Stan Paregien, Editor
The Tractors
In 1994, The Tractors hit the country-Western scene like a lightning strike. Within four years they had sold more than 2 million albums.
Their second album, "Farmers In A Changing World," is a montage of country, rock, boogie, blues, shuffle, and Western swing songs.
The bandleader and co-producer of the second album is Steve Ripley. In his teens, former farmer Steve Ripley traded his tractor for a life in rock and country bands throughout Oklahoma's honky-tonks, eventually working with such legends as J.J. Cale, Leon Russell and Bob Dylan. He later engineered many of Russell's landmark recordings, produced an album for Western Swing king Johnny Lee Wills and built signature guitars for Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Buffett, Ry Cooder and John Hiatt.
Co-producer and keyboard player Walt Richmond was a longtime sideman to Bonnie Raitt and Rick Danko. String wizard Ron Getman, who toured with both Janis Ian and Leonard Cohen, handles electric and acoustic guitars, slide, steel, dobro, mandolin and harmony vocals. Casey Van Beek, formerly of Linda Ronstadt and The Righteous Brothers' bands, provides bass guitar and harmony vocals. And Jamie Oldaker delivers the righteous backbeat that for many years had anchored Eric Clapton.
"We were five guys who'd all had record deals and/or played in famous bands" says Ripley. "We'd had contracts and lost them and got very cynical about the whole music business thing. We got together to do this thing... then our album is released and it's a big hit. Suddenly we're five guys scratching our heads saying 'What the heck is going on?'"
What was going on with The Tractors self-titled 1994 debut was, quite simply, one of the most left-field success stories of the decade. Powered by the hit "Baby Likes To Rock It," the album became the fastest-selling country group debut to go Platinum in RIAA history.
The Tractors crossed far beyond the Country genre and ultimately plowed past 2 million units, becoming the #1 selling debut Country album of the year. The album also drew some of the years best reviews in both country and mainstream press, including four stars from New Country Magazine, a front page rave in USA Today, and a grade of "A" from Entertainment Weekly.
The band was nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best Country Performance By A Group for "Baby Likes To Rock It" and "Tryin' To Get To New Orleans"), a TNN/Music City News Award (Stars Of Tomorrow/Vocal Duo or Group), three Academy Of Country Music Awards (Top Vocal Group, Top New Vocal Group and Album Of The Year) and won the Country Music Association's Video Of The Year Award (for the "Baby Likes To Rock It" clip).
In 1995, the band released the top-selling "Have Yourself A Tractors Christmas" and over the last two years contributed superior cuts to the acclaimed tribute albums Buddy Holly: Not Fade Away and Stone Country.
When the band finally returned to their homebase at Tulsa's legendary Church Studio to record "Farmers In A Changing World," they approached the music the same way as they did before -- with no approach at all. "We have no grandiose vision" says Ripley. "It's all born out of frustration, no direction and no apparent hope of finding a direction. Sometimes, it's simply about rolling tape at just the right time."
The Tractors recordings contain the moments before the first downbeat, with the coughs, sputters, weird noises and false starts that are the living pulse of any Tractors song.
CLICK HERE to go to the official web page of The Tractors. It contains lyrics to their songs, etc.
Ray Palmer Tracy
(Deceased)
Ray Palmer Tracy was born in West Charleston, Vermont in Oct., 1886. Tracy had worked on the old Barker Sheep Ranch, had been a salesman in Colorado, a telegraph operator, gold miner, and an oil well driller in Montana and Wyoming.
He attended Oregon State University. And he was a 2nd Lt. in the army during World War I. He had sung in the United Church of Christ choir for 30 years, and was a member of the 4 Joe quartet. He was also active in politics, and received Gov. Mark Hatfield at his bedside just a month before his death.
He was an author of Western books and stories. And he wrote his autobiography, Where the Dust Flies.
Ray Palmer Tracy died at the Hillside Manor Nursing Home in Condon, Oregon on Oct. 9, 1966, just short of his 80th birthday.
Clifford E. Trafzer
A history professor at the University of California (Riverside), Clifford E. Trafzer is also director of the Native American Research Center.
Clifford E. Trafzer's books include: Yuma: Frontier Crossing of the Far Southwest; The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest; The Kit Carson Campaign: The Last Great navajo War; and Yakima, Palouse, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Wanapum Indians: An Historical Bibliography. He teamed with Richard D. Scheuerman to write Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest, and Chief Joseph's Allies: The Palouse Indians and the Nez Perce War of 1877.
Merle Travis
(Deceased)
Merle Travis, singer and composer and extraordinary guitar picker, was born on Nov. 29, 1917 in Rosewood, KY.
As a child, Travis learned the local style of picking guitar with a thumb pick and his index finger.
Acoustic fingerpicking guitar is a way of playing the steel string flat-top guitar. It is also now referred to as "thumbpicking," particulary in Kentucky, or "Travis picking," in honor of Merle Travis. In this style, both thumb and fingers are used to do the picking. The thumb of the picking hand (right hand for a right handed guitarist) is used to pick the bass notes on the lower strings, while at the same time the index, middle and other fingers pick out the melody on the treble strings. The guitar is commonly used to accompany singing; fingerpicking is a way to approach it as a solo instrument.
After working at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, Travis bought a decent guitar and soon was on the radio. His guitar playing style was unusual and influenced many, including Chet Atkins and Doc Watson. While at powerful WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, he and Grandpa Jones first recorded as the Sheppard Brothers.
While living in Ohio, Travis went to hear Wesley Tuttle perform at a club. They became good friends. Then Mere went into the military. After his discharge, Travis bought a ticket to Los Angeles. He had almost no money, so he rented a room in a slum area of town and ate beans from the cans.
