Ernest Tubb: Texas Troubadour from Crisp

Today is the birthday of Ernest Tubb. He would be 113 today.

Crisp, Texas sits in Ellis County, about thirty miles south of Dallas. It barely registers on a map. But Ernest Dale Tubb was born there on February 9, 1914, and that matters. He grew up listening to Jimmie Rodgers records and was devoted to the idea that country music could carry real working-class weight. When Rodgers died in 1933, Tubb wrote his widow Carrie for advice. She sent him one of Jimmie’s guitars. He played it until it wore out.

The Sound That Built Honky-Tonk

Tubb joined Decca Records in 1940. “Walking the Floor Over You” hit big in 1941. It was a new sound — amplified electric guitar running under a plain-spoken story about heartbreak. That was the beginning of honky-tonk music as a genre. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1943 and held his spot for four decades. He opened his famous record store on Broadway in Nashville in 1947 — the Ernest Tubb Record Shop — and broadcast live from it every Saturday night. He died September 6, 1984. But the Texas Troubadour’s sound is still in every country bar playing tonight. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.