Hallo,
Gesammeltes in Englisch (u.a.Wikipedia):
* 24. November 24, 1931 in Owasso, Oklahoma is an American musician.
He worked with entertainers such as Buddy Holly and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. He moved to Los Angeles, played with local bands, and did session work, including writing credit for theVentures' "Guitar Twist".
He returned to Odessa, Texas, where he worked with Ronnie Smith and Roy Orbison and producingWillie Nelson. In 1968, he moved to Nashville, where he did session work, and produced Bob Wills' "24 Great Hits by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys". In 1979, he started a club, "Tommy's Heads Up Saloon", in Fort Worth. The club was named after acoin flip Allsup had with Ritchie Valens on February 2, 1959 that saved Allsup's life.
Tommy started his musical career in Claremore, Oklahoma in 1949 with the "Oklahoma Swingbillies". In 1950 he went to work with fiddle player Art Davis in Miami, OK; from there to the Cowboy Inn in Wichita, KS with singer, fiddle player Jimmy Hall. In 1952 and 1953, he moved back to Tulsa, OK to join the Johnnie Lee Wills Band. From 1953 to 1958, he had his own band, "The Southernaires" in Lawton, OK with homebase being the Southern Club.
In 1958, on a trip to Clovis, New Mexico to record at Norman Petty's studio, he met Buddy Holly. In April, he started playing lead guitar with Holly and the Crickets. His fast & fancy guitar work can be heard on "Wishing", "Heartbeat", "It's So Easy", Love's Made A Fool Of You", "Lonesome Tears", and "Come Back Baby". He continued performing with Buddy until the ill fated "Winter Dance Party Tour" of January 1959. The tour featured other artists Ritchie Valens & The Big Bopper - it was Allsup who flipped a coin with Ritchie Valens for a seat on the Beechcraft Bonanza that would crash less than an hour later.
As Buddy left, Tommy had a registered letter from his mother waiting in Fargo, and asked if Buddy would pick it up for him. Buddy figured he would need some identification to get the letter so Tommy gave Buddy his wallet. After the plane crash, officials found the wallet, but no body...and announced at first that Tommy was one of the plane's occupants. Luckily, they soon found out that he wasn't.
After Holly's death, Allsup moved to California to join Liberty Records as session guitarist. He can be heard on the rock & roll hits of Eddie Cochran, Johnny Burnette, Bobby Vee & many others. Within a year he was A & R Director of all Country and Western products, and began producing, which included working with the great Bob Wills' and the Texas Playboys. His association with Wills lasted through Wills' For the Last Time LP, recorded in 1973, Dallas,TX, where Bob Wills recorded his first records in 1935. Allsup used some of the original Texas Playboys on the last recording (McAuliffe, Shamblin, Dacus, Strickland). Bob Wills directed the sessions from his wheelchair.
While at Liberty, Tommy would produce Tex Williams, Willie Nelson, Joe Carson, Warren Smith, Billy Mize, and Cliff Crofford. While there, he worked with great artists such as Walter Brennan, Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnett, Julie London, and Vickie Carr, who sang harmony with Bob Wills on the LP “Bob Wills Sings and Plays“.
After leaving California, Allsup moved to Nashville to head up Metromedia Records in 1968. In 1972, he met Ray Benson and Asleep At The Wheel and produced their first LP for United Artist Records. Later he produced 4 albums for Capitol Records with the group:
Tommy has been a big supporter of Western Swing music over the years. He has produced 5 LPs with the great Hank Thompson and his Brazos Valley Boys, 2 albums with the Original Texas Playboys, and 2 releases with the Great Western Swing vocalist Leon Rausch. He has also produced Swing releases for Willie Nelson, Jody Nix, Tex Williams & many others.
He received an award for participating in more than 7500 unionsessions. Tommy said the total, including non-union session like with Buddy Holly, is closer to 9000. He received a Grammy Award in 1999 for his performance with Asleep At The Wheel (Best Country Instrumental Performance on "Bob's Breakdowns").
Samick Guitars released a Ltd. Edition signature series guitar with Tommy's signature, only 500 were made and is a real classic. Take a look at this rarity HERE:
Tommy got away from the hectic Nashville music scene and moved back to Texas, where he married in 2002 and opened up his own recording studio "Common Ground Studios" in Azle, TX. He is still busy touring a fair amount with the Texas Playboys and Buddy Holly related shows.
According to Paul McCartney, he is one of the finest guitar playersin the world.
