Biography
T. Texas Tyler earned recognition as a charismatic singer and songwriter who rose to prominence in country music from the late 1940s into the middle 1950s. He received frequent acknowledgment for advancing the sentimental country recitation, a narrative form delivered partly or entirely in spoken words by the artist, through the enormous success of his 1948 release “Deck of Cards.” Born David Luke Myrick in Mena, Arkansas, he nurtured an ambition from childhood to pursue a career as a country entertainer. As a young adult he relocated to Rhode Island to join his brother, who was stationed there during naval service, and launched his professional path with radio work in the early 1930s. He spent much of that decade traveling while performing on airwaves, constructing his stage identity by merging the names of cowboy vocalists Tex Ritter and Tom Tyler. His itinerary carried him to Newport, Rhode Island, and Los Angeles. In 1939, while appearing in Charleston, West Virginia, Tyler joined fiddler Clarence Clere to establish the duo Slim and Tex; the pair continued broadcasting together across West Virginia stations until 1942, when Tyler secured an engagement at Shreveport, Louisiana’s KWKH, a station known for nurturing talent. He then served in the U.S. Army throughout World War II.
After receiving his discharge in 1946, Tyler settled in Southern California and began daily radio appearances in Long Beach and Los Angeles. Closeness to the emerging record labels of the region advanced his prospects, leading to a contract with the expanding Pasadena imprint Four Star. He soon registered moderate successes by covering several widely circulated country numbers of the period, starting with “Filipino Baby” in 1946 and continuing with “Remember Me” plus Jack Guthrie’s “Oklahoma Hills.” His most substantial release arrived in 1948 with the widely embraced “Deck of Cards,” which climbed to the Top Three, maintained sales for years afterward, and inspired multiple copycat versions. The composition itself traced an older lineage than most entries in the country catalog; comparable verses in which a soldier interprets a deck of cards as religious emblems have surfaced from the medieval period onward.
Tyler next issued another recitation, the deeply sentimental Mary Jean Shurtz piece “Dad Gave My Dog Away.” His rising profile secured a performance slot at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and in 1949 he contributed a song to the Western film Horsemen of the Sierras. Later that same year he reached the Top Five with a cover of Hank Williams’ “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It.” Los Angeles television granted him his own program, Range Round Up. In the early 1950s he adopted an energetic, folksy approach that often introduced sung lines with a robust, throaty glide. Two further major successes followed in 1953, among them “Courtin’ in the Rain,” before rock & roll precipitated both personal and professional difficulties. An arrest in Texas for marijuana possession hampered his momentum, yet many of his recordings found new audiences through the emerging long-playing album format. He joined the Starday roster, made several Grand Ole Opry appearances, and shifted toward gospel performance as an Assembly of God minister, cutting the entirely devotional album The Great Texan for King in 1960. Throughout the 1960s Tyler combined touring with preaching; additional projects included a gospel set for Capitol, the secular country collection Sensational New Hits of T. Texas Tyler issued by Starday in 1964, and three self-produced gospel albums sold at his revival meetings. After the 1968 death of his first wife, Claudia, Tyler remarried and established residence in Springfield, Missouri, where he ministered to a local congregation and performed on occasion. Known as “the man with a million friends,” he succumbed to stomach cancer in early 1972.
After receiving his discharge in 1946, Tyler settled in Southern California and began daily radio appearances in Long Beach and Los Angeles. Closeness to the emerging record labels of the region advanced his prospects, leading to a contract with the expanding Pasadena imprint Four Star. He soon registered moderate successes by covering several widely circulated country numbers of the period, starting with “Filipino Baby” in 1946 and continuing with “Remember Me” plus Jack Guthrie’s “Oklahoma Hills.” His most substantial release arrived in 1948 with the widely embraced “Deck of Cards,” which climbed to the Top Three, maintained sales for years afterward, and inspired multiple copycat versions. The composition itself traced an older lineage than most entries in the country catalog; comparable verses in which a soldier interprets a deck of cards as religious emblems have surfaced from the medieval period onward.
Tyler next issued another recitation, the deeply sentimental Mary Jean Shurtz piece “Dad Gave My Dog Away.” His rising profile secured a performance slot at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and in 1949 he contributed a song to the Western film Horsemen of the Sierras. Later that same year he reached the Top Five with a cover of Hank Williams’ “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It.” Los Angeles television granted him his own program, Range Round Up. In the early 1950s he adopted an energetic, folksy approach that often introduced sung lines with a robust, throaty glide. Two further major successes followed in 1953, among them “Courtin’ in the Rain,” before rock & roll precipitated both personal and professional difficulties. An arrest in Texas for marijuana possession hampered his momentum, yet many of his recordings found new audiences through the emerging long-playing album format. He joined the Starday roster, made several Grand Ole Opry appearances, and shifted toward gospel performance as an Assembly of God minister, cutting the entirely devotional album The Great Texan for King in 1960. Throughout the 1960s Tyler combined touring with preaching; additional projects included a gospel set for Capitol, the secular country collection Sensational New Hits of T. Texas Tyler issued by Starday in 1964, and three self-produced gospel albums sold at his revival meetings. After the 1968 death of his first wife, Claudia, Tyler remarried and established residence in Springfield, Missouri, where he ministered to a local congregation and performed on occasion. Known as “the man with a million friends,” he succumbed to stomach cancer in early 1972.
Albums
