Biography
Born on 12 November 1899 in Santa Anna, Texas, Roy Newman passed away on 23 February 1981 at his residence in Dallas. Details concerning his early life remain scarce, yet he emerged as a foundational figure in western swing. Reaching his mid-twenties, he had already mastered piano, piano accordion and guitar while serving as a staff musician for WRR in Dallas. Beginning in 1926 he performed piano, outside his studio commitments, as one member of the Mystery Duo alongside guitarist John Thorvald. By 1931 he had switched to guitar within the four-piece Wanderers, an affiliation that introduced him to Jim Boyd. The ensemble relocated to WFAA in 1932; the next year Newman and Boyd, now backed by fresh personnel, returned to WRR under the name Roy Newman And His Boys. Bill Boyd was likewise employed at the station, leading his own Cowboy Ramblers on record and in performance. Although several musicians shuttled between the two outfits, each group cultivated a distinct identity, and both appeared regularly on WRR’s popular Noon Hour Varieties program. Between 1934 and 1939 Newman And His Boys—whose lineup occasionally reached ten players—cut 72 sides, building a strong regional following through broadcasts and personal appearances across Dallas and Fort Worth. Despite receiving far less attention than Bob Wills or Milton Brown, Newman infused more jazz elements than most of his peers and contributed materially to the spread of western swing before the band dissolved in 1940. Among its key personnel were fiddlers Art Davis and Thurman Neal together with clarinetist Holly Horton. Newman remained a staff musician at WRR and WFAA until retirement; in the year of his death an anthology of his early recordings appeared, with additional tracks later surfacing on various Rambler anthologies.