


"I'm Walking the Floor over You" sold a phenomenal 400,000 copies in its first year of release and has since sold millions. Superstardom found the singer the following year when he released "I'm Walking the Floor over You," a spirited piece he had written himself. Decca producer Dave Kapp was more sensitive to Tubb's special talents, and from the first Tubb's Decca singles sold well. Rodgers) and began to record again in 1940.

In the wake of the tonsillectomy, he secured a better contract with the new Decca label (also with the help of Mrs. He was forced to find a new singing style, and it was then that he began the drawling, almost narrative type of singing that would become his trademark. In 1939 he had his tonsils removed, and thereafter he could not yodel. Using Jimmie Rodgers's guitar, Tubb made several singles with RCA, including "The Passing of Jimmie Rodgers" and "The Last Thoughts of Jimmie Rodgers." These and several others failed to sell well-RCA did not promote Tubb aggressively-and soon the young artist was back on the road in Texas.Ī simple illness probably saved Tubb's career. Her efforts resulted in a session for RCA Records in 1936. Rodgers agreed to help Tubb secure a recording contract. Even though he did not sound a bit like her husband, despite his most earnest efforts, Mrs. Tubb spent an afternoon singing Rodgers's songs-he knew the words to every one-and listening raptly to Mrs. Rodgers, and she was so impressed with his sincerity she invited him to her home. On a hunch Tubb looked in the phone book for Rodgers's name and found a listing for his widow. Late in 1935 he found himself in San Antonio, the city where Rodgers had been living before his death.

He also managed to pull in a few pennies by singing on the radio and in the rowdy Texas nightclubs where the honky-tonk sound was born. Throughout the worst years of the Depression, Tubb worked at any job he could find, from farm laborer to soda jerk. Tubb said that when Rodgers died in 1933, "I thought my world had come to an end." He was wrong about that-his world had not ended, but was only beginning to unfold before him. He saved his dimes in order to buy each Rodgers release and painstakingly taught himself to play the guitar in his idol's style. Rodgers is widely considered the first country superstar, and his landmark "blue yodels" were imitated by a host of admirers. Tubb's mother was a deeply religious woman who could play the organ and piano she and Tubb's siblings encouraged his early interest in music and poetry-writing.Ĭountry music became Tubb's passion when he encountered the songs of Jimmie Rodgers in the early 1930s. Ernest once estimated that he spent only seventeen months in a formal educational setting, but he made up for the deficit in education by reading constantly in his later years. His father was an overseer to a 300-acre cotton farm, so all of the Tubb children spent more time in the fields working than in school. He is also remembered fondly for the helping hand he gave freely to other aspiring singers, among them Elvis Presley, Jack Greene, and Cal Smith.Įrnest Dale Tubb, the youngest of five children, was born near Crisp, Texas, in 1914. So many "firsts" are associated with Tubb that it is easy to miss a few: he was the first country artist to popularize electric guitar accompaniment, the first major purveyor of honky-tonk music, and the first country musician to headline a performance at Carnegie Hall. son of Calvin Robert (a cotton farm overseer) and Sarah Ellen (Baker) Tubb married Lois Elaine Cook, (divorced) married Olene Adams, J(divorced) children: (first marriage) Justin Wayne, Rodger Dale (deceased), Violet Elaine, (second marriage) Erlene Dale, Olene Gayle, Ernest Dale, Jr., Larry Dean, Karen Delene.įew country singers have inspired more affection than Ernest Tubb, the affable "Texas Troubadour." Tubb's career spanned some fifty years and effectively bridged the gap between the first true country recording artists, like Jimmie Rodgers, and the latest generation of stars, like Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. died September 6, 1984, in Nashville, Tenn.
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Full name Ernest Dale Tubb born February 9, 1914, in Crisp, Tex.
