Dixie Harper on Dude

Dixie Harper and Her All Golden Drifters - I Love You More Every Minute (Dude JB-1502), ca. 1947/1948
(courtesy of Sean Hickey)

Dixie Harper was one of the few country & western women singers that emerged out of Arkansas. There were several national known singers that were born in the Natural State and raised with its culture and, therefore, music. She left the state at an early stage in her life, became known in Fort Worth, Texas, with her band during the 1940s but remained on a regional level and finally laid her career to rest.

She was born Nora Mae Harper on March 27, 1918, to William and Julia Harper. According to official census records, the Harper family was living in the Pine Bluff, Arkansas, area in 1920 so it is likely that Harper was born there. However, information on her early life is scarce. She had at least five siblings and the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, at some point between 1920 and 1930. Harper, who was known to friends as "Dixie", married a man called Terry Day in the 1930s but had divorced from him again by 1940. The couple had one son, born in 1936.

According to her daughter, Harper decided to try her luck in music after the divorce but to all accounts, she first appeared as a singer not until early 1947, when she began as a solo act. Then, she founded her own band, the Bluebonnet Boys, in summer that same year. The line-up included Harper on vocals and guitar, Durwood Tonn on fiddle, David Baker on guitar, Slim Hensley on electric guitar, and J.L. Hodges on bass. The line-up changed over the years but Durwood "Durrie" Tonn seems to have been one of the few mainstays in the band.

On August 3, 1947, the band took part on a statewide contest for amateur string bands in Dallas, Texas, and although the Bluebonnet Boys were only performing together for about two and a half months by that point, they took first place and became the "Texas State Champion Fiddle Band". Although the outfit would perform under different names in the following years, their nickname was being used frequently (in different variations, though). 

For a brief time during late 1947, the band was performing as "Dixie Harper and her All Gold Drifters", sponsored by All Gold Flour. It must have been during this time that Harper and her band were recorded for the first time. On the Dude label, which was operated by Jim Beck out of his recording studio in Dallas, they recorded "Bubble Gum" b/w "I Love You More Every Minute" (Dude #JB-1502), credited to "Dixie Harper and Her All Gold Drifters". Judging by the name, the disc must have been released in late 1947 or early 1948.

Throughout the late 1940s, Harper and her group was performing regularly in different venues, including the Hilarity Club, Stella's Dine and Dance, the famed Dessau Hall in Austin, Texas, the Cowtown Rodeo events in Fort Worth, plus radio broadcasts in the city on such stations as KCNC. Harper was also part of the first ever television broadcast out of Fort Worth, a country & western show organized by Leslie A. Hoffman, an electronic manufacturer from California who was a pioneer in country music TV shows.

Harper and the band continued to record for Jim Beck as "Dixie Harper and her Blue Bonnet Brats", released on both Jimmy Mercer's Royalty label and on the Personality label. Their recordings consisted of traditional fiddle tunes such as "Soldier's Joy" or "Boil Dem Cabbage Down", as well as of covers of the country hit of the day, including their version of Hank Williams' hit "Lovesick Blues". They also cut some radio transcriptions in 1949 for KCNC.

By September 1950, Harper and the Bluebonnet Brats had changed from KCNC to KCUL, also based in Fort Worth. Harper also appeared regularly on local WBAM-TV, including the TV play "The Crossroads Store". During the next years, it seems she took a step back and became less active in music. It seems she stopped her radio appearances in 1951 and two years later, married Donald Louis Sparks, with whom she had two children. However, they divorced in 1959.

Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1967

While her activities as a performer had ceased during the 1950s, Harper decided in the early 1960s to resume her musical career and founded an all girl band that performed for about two years in the Fort Worth area. She also appeared with Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys when they performed in the city. However, in the midst of the decade, she decided to quit altogether and became a private duty nurse, working in this field until 1995. She kept singing as a sideline, appearing with different groups in her spare time.

In 1999, her health began to decline and since 2002, she spent her last years in nursing homes in Texas and Mississippi. Dixie Harper passed away on March 7, 2007, at the age of 88 years. She is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth.

Discography

Dude JB-1502: Dixie Harper and her All Golden Drifters - Bubble Gum / I Love You More Every Minute (1947/1948)
Personality P-28/31: Dixie Harper and her Blue Bonnet Brats - Devil's Dream / Soldier's Joy
Personality P-29/30: Dixie Harper and her Blue Bonnet Brats - Boil Dem Cabbage Down / Tennessee Wagoner
Royalty P38/39: Dixie Harper and her Bluebonnet Brats - Lovesick Blues / Wabash Cannonball (ca. 1949) 

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Find a Grave entry

• 45worlds entry

Gaylon Christie on Capri

Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats featuring Roy Robinson - Wasted Days and Wasted Nights (Capri 504), 1964
Gaylon Christie was a band leader, musician, radio disc jockey, and business man, known for his contributions to Texas small market radio. Like many of his rock'n'roll contemporaries, Christie's first love was country music. He switched to rock'n'roll in 1958, leading a popular band called "The Downbeats" for several years, then returned to country music and began working as a DJ on Texas radio station.

Gaylon Wayne Christie was born on August 22, 1936, in Holland, Texas, in the heart of the Lone Star State, just south of Temple. He was born to Floyd Portman and Audrey Christie and had one older sister, Nelta Dean, and a younger sister, Beavelly. Holland was a farming community, so Christie's musical background was mainly imprinted by country music.

While attending high school in Holland, Christie became a member of Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys in late 1953 when he was just 17 years old. The group was the main act of a local TV show, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance, and Christie joined as a steel guitarist. The next year, he went to Temple Junior College and began working for KTEM, the city's local radio station.

With Chesser and the Texas Village Boys, Christie made his first recordings as part of the band. However, by 1956, he had left and two years later, founded his own group, the Downbeats. By then, Christie had changed his musical style to more popular rock'n'roll and had switched to electric guitar. The band played on weekends and backed many stars that came through town while being on tour, including Sonny James and a young Willie Nelson.

Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats, late 1950s

The Downbeats featured different vocalists during their career, including Dale McBride, Big Jim Lawrence, and Roy Robinson. The band made its recording debut in early 1958, recording for the small Taylor, Texas, based Kobb label, which had just come into existence. Their first release is hard to come by. "Junior Jazz" b/w "If You See My Julie", of which the latter was reissued on two compilations decades after its recording, were released on Kobb #1500.

