Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914– September 6, 1984),[1] nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941), marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music.[2]
In 1948, he was the first singer to record a hit version of Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson's "Blue Christmas", a song more commonly associated with Elvis Presley and his late-1950s version. Another well-known Tubb hit was "Waltz Across Texas" (1965) (written by his nephew Quanah Talmadge Tubb, known professionally as Billy Talmadge),[3] which became one of his most requested songs and is often used in dance halls throughout Texas during waltz lessons. Tubb recorded duets with the then up-and-coming Loretta Lynn in the early 1960s, including their hit "Sweet Thang". Tubb is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Biography
Early years
The youngest of five children, Tubb was born on a cotton farm near Crisp, in Ellis County, Texas, United States.[1] His father was a sharecropper and Tubb spent his youth working on farms throughout the state.[1] Tubb's earliest immigrant ancestor was Edward Tubb, who arrived in Virginia from Northamptonshire, England in 1701.[4]
He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and spent his spare time learning to sing, yodel, and play the guitar.[1] At age 19, he took a job as a singer on San Antonio radio station KONO-AM. The pay was low and Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration. He went on to be a clerk at a drug store.
In 1939, he moved to San Angelo, Texas and was hired to do a 15-minute afternoon live show on radio station KGKL-AM. He drove a beer delivery truck to support himself during this time, and during World War II he wrote and recorded a song titled "Swell San Angelo".[5]
Recording career
In 1936, Tubb contacted Jimmie Rodgers' widow (Rodgers died in 1933) to ask for an autographed photo.[1] A friendship developed and she was instrumental in getting Tubb a recording contract with RCA.[1] His first two records were unsuccessful.[1] A tonsillectomy in 1939 affected his singing style, so he turned to songwriting. In 1940, he switched to Decca Records to try singing again,[1] and his sixth Decca release with the single "Walking the Floor Over You" brought Tubb to stardom.[2] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc in 1965 by the Recording Industry Association of America.[6]
Tubb (third from left, back row) at Carnegie Hall in 1947
Tubb joined the Grand Ole Opry in February 1943 and put together his band, the Texas Troubadours.[7] Tubb's first band members were from Gadsden, Alabama. They were: Vernon "Toby" Reese, Chester Studdard, and Ray "Kemo" Head. He remained a regular on the radio show for four decades, and hosted his own Midnite Jamboree radio show each Saturday night after the Opry. Tubb headlined the first Grand Ole Opry show presented in Carnegie Hall in New York City in September 1947.[citation needed]
Tubb always surrounded himself with several of Nashville's best musicians. Jimmy Short, his first guitarist in the Troubadours, is credited with the Tubb sound of single-string guitar picking. From about 1943 to 1948, Short was featured in clean, clear riffs throughout Tubb's songs. Other well-known musicians to either travel with Tubb as band members or record on his records were steel guitarist Jerry Byrd and Tommy "Butterball" Paige, who replaced Short as Tubb's lead guitarist in 1947. Billy Byrd joined the Troubadours in 1949 and brought jazzy riffs to the instrumental interludes, especially the four-note riff at the end of his guitar solos that would become synonymous with Tubb's songs. A jazz musician, Byrd— no relation to Jerry— remained with Tubb until 1959.[8]
Another Tubb musician was actually his producer, Owen Bradley. Bradley played piano on many of Tubb's recordings from the 1950s, but Tubb wanted him to sound like Moon Mullican, the honky-tonk piano great of that era. The classically-trained Bradley tried, but could not quite match the sound, so Tubb said Bradley was "half as good" as Moon. When Tubb called out Bradley's name at the start of one of the piano interludes, the singer always referred to him as "Half-Moon".[9]
In 1949, Tubb helped the famed boogie-woogie Andrews Sisters crossover to the country charts when they teamed on Decca Records to record a cover of Eddy Arnold's "Don't Rob Another Man's Castle" and the Western swing-flavored "I'm Bitin' My Fingernails and Thinking of You".[1] Tubb was impressed by the enormous success of Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne Andrews, and he remembered that their 1947 recording of "The Blue Tail Fly (Jimmy Crack Corn)" with folk legend Burl Ives produced a top-10 Billboard hit,[10] and he was then eager to repeat that success. He brought the upbeat "Fingernails" tune to the session, hoping that the trio would like it, and they did. Not realizing how tall the Texas Troubadour was, the recording technicians at Decca had the sisters stand on a wooden box on one side of the one microphone they shared with Tubb so the audio would balance. The rhythm trio also was not used to Tubb's vocal style, as Maxene once remembered, "He sang different than anybody I've ever heard. He sang the melody of the song, but the timing was different. It wasn't like we were used to...you sing eight bars, and then you sing eight bars, and then you sing eight bars. Not with him. He just sang eight bars, ten bars, eleven bars, and then stopped, whatever it was. So, we'd just start to follow him, and then got paid on 750,000 records sold that never came above the Mason-Dixon Line!"[10]
Tubb was not known to possess the most adept voice: he always sang flat[11] and actually mocked his own singing. He told an interviewer that 95% of the men in bars would hear his music on the juke box and say to their girlfriends, "I can sing better than him," and Tubb added they would be right. In fact he noticeably missed some notes on some recordings. When Tubb was recording "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry" in 1949 and tried to hit a low note, Red Foley, his duet partner at the time was sitting in the booth when somebody said, "I bet you wish you could hit that low note." Foley replied, "I bet Ernest wishes he could hit that note." The two, who released seven albums together, maintained a friendly on-air "feud" over the years, and Tubb appeared on Foley's Ozark Jubilee on ABC-TV.
