Tex Atchison

Shelby David "Tex" Atchison (born February 5, 1912 near Rosine , Kentucky , † August 4, 1982 in Granite City , Illinois ) was an American country musician . Atchison was most famous as a fiddler of the Prairie Ramblers .

Life

Childhood and youth

Atchison was born on a farm near Raisin. Bill Monroe had seen the light of day five months earlier . Both went to school together and also pursued careers as musicians; However, Monroe led his way to bluegrass , while Atchison was to become active in western swing . Atchison started playing fiddle when he was eight. The only unusual thing was that he was left-handed and learned to play a right-handed fiddle. His father was already known in the area as Fiddler and when the family moved to McHenry six years later, Atchison joined Forrest "Boots" Faughts Entertainers, which included black guitarist Arnold Shultz .

Career

During the day Atchison worked in the mines, in the evening he played with the entertainers in the city's dance halls. He quickly realized that music was far more profitable than working in the mines, so he joined the Kentucky Ramblers as a fiddler. The Ramblers soon moved to Des Moines , Iowa , where they were heard regularly on WHO. There Atchison got his nickname "Tex": "A man named Oklahoma Jack gave me the name, he said Shelby wasn't commercial enough," Atchison later recalled.

The Kentucky Ramblers, now known as Prairie Ramblers , rose to prominence in the mid-1930s as members of the National Barn Dance , as Patsy Montana's background band, and as actors to stars in young country music. The change from traditional old-time music to western swing marked the breakthrough.

In 1942 Atchison moved to Hollywood , where he quickly found work as a musician and actor. He became a member of Foy Willings Riders of the Purple Sage and took the place of the Sons of the Pioneers in the Columbia Pictures westerns with Johnny Bond and Jimmy Wakely . In the next three years more than 30 such "B-Westerns" were produced.

Atchison also remained in demand as a musician. As a fiddler, he was used by record labels on a variety of sessions between the mid-1940s and mid-1950s. He also played with Merle Travis , Ole Rasmussen , Johnny Horton and more. At that time he worked in the film industry primarily as a stuntman.

Between 1947 and 1961 Atchison also played a few singles under his own name. Although he was under contract for successful labels such as King Records and Imperial Records , he was unable to build on his success as a background musician with his solo recordings. Although he had already made a name for himself in western swing, he tried his hand at rockabilly with Sage Records in 1961 with the song Tennessee Hound Dog . Eugene Chadbourne gave Atchison a certain feeling for this style: “The feel he had for the idiom is surprising considering that he had already established his status as one of the great fiddlers from the pre-war era of country music. His single of 'Tennessee Hound Dog' and 'Mail Man' done for the indie Sage label in the '50s is prime rockabilly juice, featuring sweaty breaks from Roy Lanham on lead guitar. "

Due to an injury, Atchison quit his job as a stuntman and moved back to Ohio County , Kentucky, where he lived the rest of his life. In 1978 he was still teaching himself to play the banjo .

Tex Atchison died in 1982 with his daughter in Granite City, Illinois. He was buried in Ohio County.

Discography

year	title	#	Remarks
King Records
1947	Somebody's Rose / You Don't Do Right	573
Federal Records
1951	Natural Born Gamblin 'Man / One Broken Heart	10005
1951	I'm Beginning to Believe In You / You Gotta Quit That Chasin 'Around	10020
DeLuxe Records
1952 (?)	Here Comes My Heart Again / If You'd Believe In Me	5057
Imperial Records
1953	Give Me Back Your Heart / Blame Your Eyes	8182
1953	How Could You / It's Always Darkest Before Dawn	8215
Sage Records
1961	Tennessee Hound Dog / Mailman	45-343

Web links

• Official website
• Tex Atchison at Allmusic (English)