The group recorded a second release for Kobb, the instrumental "Wound Up" paired with "Because I Love You So" with vocals by Dale McBride. This disc appeared in early March 1958, shortly after their debut. Christie and the Downbeats became a popular act regionally and continued to release recordings on local Texas labels. Still in 1958, they recorded a great version of "Hootchi Cootchi Man" for Jimmy Heap's Fame label. Heap was another Texas band leader, being the front man of the Melody Boys, with whom Downbeats vocalist Dale McBride would later work. Another record came in late 1962 for the Bid label and in 1964, the Downbeats recorded for Capri what would be their final release. Capri Records, based in Conroe, Texas, was operated by Huey Meaux and Foy Lee and is best remembered for the recordings Gene Summers made for the label.

By then, the sound of the band had changed from rock'n'roll to a more pop orienteed sound. "Tell Me What's On Your Mind" was written by the band's vocalist Roy Robinson, while "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" was a song actually written and recorded by Freddie Fender in 1959 for Duncan Records. Fender of course would re-record it in the 1970s to score a major hit with it. It is probable that the song was given to the Downbeats by producer Huey Meaux.

After the Downbeats disbanded, Christie returned to country music and concentrated on his radio work. In the early 1960s, he worked with KTON in Belton, Texas, and was, among others, responsible for changing the format of the station to full-time country music programming, which was unusual at that time. He also started booking big acts like Roger Miller, Marty Robbins, and Ferlin Husky in the area. He also helped getting the careers of a new generation of country singers started, including George Strait, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, and more. While working for KTON, Christie decided, after being a DJ for several years by then, to change roles and went into sales. When the ownership of KTON changed, he became general manager of the station in 1966.

In 1975, Christie left KTON and then worked for KXOL in Fort Worth. In 1977, he and a business partner started the M&M Corporation and launched their own radio station KOOV in Copperas Cove, Texas. Christie was not only owner of the station but also served as general manager and DJ. 

Christie sold KOOV in 2001 and retired from the active side of radio business. He was instrumental in forming the Country DJ Hall of Fame and was recognized with the induction into it eventually. Christie died January 15, 2014, at the age of 77 years in Temple. He is buried at Killeen City Cemetery in Killeen, Texas.

Discography

Kobb 1500: Gaylon Christie - If You See My Julie / Junior Jazz (1958)
Kobb 1501: Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats - Wound Up / Dale McBride - Because I Love You (1958)
Kobb 1501: Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats - Wound Up / Dale McBride featured with Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats - Because I Love You So (1958)
Fame Fa-503: Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats featuring Big Jim Lawrence - Hootchi Cootchi Man / Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats featuring Dale McBride - It Might Have Been (1958)
Bid 503: Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats with the Episodes - Someone Else, Not Me / Too Late (1962)
Capri 504: Gaylon Christie and the Downbeats featuring Roy Robinson - Wasted Days and Wasted Nights / Tell Me What's On Your Mind (1964)

Note: Both versions of Kobb #1501 have identical recordings. The difference is only present in the different artist credit.

See also
• Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys

Recommended reading
• Brittany Fholer: "KOOV alumni gather for 45th year reunion in Copperas Grove" (Copperas Grove Leader-Press), 2022
• Memories of Gaylon Christie by Gene Pemberton and Mildren Lancaster

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Discogs entry
• Find a Grave entry
• Country Aircheck interview with Gaylon Christie

Slim Willet - The Fat Cat of Abilene

The Fat Cat of Abilene

Slim Willet's Ranchero Sounds from Abilene

Among the many small labels that emerged during the 1950s out of West Texas, Slim Willet's Winston label was one of the more prolific ones. In contrast to such label owners as Hank Harral or Jesse Smith, Slim Willet knew how it felt to have a hit. His "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" became a #1 C&W hit for him and was covered by various artists of different genres.

Willet was based in West Texas - Abilene to be exact - and was a recording artist but first and foremost a radio disc jockey and later turned his attention to record production and other businesses. His Winston label produced more than 50 releases (of which more than 10 discs were by Willet himself), a cross section of Texan rural music, including rockabilly and rock'n'roll, oilfield folklore country, western swing, and gospel. 

Willet's recording career spanned about 16 years, at first for Star Talent Records, then for 4 Star and affiliated labels, and last but not least for his own Edmoral and Winston imprints. His career in radio lasted about the same time and he exclusively could be heard on Abilene based stations, disc jockeying full-time during the week and emceeing big stage shows on weekends.

Early years
Slim Willet was born Winston Lee Moore on December 1, 1919, in Erath County, Texas, to Luther Orem and Frances Valentine Moore. Erath County, located southwest of Fort Worth, was an agricultural embossed area that had experienced some growth prior to 1910 due to the crop growing of cotton and an industrial boost due to connecting the city of Dublin with the Texas Central Railroad. Young Winston Lee Moore and his siblings were raised in this rural environment.

At some point, the family moved to Clyde, Texas, near Abilene, where Moore attended Clyde High School. At the age of 16, he attended a CCC Camp in Arizona for some time, where he met a group of Mexican boys that used to sit together in the evening to sing and play music. Their up-tempo Mexican style of music influenced Moore a lot, which is audible in many of songs. After leaving high school, he worked in different low paid jobs. His occupations included being a cotton picker, truck driver, carpenter, among other jobs. He married Jimmie Crenshaw in 1938, a girl in his neighborhood whom he had met just two months prior to their marriage while hiding from a tornado in the cellar. The couple had two sons.

But in the early 1940s, Uncle Sam called and Moore served his country during World War II. After his dischargement in 1946, he moved to Abilene, where he enrolled at Hardin-Simmons University to study journalism. During his last year at the university, he took a job as the campus radio station's manager, which impressed him enough to pursue a career in radio later on. It was here that he adopted the stage name of "Slim Willet" - "Willet" taken from the comic strip "Ouf of This Way" and "Slim" as an ironic reference to his appearance.