In 1957, he walked into the lobby of the National Life Building in Nashville in the early morning hours and fired a .357 magnum, intending to shoot music producer Jim Denny. Instead, Tubb mistakenly shot at WSM news director, Bill Williams, as he was walking in to work. Luckily, Tubb barely missed (twice) before realizing he had shot at the wrong man. He was arrested and charged with public drunkenness.[12]
In the 1960s, Tubb was well known for having one of the best bands in country music history. The band included lightning-fingered Leon Rhodes (1932–2017), who later appeared on TV's Hee Haw as the guitarist in the show's band. Buddy Emmons, another pedal-steel guitar virtuoso, began with Tubb in fall of 1957 and lasted through the early 1960s. Emmons went on to create a steel-guitar manufacturing company that bears his name. Buddy Charleton, one of the most accomplished pedal-steel guitarists known, joined Ernest in spring 1962 and continued to fall of 1973. Buddy Charleton and Leon Rhodes formed a nucleus for the Texas Troubadours that would be unsurpassed.
Beginning in the fall of 1965, he hosted a half-hour TV program, The Ernest Tubb Show, which aired in first-run syndication for three years.[13] That same year, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 1970, Tubb was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.[14][15]
Later years
The original Ernest Tubb Record Shop sign from the Nashville, Tennessee, store on Broadway from the Tennessee State Museum
Tubb inspired some of the most devoted fans of any country artist— and his fans followed him throughout his career, long after the chart hits dried up. He remained, as did most of his peers, a fixture at the Grand Ole Opry, where he continued to appear.[1] He continued to host his Midnite Jamboree radio program a few blocks away from the Opry at his record shop.
A notable release in 1979, The Legend and the Legacy, paired Tubb with a who's who of country singers on the Cachet Records label, to which Tubb was connected financially. This long out-of-print duets album was re-released in 1999 as a CD on the First Generations label, on the 20th anniversary of its release, and it quickly went out of print again.[2]
In 1980, he appeared as himself in Loretta Lynn's autobiographical film, Coal Miner's Daughter with Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl. His singing voice remained intact until late in life, when he fell ill with emphysema.[1] Even so, he continued to make over 200 personal appearances a year, carrying an oxygen tank on his bus.[1] After each performance, he would shake hands and sign autographs with every fan who wanted to stay. Health problems finally halted his performances in 1982;[16] he made his final appearance on the Grand Ole Opry on August 15 of that year.
Death
Tubb died on September 6, 1984, at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville from emphysema.[2] He is buried in Nashville's Hermitage Memorial Gardens.
Tubb was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and he ranked No. 21 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.
One of his sons, Justin, was a popular country singer and songwriter in the mid-1950s through the early 1960s; Justin's sons, Carey and Zachary Tubb, also became musicians. Tubb's nephew, Billy Lee Tubb, was his lead guitarist briefly (fall 1959 – April 1960). He also had solo careers under several pseudonyms (Ronny Wade, X. Lincoln) and played with John Anderson, writing several songs with him.[17] Tubb's great nephew, Lucky Tubb, has toured with Hank Williams III.
Cal Smith, who played guitar for the Texas Troubadours during the 1960s, went on to a successful country music career of his own in the 1970s, recording hits such as "Country Bumpkin".[citation needed]
Jack Greene, who played drums for the Texas Troubadours, went on to become a successful country music star following his departure from Tubb's band, recording the hits "There Goes My Everything" and "Statue of a Fool".[citation needed]
The Midnite Jamboree Tubb founded in 1947 continues to air, recorded each weekend from a stage at his record shop and airing after each episode of the Grand Ole Opry.