Tommy started his musical career in Claremore, Oklahoma in 1949 with the "Oklahoma Swingbillies." In 1950 he went to work with fiddle player Art Davis in Miami, Oklahoma; from there to the Cowboy Inn in Wichita, Kansas with singer, fiddle player Jimmy Hall. In 1952 and 1953, he moved back to Tulsa, Oklahoma to join the "Johnnie Lee Wills Band." From 1953 to 1958, he had his own band, "The Southernaires" in Lawton, Oklahoma with homebase being the Southern Club. In 1958, Tommy's career would take a different direction. On a trip to Clovis, New Mexico to record at Norman Petty's famous studio, he met the late Buddy Holly. In April, he started playing lead guitar with Holly and the Crickets. He continued playing with Buddy until the fatal plane crash that took Buddy's life, along with the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. After Holly's death, Allsup moved to California to join Liberty Records as A & R Director of all Country and Western product to begin producing the great Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. His association with Wills lasted through Wills' "For The Last Time" LP, recorded on December 2-3, 1973, in Dallas, Texas, where Bob Wills recorded his first records in 1935. Allsup used some of the original Texas Playboys on the last recording (McAulliff, Shamblin, Dacus, Strickland). Bob Wills directed the sessions from his wheel chair. While at Liberty, Tommy would produce Tex Williams, Willie Nelson, Joe Carson, Warren Smith, Billy Mize, and Cliff Crofford. While there, he worked with great artists such as Walter Brennan, Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnette, Julie London, and Vickie Carr, who sang harmony with Bob Wills on the LP "Bob Wills Sings and Plays." After leaving California, Allsup moved to Nashville to head up Metromedia Records in 1968. In 1972, he met Ray Benson and Asleep At The Wheel and produced their first LP for United Artist Records. Later he produced 4 LPs for Capitol Records with the group. Tommy Allsup has been a big supporter of Western Swing music over the years. He has produced 5 LPs with the great Hank Thompson and his Brazos Valley Boys, 2 LPs with the Original Texas Playboys, and 2 LPs with the great Western Swing vocalist Leon Rausch. Tommy has produced Swing LPs with Jody Nix, Curley Chalker, Mack Sanders, Johnny Bush, Willie Nelson, Tex Williams, and Billy Mize. Tommy produced “Bob Wills’ A Tribute to Bob’s 100th Birthday” while living in Azle Texas. He has played guitar or bass on over 6500 recording sessions. All of this is good enough for Tommy, who has few regrets. "I never really wanted to be a big star, I figured I'd leave that to someone else."
Tommy can be contacted at
www.tommyallsup.net. where you can find his newly released (Dec 2013) CD "Raining In My Heart" for the Holidays.
Titel: Raining In My Heart, You Belong To Me, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Mansion On The Hill, Swinging To The Beat, Ten Years, Right Or Wrong, A Party For The Old Folks, Tater Pie, A Big Rock In The Road
A premier Western-swing guitarist, as well as a music producer, Tommy Allsup was born on his Cherokee mother's allotment near Owasso on November 24, 1931. He was the twelfth of thirteen children in a musical family. When he was young, the family moved to Claremore, and in 1947, as a sophomore in high school, Allsup and some of his friends organized a Western-style band and called themselves the Oklahoma Swing Billies. After high school he worked with Art Davis and other bands before becoming a member of the Johnnie Lee Wills and All His Boys band in Tulsa.
Later, in Lawton he fronted his own band in the Southern Club for a few years. Then in April 1958 a friend asked him to record with them at the Norman Petty Studio in Clovis/New Mexico. Petty needed a session guitarist and asked Allsup to stay and back up other performers. There he recorded with Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Allsup became the first to play a guitar solo (lead) on a Buddy Holly recording, and during that summer and fall of 1958 he toured with the band.
After the original Crickets left Holly, Buddy asked Allsup, Waylon Jennings and Carl Bunch to be his band. In the winter of 1959 they started their tour. It was so cold that after the concert in Clear Lake/Iowa, on February 3, 1959, Holly hired a pilot to fly them to the next scheduled town. Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small airplane and begged Allsup to let him take his place. Finally, they flipped a coin, with Valens winning. Holly and Valens were killed when, for unknown reasons, the plane crashed. Allsup led the Crickets and finished the tour.
He continued his life in music as a session guitarist and record producer, and he played a major role in putting swing into country music. In the 1960s he worked for the Liberty label, producing Willie Nelson's first records, the Bob Wills records on Liberty, Asleep at the Wheel's first five records, and records for Tex Williams, Mickey Gilley, Gene Watson, and others. It was Allsup who produced the legendary Western swing tribute to Bob Wills, For the Last Time. He has been the session guitarist for over sixty-five hundred recordings, has arranged background music for many recording sessions, and has worked as an independent music producer in Nashville. He also produced recordings featuring his guitar style, including The Buddy Holly Songbook Featuring the Guitar of Tommy Allsup, Tommy Allsup: Ten Great Country Classics, and Tommy Allsup: Ten Great Gospel Classics. Allsup was the one who organized the Western swing band known as The Original Texas Playboys and has been the leader of the group billed as The Texas Playboys, which continued to perform into the twenty-first century. In 1999 Asleep at the Wheel won a Grammy Award for "Bob's Breakdown," a country instrumental that featured Allsup and other performers. In 2004 Tommy Allsup lived in Texas where he operated a recording studio.
Oktober 1974 – Juni 1975 Mitglied als Gitarrist bei den Bob Luman-sessions im Columbia Recording Studio.
Am 12. November 1974 traf sich Jerry Lee Lewis im Studio mit Jerry Kennedy, um die Titel “I’m Still Jealous Of You“ von Jerry Foster und Bill Rice, “You Ought To See My Mind“ (Carl Knight) und “Don’t Boogie Woogie (When You Say Your Prayers Tonight)“ aufzunehmen. Mit dabei war auch Tommy D. Allsup an der Gitarre.
3. Scan:
von links Bob Wills, Tommy Allsup und Johnny Lee
Gruß
Heino