First steps in radio
In 1949, after graduating, Moore began working at KRBC in Abilene. Around the same time, he started writing songs and soon, one of his compositions appeared on record (although his involvement is disputed). Willet claimed to have written the song "Pinball Millionaire" and it was recorded in 1950 by Hank Locklin for 4 Star. However, the record label credited Willet, Locklin, and a guy named Leisy as the writers. Gene O'Quinn's release on Capitol solely credited Locklin.

First recordings: Tool Pusher from Snyder
Nevertheless, Willet soon proved he was a talented writer. That same year, he signed a contract with Dallas based Star Talent Records, back then the city's uprising label that recorded also such artists as Hoyle Nix, Riley Crabtree, Hank Harral, and a plethora of other Texas country singers. Willet held his first session for the label in the spring of 1950 at KRBC, using Shorty Underwood's Brush Cutters as his backing band. The line-up included Willet on vocals and guitar, Shorty Underwood on fiddle, Earl Montgomery on rhythm guitar, and Underwood's wife Georgia on bass. The session produced "I'm Going Strong" and "Tool Pusher from Snyder", released on Star Talent #770 that same year. The latter became a moderate hit for Willet in Texas. This was not only due to the musical performance but also because the lyrics of the song did strike the right note with the listeners. The song was released while the oil boom was still in full bloom in Snyder, Texas, as well as other areas of the state and fitted perfectly to the everyday life of many people. The song was later renamed "Tool Pusher on a Rotary Rig" on re-pressings of the release.

Billboard December 8, 1951, C&W review

Three more singles appeared on Star Talent until late 1951, all of them recorded with the Brush Cutters in Abilene. In the meantime, Willet had set up a live stage show called the "Big State Jamboree" that originated every Saturday night from the Fair Park Auditorium in Abilene. The show, which featured Willet as emcee, included local talent and country music stars as well that passed through or were booked by Willet. The show drew large crowds in the early and mid-1950s and was sold-out almost every Saturday night. By 1955, rockabilly artists like Elvis Presley made appearances on the show, reflecting the current trends in country music.

Around August 1951, Willet - who cut his sessions independently without much restrictions from the labels - recorded a session that was later released on the west coast label 4 Star Records, which had made itself a name already in country music with names such as "T" Texas Tyler, Hank Locklin, Merl Lindsay, Terry Fell, Jenks "Tex" Carman, and many others. However, the material remained in the vaults until next year.

A New Star on the Horizon
Willet was spinning records six days a week on KRBC and around September 1951, he got a letter from a US soldier stationed in Korea, requesting a song for his girlfriend that lived near Abilene. One of the lines in the letter said that his "darling had stars in her eyes on moonlit nights" and "play her a tune, tell her to wait for me and to not let the stars get in her eyes". This was the inspiration to Willet's song "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", which he wrote about a week after reading the letter. One day in February 1952, on a Saturday night after the Big State Jamboree had ended, Willet and his band set up their recording equipment backstage at the Fair Park Auditorium in order to record "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes".

Billboard September 13, 1952

Willet sent the tape off to 4 Star in Pasadena, California, but the response was devastating. The label replied: "Here's a song that is off beat, off meter, off everything" and that "..it wouldn't sell". Bill McCall, president of 4 Star, advised Willet to release the song in the label's custom OP series (OP stood for "Other People"). This meant that Willet had to pay 4 Star for pressing a certain amount of copies, with the financial risk taken by the artist himself and without any distribution and promotion support from the label. Willet did and paired the song with "Hadacol Corners", another of Willet's oil songs. According to a Billboard article from December 20, 1952, the custom pressed release of "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" appeared in late April.

However, the disc showed signs of success in Texas and McCall decided to take over the release in the label's main series. When 4 Star released the single in June, "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" began to take off, initially in Houston and then in other areas, too, and first entered Billboard's C&W charts in October. It eventually reached the #1 spot in Billboard's "Most Played by Jockeys" listing in December. It was covered by Ray Price for Columbia and Skeets McDonald for Capitol that same year. Red Foley and Johnnie & Jack recorded the song also. Pop singer Perry Como recorded a version in late 1952 that reached the pop charts' #1 in both the US and the UK. In the years to come, it was covered by numerous artists of different genres. Willet instantly co-wrote with Tommy Hill an answer song, "I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes", which was recorded by Hill's sister Goldie Hill and became another chart hit.

"Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" became Willet's most successful song, the one he became most associated with, earned him a lifelong income and boosted his popularity not only in Texas but nationwide. Willet and band, now known as the "Hired Hands", performed regularly at popular stage and radio shows such as the Big D Jamboree on KRLD and the Saturday Night Shindig on WFAA both from Dallas (until 1954), and the Louisiana Hayride on KWKH from Shreveport, Louisiana (from 1951 until 1955). By 1953, he also hosted his own TV variety show on KRBC-TV on Wednesdays which included his band as well as local talents as guests, such as Larry Gatlin and his brothers or the Starlight Sisters.

Trying to Find Another Hit
Willet's follow-up on 4 Star, "Let Me Know" (#1625), was released in late December 1952 when "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was still riding high on the charts. Interestingly, this was again first an OP release and shortly afterwards it got his place in 4 Star's main series. This was possibly done in order to test the commercial potential of the songs. Billboard reported strong sales in the Southwest but Skeets McDonald was fast again and covered the tune for Capitol, stirring even better sales nationally. Finaly, "Let Me Know" failed to repeat the success of its precursor.

Willet continued to record for 4 Star until 1956. He often used Spanish and Mexican influences in his songs, a style that was once called "ranchero" sound by Billboard. Two songs from a 1953 session at KRBC were leased through 4 Star to Decca Records, which released "Starlight Waltz" b/w "Leave Me Alone Now" (#9-29066) around April 1954. However, none of his singles that followed "Don't Let the Starts Get in Your Eyes" could replicate that success, even if they might have sold well in West Texas. During 1954 and 1955, Willet cut further songs that were released on 4 Star's main series and the label's OP series.

Rakin' and Scrapin' the Rock'n'Roll Sound
Willet was not only talented on the creative and artistic side but he proofed also to be a clever businessman. He founded an advertising agency to promote shows and artists that he booked. One of the shows he organized was a big Grand Ole Opry unit coming to Abilene in February 1955, including Hank Snow, his son Jimmie Rodgers Snow and a young Elvis Presley.