The song "Set 'Em Up Joe", recorded and made famous by Vern Gosdin, was a tribute to Tubb's music, particularly the song "Walking the Floor Over You". The Ernest Tubb Record Store, founded in 1947, is still in operation in Nashville and is now owned by Robert's Western World. On March 11, 2022, the store owners announced on their Facebook page that the business and its real estate had been sold, and the store would close at an unspecified time.[18]
Richard Edward Arnold was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Television's 2003 list of "The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music."
Clyde Julian "Red" Foley was an American musician who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II.
William Owen Bradley was an American musician, bandleader and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.
Jack Henry Greene was an American country musician. Nicknamed the "Jolly Greene Giant" due to his height and deep voice, Greene was a long time member of the Grand Ole Opry. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Greene is best known for his 1966 hit, "There Goes My Everything". The song dominated the country music charts for nearly two months in 1967 and earned Greene "Male Vocalist of the Year", "Single of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Song of the Year" honors from the Country Music Association. Greene had a total of five No. 1 country hits and three others that reached the top ten. Billboard magazine named Greene one of the Top 100 "Most Played Artists".
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Paul Cohen was an American country music producer. Cohen was a long-time Decca Records executive who played a key role in Nashville's emergence as the country music recording capital development of the Nashville Sound. As President of the Country Music Association (CMA), Cohen was on hand when the Country Music Hall of Fame opened in 1967.
Thomas Grady Martin was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly.
Charles Levi Walker was an American country musician. His biggest success was with the song, "Pick Me Up on Your Way Down".
Harold Ray Bradley was an American guitarist and entrepreneur, who played on many country, rock and pop recordings and produced numerous TV variety shows and movie soundtracks. Having started as a session musician in the 1940s, he became part of the Nashville A-Team. He is one of the most recorded guitarists in music history. Bradley worked closely with his older brother Owen, and in 1954 Owen and Harold established Bradley Film and Recording Studio, later commonly referred to as the Quonset Hut Studio, which was the first music industry-related business in what is now known as Music Row.
William Toliver Carlisle, better known as Bill Carlisle and Jumpin' Bill Carlisle, was an American country music singer, songwriter, comedian, and guitarist popular in the late 1940s and 1950s but who influenced the genre for more than 50 years. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Alsie "Rex" Griffin was an American country musician and songwriter.
Joe Rucker is an American country music musician.
The Midnite Jamboree is a radio program that has aired on WSM in Nashville, Tennessee since May 3, 1947. It was launched by country musician Ernest Tubb. The program was recorded from Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville, Tennessee each Saturday. Through a brokered programming arrangement with Ernest Tubb Record Shop, the Jamboree aired following the Grand Ole Opry; as the program's name implied, it aired at midnight Central Time.
"The Last Letter" is a song written by country music singer Rex Griffin. Griffin wrote the song in 1937, after he was left by his wife. The song tells through a suicidal letter the feelings of an older man who is left by his young wife. The song, released on Decca Records became a hit for Griffin.
Tex Owens was an American country music singer and songwriter, best remembered today for writing the Eddy Arnold hit Cattle Call. The youngest of thirteen children, he was born Doie Hensley Owens in Killeen, Texas into a large and musically talented family. His brother was a singer and songwriter and his sister became a well-known Grand Ole Opry performer as Texas Ruby.
William Lewis Byrd was an American country lead guitarist and studio musician who performed with Ernest Tubb, the Oak Ridge Quartet, Tex Ritter, George Hamilton IV, Jimmy Dickens and others. He helped to popularize the role of the electric lead guitarist in country music and, with fellow guitarist Hank Garland, was responsible for input into the design of the Gibson Byrdland guitar, named after parts of the names of both players.
Grant Turner was an American disc jockey known as the long time host of the Grand Ole Opry and on WSM AM radio in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1981, Turner was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the first announcer or disk jockey to achieve that honor.
Leon Rhodes was an American country music musician. A guitarist, he primarily played behind Ernest Tubb as part of the Texas Troubadours and later was a house band member for the television programs Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw. Rhodes also played as a session musician for various country singers such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, George Strait, and John Denver, among others.
Pugh, Ronnie (1998). "Ernest Tubb". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.547–8.
Pugh, Ronnie (1996). "First Year In Nashville". In Ernest Tubb – The Texas Troubadour. Durham, London: Duke University Press. pp.88.
Pugh, Ronnie (Nashville, Tennessee, January 1993). "Ernest Tubb – The Yellow Rose of Texas" (which includes Ernest Tubb – the Decca Discography, 1954 – 1960 by Ronnie Pugh). Booklet org. US Decca Recordings, MCA.
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