Ernest Tubb

小简介
大乐队时代艺人排名第132位的是乡村歌手Ernest Tubb，自1944年至1950年工有上榜曲8首。塔勃出生于靠近德州Crisp的一个棉花庄园内（如今为德州Ellis的一座废都）。 他父亲是一名佃农，故此他年青时代一直在全国各地农场工作。 受了Jimmy Rodgers的影响，他业余学习演唱，yodel，弹奏吉他。 十九岁时，他在圣安东尼奥的一家广播电台任职歌手。 工酬很低，所以他还为工程进度管理署挖沟、为一家药房出纳。 1939年他移居德州圣安吉洛，被KGKL广播电台雇用，出演15分钟的下午现场秀，同时还驾驶啤酒送货卡车维持生计。第二次世界大战期间，他写作并录制了一首名为《Beautiful San Angelo》的歌曲。他和著名乡村歌手Dan Seals的父亲是好朋友。
　　1936年他联系Jimmie Rodgesr的未亡人（Rodgers 1933年逝世）索取签名照片，就此展开了友谊，她从中接线，令Tubb获得和RCA唱片公司的一纸录音合同。 他的头两张唱片并不成功，1939年切除了扁桃体，令他的演唱产生了变化，于是他改攻作曲。1940年，他转投Decca唱片公司再次试图演唱，Decca为他出的第六张唱片《Walking the Floor Over You》终于令他一曲成名。
　　Tubb1943年2月加入了the Grand Ole Opry，组成了自己的乐队‘The Texas Troubadours’。40年来他们一直是广播节目的常客，之后还主持了Midnight Jamboree节目。1947年Tubb在纽约卡内基音乐厅首演了Grand Ole Opry的节目引起轰动，1965年被列入乡村音乐名人堂，1970年被列入纳什维尔作曲家名人堂。
　　在Tubb周围，总围绕了一批纳什维尔最棒的音乐人。 他the Troubadours乐队的第一任吉他手Jimmy Short的单弦弹拨成为Tubb乐队的声线特点。大约自1943年到1948年，Short在所有Tubb的歌曲中，不断演出干净利落的即兴重复段。其他随团巡演或进行录音成员中的知名音乐人，还有出色的金属弦吉他手Jerry Byrd，1947年顶替Short吉他领奏的Tommy “Butterball” Paige，1949年，Tubb的那位超强吉他手Billy Byrd加入了the Troubadours阵营，他在器乐中穿插着爵士式的即兴重复段，特别在他独奏结束前的4个音符，几乎成了Tubb歌曲的特点。这位名副其实的爵士乐手，和Tubb一直合作到1949年。
　　值得一提的，还有Tubb的制作人Owen Bradley，他在录音棚的建树，值得在纳什维尔为之竖立雕像。自1950年代开始，他在许多Tubb的曲目中弹奏钢琴，不过Tubb想让他弹成那个时代伟大的小酒馆钢琴手Moon Mullican的风格，经过专业训练的Bradley尝试后，发现不能完全符合那种声音。惹得Tubb称Bradley只能算是半个‘Moon’。 所以在某些钢琴间奏Tubb嚷出Bradley的名字时，歌手总会调侃他为‘半-Moon的Bradley’。
　　在1960年代，Tubb以有史以来乡村音乐最佳乐队之一而负盛名。乐队成员‘闪电手指Leon Rhodes’后来成为电视节目‘Hee Haw’乐队中的吉他手。另一名金属弦吉他巨人Buddy Emmons，约在1958年开始和Tubb合作，一直到1960年代初。 Emmons后来以自己的姓名为品牌，创建了一家金属弦吉他制造公司。
　　Ernest Tubb从来未曾拥有过良好的声音。实际上在某些录音中，还糟糕的跑调。Tubb1949年录制《You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry》时，曾想表现一声低音。当时他的二重唱搭档Red Foley就坐在棚子里。有人问他说“你唱那声低音不会有问题吧？” Foley答道：“Ernest 才想不把那声低音唱出问题呢。”
　　其实Tubb也嘲弄自己的歌声。 在一次访谈中他说，在酒吧里，有百分之九十五的男子在听到点唱机里他唱歌时，会对女友说：“我都唱得比他好，”Tubb接着说，他们说得没错。
　　但Tubb仍是乡村艺人中粉丝最多的艺人之一，他的粉丝一生都追随他直至1970年代，虽说Tubb那时只能用破嗓门唱歌，乐队也是Troubadours最为低潮的时刻，但每次他演唱《Waltz Across Texas》或其他拿手曲目时，仍能引起全场轰动。
　　Tubb患肺气肿，逝于田纳西州纳什维尔浸信會醫院，葬于纳什维尔归隐纪念园。 现代粉丝可从1947年在纳什维尔开设的Ernest Tubb唱片店里了解到他的一切。田纳西的Pigeon Forge也有一家Ernest Tubb唱片店，这两处数十年来一直都是乡村音乐明星和粉丝聚会之处。
　　他的一个儿子，已故的Justin Tubb于1950年代也曾在乡村音乐界激起微波，1950年代后期，曾和一位后来成名的年轻歌曲作者Roger Miller同居一室。
　　2003年，Tubb在CMT40乡村巨匠中名列21位。
The incomparable Ernest Tubb (E.T. to all who knew him) became a legend as much for what he was personally as for the half-century career that stretched from his first radio date in 1932 to his death in 1984. Though other singers with better voices and more raw musical talent have come and gone, none has inspired greater love from fans over six decades. Along with such performers as Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and George Jones, Tubb is country music personified. He was among the first of the honky tonk singers and the first to achieve national recognition. His first recording was The Passing of Jimmie Rodgers, a tribute to his hero. His long association with Decca began with Blue Eyed Elaine in 1940. Three years later his self-penned Walkin the Floor Over You, a country classic, was a hit, leading to the Opry, movie roles, and stardom. In 1947 he opened his Nashville record store and began the Midnight Jamboree, which followed the Opry on WSM and advertised the shop while showcasing stars and those on the rise. By that time, he had become one of the most recognizable musical stars in the world, bringing country music to the widest audience it had ever seen. Over the years, Tubb toured widely with his Texas