Tommy Duncan

Thomas Elmer (Tommy) Duncan (January 11, 1911 – July 25, 1967) was an American western swing vocalist and songwriter.

Early life

Duncan was born near Whitney, Texas on a large farm, into a large and impoverished family of truck farmers. The African Americans he worked with greatly influenced his musical style and reperetoire, and he often listened to recordings by Jimmie Rodgers and other country and blues musicians. He left home at seventeen and by 1932 was surviving as a busker in Fort Worth. It was in that year that he won an audition against sixty-four other singers to join the Light Crust Doughboys, a popular local band.

Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys

As was common at that time, the Doughboys appeared on a radio show under the sponsorship of a local business, in their case Light Crust Flour. Duncan quickly became a sensation, both on the show and at dances and other appearances. When bandleader Bob Wills decided to form a more independent band, he and Duncan became the creative core of The Texas Playboys.

Duncan was versatile in his singing style and repertoire, was credited with a fine voice and range, and was ideal for the kind of dance music Wills performed and recorded. In his work with Wills, he sang everything from ballads and folk to pop, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and cowboy songs. As a lyricist, he contributed to "New San Antonio Rose" (1940); that recording, with Duncan on vocals, sold three million copies for Columbia Records.

After a decade of musical success, Duncan was the first member of Wills's band to volunteer for the armed services after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He rejoined Wills in 1944 as the war neared its end. He appeared with Wills and the other Playboys in several movies, including "Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys" (1944), "Rhythm Roundup" (1945), "Blazing the Western Trail" (1945), "Lawless Empire" (1945), and "Frontier Frolic" (1946). His voice matured in the middle to late 1940s, and he became an acknowledged star in his own right. Duncan, who could also play piano and guitar, joined Wills in writing several more numbers, including "New Spanish Two Step" (1945), "Stay A Little Longer" (1945), "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1946), and "Sally Goodin" (1947).

Later career

For various reasons – Wills's periodic drinking and Duncan's own ego and ambition to go on his own, for instance – Duncan left the Texas Playboys in 1948 (from Wills's perspective he was fired). He organized another well-regarded western swing band and called it Tommy Duncan and His Western All Stars. Musical tastes were changing, however, and attendance at the Western All Stars' dances ranged from fair to poor, certainly not good enough to sustain a large band for very long. The band lasted less than two years. From 1959 to 1961, he toured and recorded with Wills again, rekindling much of their former success. He continued afterward to make personal appearances with various bands, and died in his car in San Diego, California after a performance at Imperial Beach.

Duncan's reputation was that of a unique and distinctive talent who never compromised his style in order to be more popular or commercial. Both on his own and with Wills he was a great influence on such artists as Elvis Presley, Ray Price, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison, Merle Haggard, Buddy Holly, Red Steagall, George Strait, Clint Black, Randy Travis, and Garth Brooks. As a member of The Texas Playboys, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (under the category Early Influence) in 1999.

External links

* [http://www.texasplayboys.net/ Texas Playboys website]
* [http://nfo.net/usa/weswing.html Western Swing]
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/DD/fdu57.html The Handbook of Texas Online: Tommy Duncan]
* [http://www.lubbockmusic.com/history.shtml West Texas's Musical Heritage Honored]
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