That's when he decided to call his old friend Wesley Tuttle and see if he could help him find some work. Tuttle told me, "I drove down to Los Angeles and picked him up and he stayed with us for awhile. I introduced him to a few folks and the minute they heard him pick that guitar they knew he was a special talent." Merle Travis and the Tuttles remained close friends until Travis died. Merle played guitar on several records for Tuttle.
Soon after arriving in California Merle Travis signed with Capitol Records. There he had such monster hits in the 1940s as "Cincinnati Lou," "No Vacancy," "Divorce Me C.O.D." and "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed," mostly written by Travis, sometimes helped by Cliffie Stone. Together they also wrote Tex Williams' 1947 hit, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)."
Encouraged in 1946 by Cliffie Stone to record an album of folk songs, Travis replied that Bradley Kincaid and Burl Ives had already sung them all. Stone told him to write some more, to which Travis said he could not write folk songs. Stone replied that he should write some that sounded like folk songs. And so Travis wrote "Sixteen Tons" and "Dark As A Dungeon." Tennessee Ernie Ford would have a monster pop and country hit in 1955 with "Sixteen Tons."
That's where things got a little sticky for Merle. Rumors started circulating that he was a Socialist or even a Communist because of his new emphasis on "the labor class".
Marilyn Tuttle wrote to me in April, 2003 that Merle Travis "could write a song on the spot anytime. He and Wesley wrote 20 songs for a transcription session in one evening. All the theme songs for Cliffie's [i.e., Cliffie Stone] shows and Town Hall Party were written like that. He was great at spontaneous writing.
"For your information, Lee Gillette was the producer of Wesley's first records and since Merle had just come into town, Wesley used him [Merle] on his records as a part of the "Coon Hunters". Lee heard Merle and signed him up as a Capitol recording artist. The big records that Wesley had were all produced by Lee. Merle's first big records were also produced by Lee. He [Lee Gillette] was first rate at picking material. "
Merle Travis also appeared in films, most notably as the guitar playing soldier who sang "Re-enlistment Blues" in the 1953 film "From Here To Eternity". His playing also popularized both solid body guitars and placing all the tuning pegs on the same side of the guitar head.
While solo chart hits for Travis were scarce after 1950, Travis for many years was an integral part of Hank Thompson's recordings. It is an interesting footnote that Merle Travis later married Hank Thompson's ex-wife, and remained married to her until his death.
Mere Travis was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
Merle Travis died of cardiopulmonary arrest on Oct. 20, 1983 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Ben T. Traywick
Ben T. Traywick earned 10 battle stars during his tour with the Navy in World War II. A retired chemist, he is the director of the Tombstone Tourism Association. He has written articles for such magazines as Tombstone Epitaph, Real West, Argosy, Golden West, Frontier Times, and True West.
Ben T. Traywick is the author of 24 published paperbacks designed for the tourist market, such as Residents of Tombstone's Boothills, Treasures of the Dead, and Chronicles of Tombstone.
Doyle Trent
Doyle Trent is the author of Squaw Mountain Massacre (Zebra Books, 1985), Gambler's Gold (Walker and Co., 1984) and Claim Jumper (Dorchester, 1981).
Claire Trevor
(Deceased)
Claire Trevor was born as Claire Wemlinger in 1909 in New York. She started her movie career in the late 1920's. She appeared on the Broadway stage and in Vitaphone short films in 1932.
In 1933 Claire Trevor had major roles in the films "Jimmy and Sally" and "Life in the Raw." In 1939 she was cast as "Dallas," an outcast saloon prostitute who is befriended by the Ringo Kid (John Wayne) in the classic film, "Stagecoach".
George Bancroft, John Wayne and Claire
Trevor in "Stagecoach" (1939).
Claire Trevor & John WayneClair Trevor won a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar in 1948 for her role as Gaye Dawn, the alcoholic mistress of a gangster (Edward G. Robinson) in "Key Largo".
Her last movie role as in a 1987 made-for-TV movie, "Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties." She had made some 70 movies and 12 TV productions during her career.
Clair Trevor died at the age of 91 on April 8, 2000, at a hospital near her home in Newport Beach, CA. She was preceeded in death by her husband, Hollywood producer and agent Milton Bren.
Louis Trimble
(Deceased)
Louis Trimble wrote 24 short stories and one nonfiction book, Sports of the World (1938). Novels written under his own name included Fit to Kill (1941), Date for Murder, Tragedy in Turquoise, Design for Dying, Murder Trouble, Give Up the Body, You Can't Kill a Corpse, Valley of Violence, The Case of the Blank Cartridge, Gunsmoke Justine, Blondes Are Skin Deep, Gaptown Law, Fighting Cowman, Crossfire, Bring Back Her Body, Bullets on Bunch Grass and at least 30 more (See the Feb., 1970 issue of The Roundup for the full list.)
Louis Trimble wrote the following novels under the name of Stuart Brock: Death Is My Lover (1948), Just Around the Corner, Double-Cross Ranch (1954), Whispering Canyon, Action at Boundary Peak, Killer's Choice, Forbidden Range and Railtown Sheriff (1957).
Trimble, under the name Gerry Travis, wrote Tarnished Love (1942), A Lovely Mask for Murder and The Big Bite (1957).
Marshall Trimble
Marshall Trimble is the author of In Old Arizona (Golden West, 1985), Arizona: A Panoramic History of a Frontier State (Doubleday, 1977), Arizona Adventure (Golden West, 1982) and Roadside History of Arizona (Mountain Press, 1986).
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants
to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me
will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the
whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"
--Jesus the Christ (BIBLE: Matthew 16:24-26)
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
