Perhaps it’s not fair to single out a backing band in country music, since there are so many outstanding ones — The Texas Playboys, The Cherokee Cowboys, The Drifting Cowboys, The Golden West Cowboys, The Brazos Valley Boys, The Western Caravan, The Buckaroos, The Strangers, The String Dusters/Pleasant Valley Boys — and yet I am unable to stop myself from nominating Ernest Tubb’s 1960s incarnation of The Texas Troubadours as one of the all-time great backing bands in country music.
This live rendition of “Rhodes-Bud Boogie” knocks me out every time:
For extra fun, click here to enjoy Willie Nelson backed by The Texas Troubadours, with help from fiddler, Wade Ray, and a beehived chorus on “My Window Faces the South (Blues).”
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Texas Troubadours Discography
– LP Stereo Albums –
Songs of the Open Range [1957]
(Rhonda Fleming on horseback)
Ernest Tubb’s Fabulous Texas Troubadours [1963]
Ernest Tubb Presents the Texas Troubadours [1964]
Country Dance Time [1965]
The Terrific Texas Troubadours [1966]
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– 45 RPM Singles –
Decca 31699 “New Panhandle Rag”/“Rhodes-Bud Boogie” [1964]
Decca 31770 “Honky Tonks and You”/“Cains Corner” [1965]
Decca 31837 “Highway Man”/“Leon’s Guitar Boogie” [1965]
Decca 32065 “Walking the Floor Over You”/“E.T. Blues” [1966]
Decca 32121 “Gardenia Waltz”/“Honey Fingers” [1966]
Decca 32185 “Almost to Tulsa”/“Oklahoma Hills” [196?]
Decca 32587 “Jamming With C And C”/“Ridgetop Stomp” [1969]
Charlton & Chapman, presumably
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Texas Troubadours Personnel Over the Years
[tip of the hat to the source of this information whose link, sadly, eludes my grasp]
– Bill Drake (circa 1947)
– Billy Byrd (lead guitar, circa 1949-1959)
– Buddy Charleton (steel guitar, 1962-1967)
– Buddy Emmons (steel, 1960-1961)
– Cal Smith (rhythm guitar, 1961-1967
– Dickie Harris (circa 1956)
– Hal Smith (circa 1947)
– Jack Drake (bass guitar, circa 1945-1967)
– Jack Greene (drums, 1962-1965)
– Jimmie Short (guitar, circa 1943-1948)
– Johnny “Boy” Sapp (circa 1945)
– Leon Rhodes (lead guitar, 1960-1967)
– Leon Short (guitar, circa 1945)
– Ray “Kemo” Head (first steel player, circa 1945)
– Rusty Gabbard (rhythm guitar, circa 1956)
–Steve Chapman (lead guitar, mid-1960s)
– Tommy “Butterball” Paige (bass/guitar, circa 1947)
–Wayne Fleming (steel guitar, circa mid-1940s)
4 Responses
my second cousin is wayne fleming,he was a member of ernest tubbs band in the late forties.would like to fing out any information about his playing days
Lots of good information in this Sunday feature piece by Christina Nuckols from the February 9, 1997 edition of The Roanoke Times –
“Music In His Soul = Give Him a Dobro Or a Guitar, A Back-Yard Studio or The Grand Ole Opry, And Wayne Fleming Is Happy”
LINK: https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1997/rt9702/970209/02070009.htm
My dad had, and now I have this autograped photo of the Texas Troubadors from the 60’s. I can make out Noel Stanley, Billy Parker, Steve Chapman & Buddy Charleton. There is a Wayne someone on there and I can’t make out the last name; starts with Je…
Ernest Tubbs autograph is on the backside of the photo.
The Texas Troubadors deserve every bit of fame they have – and then some. There have been some absolutely smoking hot bands in the history of modern country going back to the 1940s, but the boys in E.T.’s band deserve a big tip of the hat.
They could play straight-ahead country, honky-tonk, old-time mountain music, instrumentals, novelty numbers, rock-and-roll, boogie woogie, R&B, you name it…. never heard ’em play classical, but that’s just probably because Mr. Tubb didn’t ask for it!
Not many standard guitar and steel guitar duos could hold a candle to Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant, but the guys in the Troubadors could: Leon Rhodes and Buddy Charleton were so hot they were on fire!
I am a sixty-something years old man now, and would have been too small – if I was born at all! – to have enjoyed their golden age. That’s a real shame, because I think it would have been something very special.