While the Big State Jamboree was a success for Willet during the first years of the decade, the advent of TV snatched audiences away from live shows and the Jamboree ended its run in 1955. Apparently, there was a reincarnation of the show at some point in 1955 (with Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys) as reported by Billboard, maybe even televised, but this version of the Big State Jamboree only lasted for a very brief time.

Willet switched radio stations and worked for KNIT, also based in Abilene, in 1956. There, he recorded his last session for 4 Star in spring that year. His last recorded sides were "It Ain't Gonna Rain" b/w "The Politician" (4 Star #1698-45). By then, Willet's heyday as a singer had passed.

However, Willet sensed it might be profitable to add another piece of music business to his repertoire: to release records on his own label. In 1956, he created the Edmoral label, which had its first release around October that year. The debut was a single by Willet himself, recorded around October at KNIT with Dean Beard's band, a Texas based rock'n'roll combo that had gained some popularity by then. "I've Been a-Wonderin'" b/w "Don't Be Afraid of the Moonlight" (Edmoral #1010-45) were of different sound than his previous releases - but still very much country.

In February 1957, Willet released the next disc on Edmoral by Dean Beard, comprising "On My Mind Again" b/w "Rakin' and Scrapin'" (Edmoral #1011-45). The latter, which Beard and the band had previously laid down unsuccessfully at Sun Records in Memphis, became his signature tune. The disc sold well, especially around Fort Worth, Dallas, and San Angelo, which brought it to the attention of Jerry Wrexler, president of Atlantic Records. Wrexler flew to Abilene in order to sign a contract with Willet which leased the masters to Atlantic. The label re-released the disc in April that year and would issue two more discs by Beard in 1957 and 1958. 

Two more releases appeared on Edmoral, one by Earl Montgomery (of the Brush Cutters) already in 1956 and next to Dean Beard's disc a release by Gene Morris in 1957. The latter's release became another good seller for Willet and he soon worked out a deal with RCA-Victor's Vik subsidiary that took the masters in August 1957. After these four singles, Willet decided to change the name from Edmoral to Winston (a reference to his birthname) for reasons of his own.   

The Winston label continued Edmoral's numerical catalog, beginning with #1014 (omitting the #1013) by Fonda Wallace and a rock'n'roll outing called "Lou Lou Knows" b/w "Return My Love" in June 1957. Winston's recorded material was - similar to Hank Harral's Caprock label - a cross-section of Texas music. In 1957, Willet paired himself again with Dean Beard's band and recorded a top notch rock'n'roll record "Ain't Goin Home" under the pseudonym "Telli W. Mills - The Fat Cat" (his stage name spelled backwards plus another reference to his appearance). He would record further songs in similar style in the years to come.

Willet also recorded more rock'n'roll by artists like Dean Beard, Gene Morriso, the Zircons, and Darrell Rhodes (who immortalized himself with "Four O'Clock Baby", an original copy can fetch up more than $2.500 today). He also recorded straight country music, like members of the Brush Cutter, Jimmie Fletcher, or western swing by popular band leaders Jimmy Heap or Hoyle Nix. Even gospel material was cut by the Starlight Sisters, which had been performers on the Big State Jamboree before. 

Death of an Oilfield Boy
Willet kept his Willet label running throughout the rest of the 1950s and until his death in the mid-1960s. A highlight on the label was his 1959 released album "Texas Oil Patch Songs", a collection of selfwritten Texas oilfield folklore that is considered to be one of country music's first concept albums and the first exclusively devoted to the oil industry. Coincidence or not - that same year, Audio Lab (a division of King Records, which had access to the 4 Star catalog by then) released an album consisting of some of Willet's older 4 Star material.

In 1964, Willet switched to all-time country music station KCAD in Abilene, where he became general manager and also partially owned the station. While still being in full swing with his radio and business activities, Slim Willet died of a heart attack on July 1, 1966, at the age of 46 years. He is buried at Victor Cemetery in his now extinct hometown. Willet's contributions to West Texas music were honored by the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. Being an influential disc jokey during the 1950s, he was also inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1994.

Little-known were Willet's paintings. In 1955, Willet was too busy with recording, performing, radio work, and business affairs and his doctor advised him, in order to battle the stress, to take up painting. Willet often painted places and situations from his childhood. He created countless artworks until his death and some of them were displayed in 2017 during an exhibition entitled "Celebrating 65 Years of 'Stars' and the Art of Slim Willet" in the Clyde Public Library.

1953 cover of "Cowboy Songs" magazine

Sources
• Slim Willet on Bear Family
• 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm entries
• Entry at hillbilly-music.com
• Texas State Historical Association
• Entries for Slim Willet and Edmoral / Willet at Rockin' Country Style
• Old-Time Blues: Star Talent 770 - Slim Willet - 1950
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Ronald W. Erdrich: "Slim Willet on display at Clyde Public Library" (2017), Abilene Reporter-News
• Entry at Find a Grave
• Laurie E. Jasinski: "Handbook of Texas Music" (Texas A&M University Press), 2012

Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys

Bluebonnets and Country Music
The Story of Clyde Chesser and his Texas Village Boys

Promo picture of Clyde Chesser (center) and the Texas Village Boys
for KCEN-TV's Blue Bonnet Barn Dance, ca. 1953-1954
(from the archives of KCEN-TV)

I was always intrigued by the legacy of Clyde "Barefoot" Chesser and his Texas Village Boys since I first learned of them years ago. The Texas Village Boys were a Central Texas based western swing group, led by radio and TV personality Clyde "Barefoot" Chesser. Unfortunately, the group only made few recordings that likely did not represent its wide repertoire, consisting of western swing numbers, traditional country songs, rock'n'roll influences, gospel material and recitations as well as the occasional pop tune. The Texas Village Boys were the main act of a local TV show, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance, emceed by and centered around Chesser.

The information given in this text came from various sources as Chesser was never the subject of intense researches. Much info could be drawn from the back of Chesser's 1960s Austin Custom LP, written by Ray Poole and Don Boyle (of Austin Custom Records). Various other sources, such as Hillbilly Researcher Al Turner or specific literature, provided other useful hints and info that I was able to puzzle together and form the first in-depth examination of Chesser's career.

