Biography
Born on 31 August 1918 in Eula, Texas, USA, he began performing cowboy songs and strumming guitar during childhood at the urging of his grandfather. Regular broadcasts on KNEL in Brady occupied him through the early 1930s, yet by 1937 he had moved to the high-powered XEPN Border Radio outlet in Eagle Pass, where he appeared under the name Sam Nichols The Roaming Cowboy. In the manner of fellow performers Slim Rinehart and Nevada Slim, he adopted the appropriate attire, marketed his songbooks, and built a sizable audience. He stayed with XEPN until enlisting in the US Navy for World War II. Following his release from service he moved to California, where he played club dates, took several minor screen roles, and traveled with Gene Autry and Spade Cooley. A 1946 session for Memo preceded his contract with MGM Records, on which he cut tracks backed by studio players under Porky Freeman that were credited to the Melody Rangers. Several of his compositions found success elsewhere, most notably “That Wild And Wicked Look In Your Eye,” a Top 10 entry for Ernest Tubb in 1948, and “I’m Telling You,” which gained traction through Nichols yet was undermined by Audrey Williams’ version. He withdrew from the music industry in 1972 and established residence on a ranch near Sonora, Texas.