Ruby Allmond

Ruby Allmond was a northeast Texas singer/songwriter born in Fannin County. Raised on a cotton and corn farm near Bailey, Texas, she was born in 1923, and was the last of four children.

Her passion for music began early, fueled by her family’s musical talents and interests. Her first stage performance took place when she was just four years old. Other members of the family played fiddle, mandolin, and the banjo, while Ruby herself learned to play the guitar sitting on her daddy’s knee. Her real passion though, was for the fiddle. When she was younger, she would always manage to get her hands on her older brother Raymond’s fiddle and by the time she reached high-school she was determined to be a great fiddle player. This, remember, was during a time when women were not held in the same regard as men in the fiddle playing community. Practicing sometimes as much as eight hours a day, she eventually went on to win the National Champion Lady Fiddler award in 1947, which solidified her as a top fiddler, challenging the idea that women were not worthy competitors in fiddle playing. Ruby also played numerous shows all around northeast Texas including Greenville, Bonham, Wolfe City, and many others.

As television was mostly absent in working-class homes of the time, much of the entertainment came from the types of country shows in which Ruby was involved. From early on she had what many people recognized as an engaging stage presence, which was an extension of her lively personality. As she played more local shows throughout her teenage and young adult years, she developed an exceptional style of fiddling and a charisma that was uniquely her own. In the 1940s Ruby was playing in these shows with two very renowned fiddle players, Georgia “Slim” Rutland and Howard “Howdy” Forrester. Also during this time she was a part of a band that included her two brothers, Raymond and Roy Allmond, who played acoustic rhythm guitars, and Harold Carder, who played stand up bass. She eventually formed her own band called the Texas Jamboree which included Guy Bryant, his children Joyce and Gene Bryant, and Clay Harvey. Ruby played the fiddle, Bryant and his children played the mandolin and acoustic guitars, while Harvey was on stand up bass. Considered at that time as one of the “top notch fiddle bands”, Texas Jamboree soon caught the attention of Congressman Sam Rayburn who would take them along on his campaign tours to entertain the crowd.

Throughout this time, Ruby’s long time friend, and now the executor of her estate, Audra Brock, had been supporting her. Audra lived “within shouting distance” of Ruby and her family, and remembers being able to hear Ruby’s family in the front yard playing music. After she and Ruby became good friends, Audra recognized that Ruby had a real talent and wanted to help preserve her music. Audra bought a reel-to-reel tape machine to record Ruby’s songs and even learned how to play the drums to help Ruby keep rhythm. In a makeshift home studio, which was an eight by twelve ready made building, the duo recorded Ruby’s songs. Audra said that each of them had their own side of the studio: Ruby had her end with guitar, fiddles, amplifiers, and microphone while Audra had her own side with the tape machine and drums.

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