T. TEXAS TYLER 4 Star Recordings

Wednesday, April 8, 2009



David Luke Myrick (1916-1972), professionally known as "T. Texas Tyler" was exceedingly popular on the West Coast during the postwar years. A unique and engaging performer, he made many records during this period for Wm. McCall's 4 Star label in Pasadena. These recordings have endeared Tyler to generations of listeners, as they were extensively re-issued through the fifties and sixties as fodder for a slew of "budget" LPs. At one point, there was hardly a country cheapie comp issued that did not contain at least one track by him.
This post features 51 tracks recorded by 4 Star, although some were originally released through other labels such as Decca for wider distibution. They have been transferred from 78s, electrical transcriptions, and of course dimestore LPs on labels like Design, Hilltop, etc. Of particular interest is a promo 78 which features a spoken message from Tyler to plug his personal appearances, and some rare gospel tracks from 10", 33⅓ rpm discs that 4 Star sent to radio stations in place of heavy, breakable 78s. I have tried to use the best source available for each track.

Click here for a biography of T. Texas Tyler

Tracks:

A Beautiful Life, A Boy And A Girl, A Million Tear Drops, Bumming Around, Careless Love, Country Boy, Courtin' In The Rain, Cowboy's Prayer, Cry-Baby Heart, Dad Gave My Dog Away, Deck Of Cards, Did You Ever Go Sailing, Farther Along, Filipino Baby, Fireman's & Engineer's Ball, Go On And Sweep Around Me, God Put A Rainbow In The Sky, Golden Wrist Watch, He Remembered Me, Hot Rod Rag, I Ain't Got A Lick Of Sense, I Tickled Her Under The Chin, If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again, In The Sweet Bye And Bye, Just Out Of Reach, Kiss Me Like Crazy, Let's Get Married, Light Hearted Guy, My Bucket's Got A Hole In It, Nothing At All, Oklahoma Hills, Old Blue, Personal Announcement for Appearance, Praise The Lord, Pretender, Remember Me, River Girl, Shake My Mother's Hand For Me, She Wouldn't Do For You, Since I Gave My Heart To Jesus, Tattler's Wagon, Ten-Ten-Tennessee Line, That Beautiful Picture, That's What You Mean To Me, The Land Where We'll Never Grow Old, The Old Country Church, The Old Hymns Mother Used To Sing, The Scratchin' Itch, Tired Of It All, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, You've Got To Live Your Religion Every Day

*download here*

9 comments:

Uncle Gil said...

Just one word : G R E A T !!!

One second word : T H A N K S !

1verycoolguy said...

You always have some great posts and I enjoy them very much. T. Texas Tyler has been one of my favorite singers for a long time. Thanks so much for this posting. God bless you.

Johnny One-Note said...

F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C UPLOAD!!!!!

Many thanks!

Johnny One-Note

J.D. Hughes said...

Another great post. thanks Lefty. I love the song "Deck Of Cards".

KL from NYC said...

I just want to say Thank You for being so thorough when putting together your comps, and for providing good background information.
I don't know much about this kind of music, so the information is very helpful to me.
Thanks again.

Also, I'm very interested in any existing radio transcriptions. I often visit your blog and WesternSwing78. Are there any others you might recommend?

Last Ditch Effort Productions said...

I am currently transcribing an old open reel tape for a friend that was recorded around the time that Texas played in his hometown of Mena, Arkansas in 1963.

Although I am not a religious person, having listened to this tape and doing some touch up work (bad splices and editing a few 'ticks' I am impressed with his diction and singing. After doing some research, it seems that his life had some moments that inspired his love of God.

A beautiful rendition of gospel songs does make me smile and I got a kick when he did his trademark growl on "Remember Me".

Suffice to say, this experience is just more than a job. It's a piece of Americana, true to form and without compromise.

Mike Sachs, Phillipsburg, Missouri

Duke said...

Can You please readd this wonderful collection?

randalllayton said...

Please reup this. My father played in his band (guitar) for a time in the late 40's/early 50's and appears on a couple of the 4-star recordings although he could not remember the titles and no longer had copies. So it means going through all this to see if I can pick it out! But it certainly would have been in the 4-star era.

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