'Plainspoken' Ernest Tubb Inspired Rockabillies and Bluesmen - March 2, 2025
'Plainspoken' Ernest Tubb Inspired Rockabillies and Bluesmen
Everyman Ernest Tubb Influenced Music Across Genres
Ernest Tubb, 1958Ernest Tubb, 1958, leading his Texas Troubadours band on the Grand Ole Opry show in Ryman Auditorium at Nashville. Inset of a program cover from Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives, with digital image from non-commercial use.
Draft book passage by Matt Chaney, USA
In 1954, when the Perkins Brother Band auditioned at Sun Records in Memphis, producer Sam Phillips pulled aside Carl Perkins, telling the guitarist “you’re the one that needs to do the singin’.”
“Your brother’s a good ol’ boy [Jay Perkins], but he sounds too much like Ernest Tubb.”
Carl Perkins understood, for only one singer could sound like Tubb—and get away with it.
Tubb was “one of pop’s first great terrible singers, with a voice so wooden that even he made fun of it,” remarked Mike Powell, modern music critic. “If anything, Tubb’s voice only helped foster the idea that he was authentic—a regular dude who made good on
his shortcomings and sold millions.”
“‘Plainspoken’ may be too generous a compliment of Tubb’s singing … he was forever in search of the right note,” noted David McGee, biographer of Carl Perkins.
“But he put his songs across with such warmth and obvious sincerity as to render technical facility irrelevant. Everything about him—his shopworn features; his lived-in, bedraggled voice; his humility; his unflinching sentimentality—marked him as one of honky-tonk’s
own: Everybody in the joint could relate to Ernest Tubb.”
Advertisement for Ernest Tubb and His Texas TroubadoursAdvertisement for Ernest Tubb & His Texas Troubadours at East Prairie, Mo., 1948, among stars from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Printed by the East Prairie Eagle newspaper.
Aspiring musicians adored Tubb, whose signature hit “Walking The Floor Over You” was released in 1941, featuring electric guitar by Ellis Fay “Smitty” Smith. Soon Tubb founded the Texas Troubadours band for joining the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where his electric guitarists included Jimmy Short, Tommy “Butterball” Paige, and Billy Byrd.
Tubb “had the keen idea to quicken the pace and firm up the beat, making the song as much about the accompaniment as the lead,” Powell wrote. “‘Walking’ was an early instance of country music’s fascination with the electric guitar, a [reputedly] rude instrument used in places of questonable morality.”
“Tubb’s band had distinctive guitar stylists who favored single-string runs and made an ascending four-note fill a hallmark of Tubb’s sound,” McGee observed. Jay Perkins “was completely possessed by Tubb’s songs” while brother Carl played a “syncopated” cover of “Walking” on electronic guitar.
Tubb’s young followers crossed racial lines and music genres, ranging from white country musicians and rockabillies to black blues players.
Blues great Earl HookerBlues great Earl Hooker, 1960s, Chicago native based in Bootheel Missouri. The slide guitarist was a fan of country music, with Ernest Tubb's band a favorite. Photo from the Sebastian Danchin Collection.
Tubb was a favorite of blues great Earl Hooker, slide guitarist born in Chicago who adopted Bootheel Missouri as home.
“The fact that black people can easily relate to hillbilly music is quite natural …,” stated Sebastian Danchin, biographer of Hooker, “considering that blues and country music are two sides of the same regional cultural coin.”
“The constant musical exchanges that took place between blacks and poor whites in the South illustrated the strong musical bonds that linked both communities, explaining that the very essence of black music can be traced in the playing of the white country artists Earl Hooker admired: Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Merle Travis, and above all Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.”
Hooker covered Tubb’s “Walking The Floor Over You” in a recording and on stage.
Merle Haggard, country music legend, joined Tubb for a duet on television in the 1970s.
Tubb smiled. "You brought your electric guitar," he told Haggard.
“You know …,” Haggard said, “every guitar player in the world wants to play ‘Walking The Floor’ one time with Ernest Tubb.”
“Bless your heart,” Tubb replied.
The Perkins Brothers BandThe Perkins Brothers Band, 1954, based at Jackson, Tenn. The Perkins Brothers' setlists were heavy with Ernest Tubb songs. Photograph from the Jim Bailey Collection, with digital image for non-commercial use.
