They yodel in the USA !: Tex Owens
15 March 2009
For this week, let’s listen to Tex Owens, an American cowboy yodeler who isn’t very known but his song, Cattle Call was a big hit for Eddy Arnold and dozens of others after him. I’ll write a special post about this song but I first want to present Tex Owens himself. He was born as Doye Hensley Owens in Texas in 1892 and died in 1962… and for the rest of his biography, there is a very good one on All Music Guide, so I won’t rewrite it here. He worked a lot for the radio and played in movies. His daughters became singers too, the oldest one, Laura Lee worked with Bob Wills.
But why did he yodel ? I have no idea, the information about him is really scarce on the internet. He worked as a real cowboy and at that time, almost all the singing cowboys yodeled… And his yodel is beautiful ! But if you have more info, write me.
The songs come from the Bear Family cd, Cattle Call:
recorded August 28, 1934, Chicago, Illinois – Tex Owens: vocal and guitar:
Rocking alone in an old rocking chair, no yodel with a nice whistle !
previously unissued demo’s of unknown origin or date:
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