Henson Cargill

After trying his hand at law, ranching, and work as a deputy sheriff, Henson Cargill chose country music once he came back to Oklahoma from Colorado State University. He started performing in neighborhood bars, where Harold Gay, head of the Kimberlys, invited him to join the group. In the mid-'60s Cargill traveled to Nashville, auditioned for several companies, and secured a contract with Fred Foster’s Monument label in 1967. Foster paired him with producer Don Law for a recording of Jack Moran’s composition “Skip a Rope.” The release dominated the country listings for five weeks and also reached the pop Top 25. Between 1968 and 1969 Cargill placed two additional singles inside the country Top 20, among them “None of My Business.” That same year he began hosting the syndicated Country Hayride program produced by Avco Broadcasting while continuing to cut records on a regular basis. In 1971 “The Most Uncomplicated Good-Bye I’ve Ever Heard” climbed to a Top 20 position; two years later he scored a pair of Top 30 entries that included “Some Old California Memory.” More than six years passed before another chart success arrived, when “Silence on the Line” registered inside the Top 30 in 1979. Cargill eventually departed Nashville for Oklahoma yet kept performing on an occasional basis. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he became a regular attraction on the casino circuit in Las Vegas and Reno. In 2003 he released the double album All American Cowboy via his own website, featuring fresh versions of earlier hits such as “Skip a Rope” alongside newly written material.