Early Years
Clyde Odell Chesser was born on August 19, 1929, in Tahoka, Texas, south of Lubbock, but grew up in the tiny community of Oglesby near Waco. Chesser's family was racked with the hard depression years of the early 1930s and such luxurious things as radios were not affordable. Chesser did not even know what a radio was until one of the family's neighbors obtained one. He was instantly fascinated with the new medium and absorbed as much literature about radio technology as he could. Young Chesser was determined to be on the air waves someday.

Barefooted first steps in radio
As a teenager while attending high school, Chesser founded a country group and in his senior year, his dream became true as he earned a spot on local KWTC in Waco. However, this undertaking only lasted for a few weeks but Chesser did not give up. He auditioned at KWTX in Hamilton, Texas, where the executives found him good enough for his own DJ show. This was approximately in the late 1940s. By 1950, Chesser had started the Central Texas Hillbilly Hayride, a live stage show from Hamilton that aired over KWTX. The show was emceed by Chesser and he soon managed to book some of the big names in country music for the Hayride.

It was during Chesser's early days in radio that he got the nickname "Barefoot". The reason why he earned that name is lost in time but Chesser started appearing barefooted on personal appearances, as it was demanded by his listeners. He later remarked: "I've always tried to give the folks what they want... so barefooted I went."

Blue Bonnets and Texas Villages
In the spring of 1951, Chesser was drafted and spent his military time in Germany. While serving his country, Chesser worked for the Armed Forces Network, broadcasting country music programs. He returned to the United States in 1953 and resumed work quite soon. It was at that time that Chesser assembled a group of musicians that became known as "The Texas Village Boys". Television had become popular while Chesser was away and again, he first saw the new medium in his neighborhood, being equally fascinated with it like he was with radio in his childhood. Chesser went to KCEN-TV in Temple, Texas, a station that had just made its first broadcast in November 1953, and the station's manager Harry Stone was instantly impressed not only by the Texas Village Boys but also by Chesser's colorful character. He realized the potential and thus, a TV show called "The Blue Bonnet Barn Dance" was created. The show centered around Chesser and the Texas Village Boys with additional local guests appearing on the show, including Wanda Gann, Mike Post, Larry Nolen, Jim DeCap, the Diamond Twins, and others.

The Blue Bonnet Barn Dance started in November and was an overnight success with the audiences. The show made the Texas Village Boys popular around the Temple and Waco areas, playing theaters, school auditoriums, and other venues. However, Chesser was actually not part of the performing troupe. He emceed the shows, managed the band and promoted their appearances. Eventually, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance expanded as several other stations carried the show, making it popular not only in Central Texas but also numerous other regions in the Southwest.

Billboard June 5, 1954

The early line-up of the Texas Village Boys included Arnold Williams (vocals/guitar), Gaylon Christie (steel guitar), Okie Davis (vocals/fiddle), Eddie Spradley (vocals/fiddle), and Alvin Berry (bass). In the mid 1950s, the band made a couple of recordings for small, local labels. Probably the first of them was for the local Waco based Telecraft label, comprising "Would I Be Satisfied" b/w "I'm Sorry for You Darling" (Telecraft #101/102). The former had been written by Chesser already in the late 1940s.

The Kerens Tribune
February 1, 1957

Beginning likely in late 1954, Chesser and the Texas Village Boys recorded for Central Records, a subsidiary of the Waco based gospel label Word Records. The group recorded several numbers for the company over a three-year stretch, including some religious material. The first release featured "Give the Devil a Little Rope" and "I Wish" (Central #102/103), which enjoyed some popularity in Central Texas, according to a July 1955 Cowboys Songs magazine issue.

In 1955, another disc followed on the Central label, which might be Chesser's most popular one. "Let Jesus In" b/w  "If Jesus Came to Your House" (Central #117) was obviously of sacred nature and the latter one became Chesser's most popular number. It was a recitation he had previously done on the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance and the crowd reaction after the show was so overwhelming that Chesser put it out on record. The disc enjoyed some success and led Chesser to copyright it in January 1956, although it was originally not written by him - he had spotted it in a newspaper. The notes on Chesser's 1960s album give us the following information: "He [Chesser] had in his possession a number called 'If Jesus Came To Your House,' which one of his viewers had clipped from an old magazine and sent to him. This magazine paper showed signs of being very old due to its discoloration. Clyde realized the powerful message and thought carried in the words of this composition but due to its length, he kept pushing it back week after week for nearly a year, feeling it was just too long for television. One afternoon while being rushed and needing a piece of material for a Saturday night show... Clyde very hurriedly rehearsed this number remarking: 'the sponsor will get mad because this thing is just too long.'" It was not and became a success, both on TV and on record. The success of Chesser's performance inspired stars like Red Sovine, Porter Wagoner, and Tex Ritter to cover it as well. Also more unknown artists like Danny Williams, Joe Martin, the Mighty Skylights, Lucky Cordell, and the Upchurch Family recorded "If Jesus Came to Your House" (though Chesser was mostly not credited).

It seems that Chesser and the Texas Village Boys focused on their sacred material when recording for Central as there appeared two more discs on the label with religious content. Their third Central release featured "A Mail Order from Heaven" (another Chesser recitation) and the country gospel classic "I'll Fly Away" (Central #F-118). Especially the latter is a nice country gospel with harmony singing, great lead guitar picking and hand clapping. By then, Arnold Williams had left the group and been replaced by guitarist Ken "Kenney" Frazier, who possibly can be heard on this record providing the Merle Travis styled licks. Frazier had performed previously with such artists as Charlie Adams, Johnny Gimble, and Larry Butler and would go on to perform with Buddy Knox and Jimmie Heap.

