Log Cabin Stories: Hoyle Nix

Hoyle Nix & his West Texas Cowboys

King of West Texas Western Swing

Hoyle Nix, ca. 1950s
From the back cover of White Label LP 8831

When regarding the whole country music universe and its entire history, Hoyle Nix is a longer footnote in music history. Nix was not a national known star but like it was common back in those days, he was a regional celebrity. And he performed with famous and important western swing artists of his time, like the great Bob Wills. Nix played western swing in Wills' style, though a bit more crude in its approach.

William Hoyle Nix was born on March 22, 1918, in Azle, Tarrant County, Texas, to Jonah Lafayette Nix and his wife Myrtle. Both of Nix' parents hailed from Texas; his mother from Cross Plains (southwest of Abilene) and his father from Parker County near Fort Worth. The couple eventually moved to Azle, now a suburb of Fort Worth. A year after Nix' birth, the family relocated roughly 250 miles west to Big Spring, Howard County, back then a growing city with a population of about 4.000, located near Midland and Odessa.

Nix' father was a fiddler and his mother a guitarist, so they were a big, early influence on Nix, playing the old-time music of their generation at community gatherings. At age six, Nix took up the fiddle, too, and learned his first tune. In the early and mid 1930s, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys rose to fame, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, and along with such acts as Milton Brown's Musical Brownies, established a new sound that became known as "western swing". It was a combination of the old-time fiddle music (that had also influenced Nix as much as Wills) with strong jazz and blues arrangements. Wills became the main influence on Nix, who considered Wills as "the finest fiddler he ever heard."

In 1936, Nix married Rosy Maude Davidson, the first of his five marriages, and son Larry was born in 1940. He was followed by Jody in 1952, Hoylene in 1957, and Robin in 1959. Both Larry and Jody later joined their father's band.

Although music was on his mind right from the childhood onward, Nix did not found his own band until he and his brother Ben formed the West Texas Cowboys in 1946. The band was patterned after Bob Wills' Texas Playboys band with fiddle, guitar, steel guitar, bass, drums, and at times even horns. Nix and the band began playing locally and regionally around Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, Lubbock, Abilene, and San Angelo. They soon gained popularity in the region.

In 1949, it was time for Nix and the West Texas Cowboys to cut their first record. The opportunity came along in form of Talent Records, a smaller Dallas based label that also released discs by such Texas country music figures as Ben Hall, Sonny Burns, Johnny Hicks, Hank Harral, Slim Willet, and countless other artists. The first release featured "I'm All Alone" b/w "A Big Ball's in Cowtown" (Talent #709), which became also the most notable from this era. Nix had adopted an old minstrel negro song, variously known as "Big Ball's in Town" or "Roll on the Ground", that had been recorded earlier by artists of different genres (including old-time musicians), first in 1896 by Billy Golden. However, Nix was the first to register his jazzy western swing arrangement as his own work. The song was recorded by Bob Wills years later, giving credit to Nix, who became known as the composer - although he was only the arranger of the now popular western swing version.

Billboard August 27, 1949

The years 1949 and 1950 saw four more releases by Nix and his band, now under the newer imprint of Star Talent Records. In 1952, Nix met his idol Bob Wills for the first time in Colorado City, Texas, and both bands shared the stage that evening. Soon, the West Texas Cowboys and the Texas Playboys began touring together, sharing the stages of the dusty Texas dance halls for much of the 1950s.

Billboard July 22, 1950

In 1954, Nix and his brother Ben built their own dance hall outside of their adopted hometown of Big Spring on Snyder Highway. It opened on May 8 that year and drew a crowd of 1.1000 attendees the first night. Nix decided upon the name "The Stampede" for his dance hall and it featured the West Texas Cowboys but also other acts and became a popular spot that is still open to this day. Bob Wills performed there several times a year with Nix, both always serving as great entertainers to the audiences, as visitor Doug James remembered: "I was there the night Hoyle Nix and Bob Wills played with their fiddle bows tied together with thread for about 10 minutes before it broke. 'Orange Blossom Special' was the song."

Billboard November 26, 1955

In 1955, Nix went into partnership with another Texas country music artist, Wink Lewis. They set up their own record label, Queen Records, which was based in nearby Snyder. Both Nix and Lewis recorded for their imprint during 1955 and 1956, releasing a rockabilly-type song called "Real Rockin Daddy" to keep up with the flashing trend of rock'n'roll music during the mid 1950s. After Queen came to an early end in 1956, Nix recorded for Hank Harral's Caprock label out of Big Spring, waxing a new version of "Big Ball's in Cowtown", and "Summit Ridge Drive", now a minor favorite among collectors. He continued to record for Bo-Kay (1958-1959) and Slim Willet's Winston label (1961).

Also, Nix' relationship with Bob Wills continued. In the late 1950s, the West Texas Cowboys featured former Texas Playboys members Eldon Shamblin, Millard Kelso, and Louis Tierney, expanding the band to its largest size ever with nine members at the same time. When Bob Wills disbanded the Texas Playboys in the early 1960s, Wills hooked up with Nix' band altogether and kept on touring with them. Wills' appearances with Nix came to an end in 1969, when Wills suffered his first stroke.

Nix gave it a new try at recording in the late 1960s with the founding of another label, Stampede Records, on which he released a slew of singles during 1968. However, none of his records ever charted despite his popularity as a performer. This may be due to the fact that Nix always recorded for small labels without none - or at least minimal - distribution and promotion. In addition, western swing's popularity ceased by the early to mid 1950s on the national market.

Nix's friend Bob Wills suffered from bad health since the 1950s but in the late 1960s, it got worse. In 1973, he cut what would be his final session - Nix and his son Jody were invited to this historic event. After Wills' death in 1975, Nix continued to perform in his usual manner, playing such annual events as the Howard County Rodeo and the Odessa Rodeo as well as halls and spots all over Texas. He also became a mainstay on the Bob Wills day celebrations in Turkey, Texas, and performed with other big names during the years like Merle Haggard, Charlie Walker, Billie Jo Spears, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Duncan, Barbara Fairchild, and Marty Robbins. He made his last recordings in 1977 for the Oil Patch label, which released several singles and an album from these sessions.

Though not a national acclaimed name, Nix received several honors during his later career. He was inducted into the Nebraska Country Music Hall of Fame (1984), the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame (1985), the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame and the Western Swing Hall of Fame (both 1991).

Hoyle Nix passed away on August 21, 1985, at the age of 67 years after a short illness in Big Spring, where he is buried at Mount Olive Cemetery. After his death, son Jody took over the band and the Stampede and continues both to this day.

Nix' records are not particularly rare or worthy in original shape. He left behind a great body of recorded works, ranging from the late 1940s to the late 1970s. The British Archive of Country Music has compiled a CD in 2014 with selected cuts by Nix entitled "A Big Ball's in Cowtown".