Husky and took him under his wing. Stone helped Husky secure a record contract at Capitol Records in 1953. As soon as he signed with Capitol, he reverted to using Ferlin Husky as his performing name.

Husky’s first records were generally ignored. It wasn’t until he sang on Jean Shepard’s “A Dear John Letter,” that he had a hit. “A Dear John Letter” became a number one hit, but Husky wasn’t able to follow it immediately with a solo hit, although the duo had a sequel, “Forgive Me John,” later that year. Ferlin didn’t have a solo hit until 1955, when “I Feel Better All Over (More Than Anywhere’s Else)” and its flipside, “Little Tom,” climbed into the country Top Ten. Around the same time, he developed his comic alter-ego, Simon Crum.  Husky signed Crum to a separate record contract with Capitol and began releasing records under that name.

Ferlin racked up a consistent string of hits during the late ’50s, reaching his peak in 1957, when “Gone” spent ten weeks at number one; the song crossed over into the pop charts, climbing to number four. That same year, he began an acting career, starting with a spot on the Kraft TV Theatre television program and the film Mr. Rock & Roll. In 1958, Simon Crum had a number two hit with “Country Music Is Here to Stay.” Though he had several hits in 1959, none of his songs broke the Top Ten. In 1960, he had his biggest hit, the gospel song “Wings of a Dove,” which was number one for a total of ten weeks and reaching number 12 on the pop charts.

Despite the massive success of “Wings of a Dove,” Husky wasn’t able to sustain a presence on the country charts during the ’60s. He remained a popular concert attraction, but he had no Top Ten hits between “Wings of a Dove” and “Once,” which hit number four in 1966. A year after “Once,” Ferlin had his final Top Ten hit with “Just for You.” In the late ’60s, Husky managed to incorporate the slicker, heavily-produced sounds of contemporary country-pop into his music, which resulted in his brief career revitalization.

Husky kept racking up minor hits until 1975. In 1977, he had heart surgery and briefly retired from performing. During the ’80s and ’90s, he performed regularly at the Grand Ole Opry, as well as Christy Lane’s Theater in Branson, MO.