By 1956, a drastic change had occurred to the Texas Village Boys. While much of the original line-up had been on duty in 1955, a year later, none of them performed with the band anymore. Steel guitarist Gaylon Christie, who had been about 19 years when he joined the band, founded a rock'n'roll group called "The Downbeats" (which also included Ken Frazier) in 1958 and cut several rock'n'roll discs for Texas labels in the late 1950s and early 1960s (including Jimmie Heap's Fame label). He eventually returned to country music and enjoyed a long career in local radio and music. Chesser presented a brand-new edition of the Texas Village Boys: Leon Rausch (under the name Leon Ralph) on vocals and guitar, Curtis Williams on electric guitar, Frankie McWhorter (as "Frankie Quarter") on vocals and fiddle, Lou Rochelle on steel guitar, and Tex Compton on bass. Both Rausch and McWhorter would join Bob Wills' act in the 1960s. Williams had been replaced by Daniel Screwball by early 1957.

The new line-up recorded another single for Central on December 1, 1955, at Clifford Herring's Sound Studio in Fort Worth, this time a cover of Leon Payne's "Lost Highway", which had been immortalized by Hank Williams in 1949, and "Smudges on the River", again a narration by Chesser (Central #F-119, ca. 1956). In the Texas Village Boys' version, "Lost Highway" became a great piece of western swing and ranks among the group's best recordings. However, it would also be their last one - although the group recorded possibly to more songs at the same sessions, which seem to be lost, unfortunately.

Billboard September 5, 1960

Chesser moves on
Although Chesser and the Texas Village Boys were Temple and Waco based, they also held down a steady TV gig on KFJZ on Fort Worth, Texas, since the mid 1950s. Leon Rausch left the band and began working with Bob Wills in 1958. The years 1957 until 1960 are only sketchy documented but it seems that Chesser found his way into promotion during this time. Billboard reported on September 5, 1960, that Chesser had gone into partnership with entrepreneur Don Murphy, organizing and promoting shows at the Music Hall, Coliseum and City Auditorium in Houston, Texas. Their first show featured well-known artists Martha Carson and Porter Wagoner. It was also reported that Chesser was commercial manager of KWBA in Baytown, Texas (near Houston) at that time.

Chesser kept another incarnation of the Texas Village Boys alive in the late 1950s and early 1960s, featuring Don Ricketson on steel guitar. However, it seems that he disbanded the band at some point in the early 1960s and with the ending of the band, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance went off the air, too. During this time, Chesser was working as a promotion man in both Austin and Houston. By 1962, he was with station KOKE in Austin, where he also promoted big country shows featuring such stars as Little Jimmy Dickens and Roy Drusky but also emceed the "Go Texan" show in Houston a year later.

By then, Chesser had assembled a new band, which he named the "Kountry Boys". With this group, he recorded a whole LP of his recitations entitled "If Jesus Came to Your House" that was released on the Austin Custom label in 1962 or 1963.

Later years
I did not find any mention of Chesser after 1963 so it seems that he retired, at least from the public side of the business. However, an entry at the Country Music Hall of Fame website indicates that he resumed his performing career at a later point. An interview with Chesser was conducted in 1987 by John W. Rumble that is now part of the CMHoF collection.

Clyde Chesser passed away October 7, 1996, at the age of 67 years. He is buried at Bellwood Memorial Park in Temple. Chesser was more than just one of the many country music DJs in those years. His band, the Texas Village Boys, featured several musicians that were later noted and went on to perform with top names in the music industry. His work as a promoter gave not only young talent a chance but also brought big names into the Central Texas areas and entertained thousands of people.

Recommended reading
• Secondhandsongs: Cover versions of "If Jesus Came to Your House"
• Country Music Hall of Fame entry

Sources
• Hillbilly Researcher blog (back cover notes of Chesser's LP)
• Entry at Find a Grave
• Entries at 45cat and 45worlds
• Entry at hillbilly-music.com for Clyde Chesser and Blue Bonnet Barn Dance
• Steel Guitar Forum
• Wired for Sound: Leon Rausch & texas Village Boys on Central 119
• Leon Rausch entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Frankie McWhorter, John R. Erickson: "Cowboy Fiddler in Bob Wills' Band" (University of North Texas Press), 1997, page 67
• Jean A. Boyd: "The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing" (University of Texas Press), 2010, page 110
• Various Billboard news items

Hank Harral and Caprock Records

The Big Beat from Big Spring

Hank Harral's Caprock Records

Among the many small labels that were scattered across Texas in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Caprock Records became one of the more prominent in later years. Its rockabilly and rock'n'roll recordings brought the label to the rockabilly revival fans' attention and resulted in White Label Records' 1981 compilation "Tank Town Boogie", which brought the label to a wider audience for the first time.

Caprock was one of several small West Texas labels - among them Gaylo Records (owned by Ben Hall), Bo-Kay Records (owned by Jesse Smith), and the Edmoral and Winston labels (owned by Slim Willet) - that emerged during the mid to late 1950s and captured the music and sounds of an era when country music was still deep-rooted in the region but rock'n'roll had certainly left an impact on the rural audiences. Moreover, the music and its lyrics represented the everyday life of the people that more than often was influenced by the booming oil industry.

Early Life of Hank Harral
The person behind Caprock Records was Hank Harral, a musician, composer and radio DJ. When Harral founded Caprock Records, he was already in his mid-forties. He was born Shallie A. Harral on September 2, 1913, in the small town of Albion, Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, near the tri-state area where the state borders of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas meet. Although Harral would spent most of his life in the Texas-New Mexico border region, he was always proud to be a "son of Oklahoma", a feeling he would later incorporate in his songs (such as "Oklahoma Land"). As a child, Harral was heavily influenced and fascinated by radio and therefore, it was no surprise that he later started a career in radio. Following the death of his mother, Harral moved to Corsicana, Texas, to stay with his grandmother, though this only lasted for a short time. In 1926, Harral moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he lived with his uncle, and two years later, at the age of 15 years, Harral had taken up the guitar and first appeared on radio stations KGRS (billed as "The Happy Yodeler") and KDAG. Later, he became known as "Hank the Cowhand" due to the cowboy songs he performed on air. Although living in different places during his life, Harral made his home base in West Texas and East New Mexico henceforth.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Harral performed with several groups, however details are sketchy so it could be that the following information is messed up. At KGRS, Harral got his own radio show and founded his own band, the Air Sweet Boys. Afterwards, a stint in Clovis, New Mexico, followed, where he first took a job at KICA as an announcer in 1933 and also worked at KSIG both as an artist and as an announcer. In addition, he performed with a band called the Texas Wranglers during this time. In 1947, he moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he found work with KSEL and became the station's program director.