Troubadors, pressing the flesh with fans after shows that featured his many hits, including Slippin Around, Two Glasses Joe, Tomorrow Never Comes, Drivin Nails in My Coffin, Rainbow at Midnight, Lets Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello, and Driftwood on the River. In 1975, after 35 years with Decca/MCA, he was let go, the allegiance of company executives not matching that of his multitude of fans. Because of a lung disease Tubb had to rest in pain on a cot between takes, ending his career just as his hero, Rodgers, had 50 years earlier. Quoting one of his album titles, Tubb left a legend and a legacy.
The youngest of five children, Tubb was born in Ellis County, TX, but his farming parents moved across the state to Benjamin when he was six years old. By the time he was in his pre-adolescence, his parents had divorced, and he spent his teens traveling between his two parents, working odd jobs. Early in his adolescence, Tubb was attracted to the music of Rodgers. By his late teens, Tubb had picked up the guitar on the advice of a friend and fellow guitarist named Merwyn Buffington. Following Rodgers death in May of 1933, Tubb decided that he wanted to pursue a musical career and emulate his idol. He moved to San Antonio, where he again hooked up with Buffington, who was currently playing with the Castleman Brothers on a local radio station. The guitarist convinced his employers to let Tubb sing as a guest vocalist, and soon Ernest had his own regular early-morning show.
At this point in his career, Tubb sounded very similar to Rodgers and was still obsessed with his idol. Eventually, he tracked down and met Rodgers widow, Carrie, and she was quite taken with Tubb, loaning him one of Jimmies guitars and convincing RCA to sign the young singer. The first singles he recorded were quite similar to Rodgers (including two tributes to the Singing Brakeman), but the records failed to sell and he was quickly dropped from the label. Ernest continued to plow ahead, playing a variety of small clubs and radio stations, without gaining much attention. A major point in Tubbs musical development was the removal of his tonsils in 1939. With his tonsils gone, he could no longer yodel, which meant he developed his own distinctively twangy, nasal singing style. Decca Records agreed to record him in April of 1940, and one of the resulting singles, Blue Eyed Elaine, became a minor hit. Decca agreed to sign him to a longer contract by the end of the year, by which time he had also had a regular radio show on a Fort Worth station, KGKO, sponsored by the flour company Gold Chain.
Early in 1941, he cut several new songs, this time backed by Fay Smitty Smith, a staff electric guitarist for KGKO. The first single released from these sessions was Walking the Floor Over You. Over the next few months, the single became a massive hit, eventually selling over a million copies. Walking the Floor Over You was the first honky tonk song, launching not only Tubbs career but also the musical genre itself. Tubb sang the song in the Charles Starrett movie Fighting Buckeroos (1941), which led to another film appearance in Starretts Ridin West (1942). By the end of 1942, he was popular enough to gain a release from his Gold Chain contract, and he headed to Nashville. Upon his arrival in January of 1943, he joined the Grand Ole Opry and became the first musician to use an electric guitar in the Opry.
