Don Walser
| Don Walser | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Donald Ray Walser |
| Also known as | Yodelin' Donnie Walser |
| Born |
September 14, 1934 Brownfield, Texas, United States |
| Died | September 20, 2006 (aged 72) |
| Genres | Country, Western swing |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Songwriter, Mechanic, Auditor |
| Instruments |
Singing Guitar |
| Years active | 1950–2003 |
| Labels | Watermelon, Texas Music Group, Valley Entertainment |
| Associated acts | The Panhandle Playboys, The Texas Plainsmen, The Pure Texas Band |
| Website | www.donwalser.com |
| Past members | Floyd Domino, Phil Fajardo, Howard Kalish, Don Keeling, Scott Walls |
Donald Ray Walser (September 14, 1934 - September 20, 2006) was an American country music singer. He was known as a unique, award-winning yodeling "Texas country music legend."
Walser was born in Brownfield, Texas and raised in Lamesa. A roots musician since he was 11 years old, Walser became an accomplished guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He started his first band, The Panhandle Playboys, at age 16, and shared bills with another aspiring Texas singer, Buddy Holly.
As rock'n'roll began to skyrocket in popularity, Walser opted to stay in the Texas Panhandle, raise a family and work as a mechanic and later as an auditor for the National Guard, rather than move to Nashville and pursue a recording career. As a result, he had little following outside Texas for the first part of his career. However, he never stopped playing and became widely known in Texas. From 1959-61 Walser had a group called The Texas Plainsmen and a weekly radio program. For the next three decades he was always in bands and played a heavy schedule. He wrote popular original songs such as "Rolling Stone from Texas", which received a four-star review in 1964 from Billboard magazine.
As time went on, Walser also became known for maintaining a catalog of older, obscure country music and cowboy songs. He kept alive old 1940s and 1950s tunes by country music pioneers such as Bob Wills and Eddy Arnold, and made them his own in a style that blended elements of honky tonk and Western swing. He also was known for his extraordinary yodeling style in the tradition of Slim Whitman and Jimmie Rodgers.
...
Wikipedia