Hank Harral, ca. 1950s
from the back cover of White Label WLP8831

First recordings in Lubbock
Harral not only appeared on local radio, he also began a career as a recording artist in the late 1940s. He had written several songs previously and in 1947, he decided it was time to record some of his own material. With a band called the Plains Riders, which included Lee Searsy on vocals and rhythm guitar, Clyde Perkins on lead guitar, Duke Baker on fiddle, and Tollie Stephenson on bass, Harral recorded six songs, all of which remained unreleased at the time, however. Another session two or three years later produced another four unissued tapes. Harral had also recorded a mysterious, earlier session around 1948 with Merl Lindsay and the Oklahoma Nightriders but details or any tapes have been lost over the years.

Finally, Star Talent Records from Dallas took some of Harral's recordings from a 1950 session and released them on 78rpm format. Billboard reported in June 1950 that Harral had signed with the label and mentioned previous recordings for Modern Records (though this seems to be a mistake). Credited to "Hank Harral and his Palomino Cowhands", "Dream Band Boogie" b/w "Dilly Dally Boogie" made up the first release on Star Talent #760. Harral was clearly influenced by the boogie craze that was going through country music in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His boogie oriented material did not only reflect the trends in country music at that time, it also foreshadowed the rockabilly and rock'n'roll music that would evolve a couple of years later.

Two more records appeared by Harral on Star Talent, including the noteworthy Korean War themed "When They Raised the U N Flag in South Korea" and another boogie number, "Red Barn Boogie" (a song Harral had recorded earlier but stayed unreleased). Another single followed for the small Tanner label in 1951 or 1952, before Harral took a break from recording.

Billboard December 16, 1950

The first half of the 1950s saw Harral work with several radio stations. In early 1951, he switched from KSEL in Lubbock to KTFY in Brownsfield, Texas, but changed stations again in May that year, airing over KWFT, Wichita Falls, Texas. He did not work there long, though, and moved to KCLV, Clovis, New Mexico around fall 1952. By March 1956, he could be heard over a little station out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, called KGRT.

The Big Beat on Caprock
Harral transferred to Big Spring, Texas, in early 1957, where he worked for KHEM, the only full-time country music station in that area. He presented the "Hank Harral Show" and the "Howard County Hoedown", two disc jockey segments (although Harral preferred the term "announcer"). After a break of five to six years from recording, Harral decided to set up his own record label, Caprock Records, which came into existence in 1957. The name derived from the Llano estacado, a mesa in the eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas areas, that also reached as far as Big Spring. The mesa is sometimes also simply called "Caprock".

Billboard June 24, 1956

The label was likely intended to serve as a vehicle to release Harral's own material (of 16 released discs, four were by Harral and he likely participated in more of them as a musician). However, he soon also found other local talent to record and release on Caprock. It fitted quite well for Harral that Ben Hall operated his Hi Fidelity House studio out of Big Spring, which served as a recording facility for many of the Caprock releases. Many of the recordings made for Caprock included the studio's usual session musicians, including Weldon Myrick on lead or steel guitar, Red Stone on rhythm guitar, and Ben Hall's wife Dina on bass.

The debut release of his new label comprised two of his own recordings, "Fabulous Oklahoma" b/w  "(There's a) Picture In My Heart" (#100), issued in late 1957. Although the label released only 16 discs over a three-year stretch, the output reflected local Texas music trends and tastes: dance halls' western swing, oilfield honky-tonk, and even rockabilly and rock'n'roll trenched material. West Texas western swing band leader Hoyle Nix had a total of three releases on the label, Jimmy Simpson recorded one of his infamous odes to the Texas oilfields, and releases like Durwood Daly's "That's the Way It Goes" (a Johnny Cash styled rockabilly song) or Max Alexander's "Rock, Rock, Rock, Everybody" represented the ongoing rock'n'roll craze. Harral even took a nod in the same direction with his "Tank Town Boogie", though performance and material could have been done eight to ten years earlier. In fact, "Tank Town Boogie" became probably both Harral's and the label's most popular song, as the boogie drenched piece also appeals to rockabilly collectors and became a prime example for oilfield folklore.

Max Alexander's plain but effective "Rock, Rock, Rock Everybody" from late 1959 marked the last release on the label and Harral closed Caprock in 1960.

Later years
Harral continued to work with radio stations in New Mexico and Texas after shutting down Caprock. However, he never made further commercial recordings. He moved across the border to New Mexico at some point in his later life and, although being old enough to retire, was working at a station in Roswell by 1984, doing shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Radio had remained his passion all of his life. He also served as secretary in the local Roswell Musicians' Union. In 1981, Cees Klop of Collector Records in the Netherlands had released a 15 tracks LP called "Tank Town Boogie", compiling some of the highlights of Caprock's output. If Harral was aware of this reisssue is not known.

Hank Harral died December 28, 1985, at the age of 72 years. He and his wife Shauna are buried at Mission Garden of Memories Cemetery in Clovis, New Mexico. In 2010, the British Archive of Country Music released a CD containing Harral's complete solo recordings, including his unreleased material from the late 1940s.

See also:

• Hoyle Nix on Caprock

• Jimmy Haggett on Caprock

Recommended reading

• Hank Harral with the Plains Riders and his Palomino Cowhands (BACM CD)
• Joe W. Specht: Oil Patch Songs from the Permian Basin, Part 2" (Permian Basin Petroleum Association Magazine), 2014

Sources

• Entry at Texas State Historical Association

• Caprock Records entry at Rockin' Country Style

• Entries at 45cat, 45worlds 78rpm and 45worlds vinyl albums

• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• Entry at Find a Grave

• Sheena B. Stief, Kristen L. Figgins, Rebecca Day Babcock: "Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and from the West Texas Oilpatch" (University of Oklahoma Press), pages 161-163, 2021

• Joe Carr, Alan Munde: "Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas" (Texas Tech University Press), pages 74-76, 1997
• Phillip J. Tricker: "Hank Harral with the Plain Riders & his Palomino Cowhands" (British Archive of Country Music), liner notes, 2010

Hoyle Nix on Caprock

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - Coming Down from Denver (Caprock 45-105), 1958

Today's selection from our little Hoyle Nix series features Nix' third and last release on the Caprock label from fall 1958. Nix and the West Texas Cowboys are in good form here and present two solid western swing performance in their usual manner.