Between 1942 and 1944, Tubb made no recordings because of a strike within the recorders union, yet he continued to tour, often with Pee Wee King and Roy Acuff. Ernest returned to recording in 1944, releasing the number two Try Me One More Time early in the year, following by his first number one single, Soldiers Last Letter, that summer. The two singles kicked off a nearly 15-year streak of virtually uninterrupted Top Ten singles (only four of his 54 singles of that era failed to crack the Top Ten, and even then they made the Top 15). In 1946, he began recording solely with his band, the Texas Troubadors, and he became one of the first country artists to record in Nashville. Between the end of 1945 and the conclusion of 1946, he had a number of huge hits, including Its Been So Long Darling, Rainbow at Midnight, Filipino Baby, and Drivin Nails in My Coffin. The singles cemented his reputation in the U.S. and won him new fans around the world.
Early in 1947, he opened the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville, which he promoted through the Midnight Jamboree, a radio program he designed to fill the post-Opry slot on the radio. That year, he became the first country star to play Carnegie Hall in New York, signalling how much he had done to increase country musics popularity across the United States; a few years before, it would have been unthinkable to have such rural music play in such an urban venue. During 1949, he hit the height of his popularity, charting an astonishing 13 hit singles during the course of the year — which is even more remarkable considering that the chart only had 15 positions each week. Most of those songs were classics, including Have You Ever Been Lonely? (Have You Ever Been Blue), Lets Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello, Im Biting My Fingernails and Thinking of You (a collaboration with the Andrews Sisters), Slipping Around, and Blue Christmas. The following year, he had 11 hit singles, including I Love You Because and Throw Your Love My Way, plus several hit duets with Red Foley, including Tennessee Border No. 2 and the number one Goodnight Irene. Tubb also demonstrated his influence by helping Hank Snow appear on the Grand Ole Opry and supporting Hank Williams.
Throughout the 50s, Tubb recorded and toured relentlessly, racking up well over 30 hit singles, the majority of which — including the classics Driftwood on the River (1951) and The Yellow Rose of Texas (1955) — reached the Top Ten. By the end of the decade, his sales dipped slightly, which only meant he wasnt reaching the Top Ten, only the Top 20, with regularity. Nevertheless, he stopped having big hits in the early 60s, as rock & roll and newer, harder honky tonk singers cut into his audience. Even with the decline of his sales, Tubb was able to pack concert halls, and his television show was equally popular. While the quality of his recordings was rather uneven during this time, he still cut a number of classics, including Thanks a Lot, Pass the Booze, and Waltz Across Texas. Beginning in 1964, Decca had him record a series of duets with Loretta Lynn, and over the next five years he made three albums and had four hit singles: Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be, Our Hearts Are Holding Hands, Sweet Thang, and Whos Gonna Take the Garbage Out.
In 1966, Tubb was diagnosed with emphysema and in spite of the doctors warnings, he continued to tour and record actively into the early 70s. During that time, he continued to rack up a number of minor hits, as well as lifetime achievement awards. In 1965, he became the sixth member to be inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1970, he was one of the first artists inducted to the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame. Shortly after receiving the last reward, his hits slowed down drastically — over the next five years, he only had one minor hit, 1973s Ive Got All the Heartaches I Can Handle. Decca and Tubb parted ways in 1975, and he signed with Pete Drakes First Generation label, where he had one minor hit, Sometimes I Do, in early 1978. The following year, Drake developed an all-star tribute to Tubb, The Legend and the Legacy, which featured stars like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Chet Atkins, and Charlie Daniels overdubbing their own work on original recordings Ernest had made. Released on Cachet Records, the album produced two minor hits with Waltz Across Texas and Walkin the Floor Over You before being pulled from the market due to contractual reasons.
The Legend and the Legacy would be the last time Tubb reached the charts. In the three years following its release, he continued to tour, but in late 1982 he was forced to retire due to his health. During the last days of his final tours, he had to take oxygen and rest on a cot between shows, eerily resembling the circumstances of Rodgers last recording sessions. Tubb succumbed to emphysema on September 6, 1984, leaving behind an enormous legacy that helped shape the face of contemporary country music.