Caprock Records had been founded nearly a year earlier by DJ and country music singer Hank Harral. Nix and his band recorded a total of three discs for the label, all of which were recorded and released during 1958. They used Ben Hall's studio in Big Spring, Texas, for the sessions, which was a welcomed possibility for the band, as it was their home base and not far away from their regular gigs at Nix' Stampede Club in Big Spring.

"Coming Down from Denver" is a lively instrumental and was recorded, along with its flip side, the vocal number "My Mary", at Hall's studio at some point in 1958 with Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Little Red Hayes on fiddle, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, Loran Warren on banjo, Dale Burkett on piano, and John Minnick on bass. A drummer could have been present at the session, (possibly Kenny Lane), though this is not documented. The band differed to some extend from the line-up that would record for Bo-Kay Records the next year as Red Hayes, Dale Burkett, Loran Warren, and John Minnick had left and were replaced by other musicians.

A Nix original, "Coming Down from Denver" was later also recorded by Nix' mentor and friend Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys for Wills' "For the Last Time" sessions in 1973.

See also
• Hoyle Nix
• Hoyle Nix on Bo-Kay
• Hoyle Nix on Winston

Sources
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Entry at 45cat

Hoyle Nix on Winston

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - She's Really Gone (Winston 1059-45), 1961
This was Hoyle Nix' last record for some years - seven years, to be exact. Since 1949, Nix had been recording steadily for small Texas labels: Star Talent, Queen, Caprock, Bo-Kay, and at the beginning of the 1960s for Slim Willet's Winston label. Willet had established the label in 1957 as the follow-up to his shortly before defunct Edmoral imprint. The name was a reference to Willet's real first name: Winston.

Hoyle Nix had recorded a single for Winston that same year before this one came out, "My Love Song to You" b/w "Sugar in the Coffee" (Winston #1057-45). More or less instantly after this first disc hit the market, today's selection "She's Really Gone" b/w "Cornflower Waltz" was released. Both numbers were set to a slower pace and sounded definitely out of time - but it was clear that Nix wasn't looking to sound like what the teenagers back then wanted. While "Cornflowers Waltz" was the instrumental flip side, Nix and his brother Ben shared vocals on a slow but charming "She's Really Gone".

Billboard October 9, 1961

The songs were recorded in August 1961 at Ben Hall's studio in Big Spring, Texas (also Nix' home base). Hall, a country music singer and songwriter in his own right, is best remembered today for penning "Blue Days, Black Nights", which was recorded by Buddy Holly. The line-up for Nix' recordings that day included Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, "Little" Red Hayes on fiddle, Mancel Tierney on piano, Larry Nix on bass, and Kenny Lane on drums. Released the following October, Billboard rated the disc as "moderate sales potential" without any comment.

See also:

• Hoyle Nix

• Hoyle Nix on Bo-Kay

Sources

• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• Entry at 45cat

Hoyle Nix on Bo-Kay

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - Ida Red (Bo-Kay K-108), 1959

Following my in-depth story on Texas western swing band leader and longtime Bob Wills companion Hoyle Nix, we continue to explore Nix' career and recorded works. The first installment of this litttle series features his first Bo-Kay release from 1959, which finds Nix and the band in top form with their rendition of the old fiddle favorite "Ida Red". It had been recorded more than 20 years earlier by the master Bob Wills himself (although there existed several recordings prior to Wills' take) and therefore became a standard in western swing.

"Ida Red" originally was a traditional fiddle tune played by string bands all over the south. Even early version featured lyrics, which were exchangeable however and the verses were unrelated to each other. The origins of the song are still unknown to this day. The first recording was made by Fiddlin' Powers & Family on Victor #19343 from 1924 and other early versions included those by Dykes' Magic City Trio, Riley Puckett, and Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers. These versions featured traditional string band arrangements but when Bob Wills took the tune in 1938, he partially set lyrics from an 1878 song called "Sunday Night" by Frederick W. Root to it and re-arranged it as a western swing song. Released on Vocalion #05079 in 1938, it became a hit for Wills. He recorded a new version entitled "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" in 1950 for MGM, which reached #10 on Billboard's C&W charts. The following years, cover version popped up by several artists, primarily in the country and western swing fields and "Ida Red" became a favorite especially in the latter genre. It also served as an inspiration for Chuck Berry's first hit "Maybellene" (1955), one of the first rock'n'roll hits and an influence on rock'n'roll and rock music in its own right.

It is well-known that Hoyle Nix toured and performed frequently with Wills during the 1950s and 1960s, so "Ida Red" certainly was part of his repertoire for some years by the time he recorded it. It was his second disc for the local Texas Bo-Kay label, which had been founded by Jesse Smith in 1956 in Lamesa, Texas. Nix and his West Texas Cowboys recorded "Ida Red" as well as its flip side "La Goldrina Waltz" at some point in 1959 at radio KPEP's studio in San Angelo, Texas. Present that day were Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, Millard Kelso on piano, Louis Tierney on fiddle/saxophone, Henry Boatman on bass, and Larry Nix on drums. 

Released in 1959 on Bo-Kay #K-108, the disc was likely a good seller locally and regionally but never stood a chance for wider distribution. Today, original copies of Nix' Bo-Kay singles can be found frequently at yard sales and such around Lamesa, Odessa, Big Spring, and surrounding areas.

See also
• The Bo-Kay label

Sources
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Entry at 45cat
• 'Ida Red' entry at Wikipedia

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".

Recommended reading
• British Archive of Country Music
• Melissa Hagins: "Cowtown Swing" (Authentic Texas)
• William Michael Smith: "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean: Hoyle Nix and Big Spring's Stampede Club" (2009), Houston Press
• Ronald W. Erdrich: "75 and counting: the Nix beat goes on" (Abilene Reporter News)

Sources
• 45cat and 45worlds entries
• Find a Grave entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Handbook of Texas by the Texas Historial Association
• Second Hand Songs: History of "Big Ball's in Cowtown"
• I Love Texas Facebook post: The Stampede
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies