West Texas Roots

To hear a song sample, click on the speaker icon by that sample

Song Title	30 sec mp3
1. Stay a Little Longer – Bob Wills' Texas Playboys - Tommy Allsup & Al Perkins
2. Right or Wrong – Bob Wills' Texas Playboys - Leon Rausch
3. Interview With Jack Neal - Bill Griggs & Jack Neal
4. There Stands the Glass - Jack Neal
5. Drivin' Nails in My Coffin – Larry Welborn
6. Remember Me – Larry and Travis Holley
7. Suitcase Blues – Judy Luis-Watson
8. Softly and Tenderly – Larry and Travis Holley
9. Faded Love – Bob Wills' Texas Playboys – Scott Porter
10. Long Time Gone – The Flatlanders - Joe Ely
11. Statue of a Fool – Larry Welborn
12. I Saw The Moon Cry Last Night (2004) – Jack Neal
13. Saw The Moon Cry Last Night (1953) – Jack Neal & Buddy Holly
14. When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold – Larry and Travis Holley
15. Careless Love – Paul Watson
16. Gotta Travel On – Billy Grammer
17. Rehearsal (That'll Be The Day) – Larry Welborn
18. Just Because – Paul Watson
19. I Hear the Lord Calling For Me (1953) – Jack Neal & Buddy Holly
20. Goodnight Irene - Jack Neal / Carl Bunch / Larry Welborn

Stay All Night - Buddy Holly's Country Roots is the first account of Buddy Holly's West Texas Roots, performed by those who knew Holly best: Buddy's bandmates: Tommy Allsup, Carl Bunch, and Larry Welborn, and Buddy's earliest professional collaborator Jack Neal. They are joined by that swinging big band from down the road in Turkey, Texas - Bob Will's Texas Playboys. Adding to the account are Buddy's older brothers and mentors, Larry and Travis Holley, and his contemporaries Al Perkins and Billy Grammer.

Featured also are a new generation of stars from Lubbock - The Flatlanders; Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock; and some Holly disciples from far beyond Lubbock including Robert Reynolds from the Mavericks, and blues masters Judy Luis-Watson and Paul Watson.

Stay All Night is a must for Buddy Holly fans, vintage country fans and anyone who appreciates American roots music.

To order a CD with your credit card, select a location.
All orders include shipping and handling!

If you would like to purchase a CD using a check or money order, Click here to send us an email with your order request.

Song Information and Bandmember Interviews

1. Stay All Night - Bob Wills Texas Playboys - Tommy Allsup, Al Perkins & Robert Reynolds
Tommy: I first played this song back in the 50's with the Oklahoma Swingbillies. It was written about Turkey Texas, Bob Wills' home. Bob's home place was between the big creek and little creek in Turkey. The lyrics sound like they were written in a beer joint: "You ought to see my blue eyed Sally, She lives way down on shinbone alley." It is kind of a humorous song. Straight ahead western swing, up tempo.

2. Right or Wrong – Bob Wills' Texas Playboys - Leon Rausch
Tommy Allsup: Emmett Miller, a blackface singer first came out with this song in 1925. Later, Bob Wills made a great recording, and recently George Strait had a hit on it. But Emmett Miller recorded it first, way back in the 20's. Miller was a yodeler even before Jimmie Rogers, and he had a large influence on Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan. You know, Bob played a lot of Dixieland jazz. Bob hired a bunch of horn players when he was in Tulsa. He wasn't allowed to join the musicians union until he added those horn players. Before that they said he was too country. But Bob's music was always real diverse. He let his guys play the best solos they could. Buddy was the same way. Buddy wasn't afraid to try new things and let his guys do the best solos they could. When I was playing with Buddy, he really let me play. Buddy really wanted you to let the people know that you've done something.

3 & 4. Radio Interview/There Stands the Glass – Jack Neal
Track 3 is a radio interview of Jack Neal by Bill Griggs on Lubbock radio station KDAV from September 2000. Track 4 is the honky tonk song There Stands the Glass performed by Jack Neal. Jack: This is a great song about a guy who drinks to forget. I could really relate to it back when we were playing honky tonks and bars in the 50's. I learned to play it back in '53. Webb Pierce had a hit on it. So I have been playing this song for over 50 years. I've probably played it more than 1000 times. Everyone who likes country music remembers this song. The verse goes: "There stands the glass, fill it up to the brim, it's my first one today." But when I get to the last verse in the song, I always change the words to: "it's my last one today."

5. Drivin' Nails in My Coffin – Larry Welborn
I was playing guitar at a place called Tommy's Danceland in Lubbock. That was in about 1954. I was in a group called Cal Wayne and the Riverside Ranch Hands and all we played was country. This song is one of the standards we always played. It had been recorded by just about everybody - Floyd Tillman, Ernest Tubb, Webb Pierce, and Merle Travis. Anyway, Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery came out where I was playing to hear my band. We took a ride in the car during one of our breaks, and they asked me if I could play bass. Well, I figured, if I could play guitar, I could play bass. So I borrowed a bass fiddle from Lubbock High School and joined Buddy and Bob. We played a lot of country, and then rockabilly and later rock and roll. After Buddy saw Elvis perform in 1955 all he wanted to do was play rock and roll.

6. Remember Me – Larry and Travis Holley
Larry: I first heard this song by T. Texas Tyler, just after the war, in 1946. He really belted it out. Travis and I worked out our singing parts. It is a very pretty song, and has always been one of our favorites. Later, when Paul McCartney came to Lubbock, he asked us to play a song, so we chose this one. Travis: When I was in the Marines there were a couple guys who played the guitar and who did this song. I liked the way they sang it. After I got out of the service I bought a guitar and learned how to play this song. It is a beautiful song, really.

7. Suitcase Blues – Judy Luis-Watson
This song by Sippie Wallace has been a part of my repertoire for a long time. The words speak to me because I've been there. Sippie Wallace is a legendary singer, songwriter, and piano player from Texas, and I am a huge fan. Sippie Wallace is well known as the "Texas Nightingale," so I thought this might be a good song for this West Texas Roots recording project. I really enjoyed playing piano for these sessions. It was fun to add a blues flavor to the country mix, and it was an honor to play with all the fine musicians and singers. Everyone made me feel welcome right away. It was a great musical adventure.

8. Softly and Tenderly – Larry and Travis Holley
Larry: This is a beautiful old hymn we have sung in our church for years. I have been going to church since I was 11 years old. That was back in 1937. We lived out in the country, and it was pretty humble. We lived in a two room house, with no electricity. We had coal oil lamps. Dad worked in town. After awhile we started coming into town to go to church. I can remember singing this hymn when I was just a kid, and we still sing it today. You can go to our church and still hear the old songs, now over 65 years later. Travis: I remember those times well. They were pretty bleak. Buddy was just a baby. We didn't have much of anything, but it didn't really matter, because we didn't know any different. We were all pretty happy just the same.

9. Faded Love – Bob Wills' Texas Playboys – Scott Porter
It was a real honor to sing with the Texas Playboys. No other band comes close. Faded Love has always been my favorite, and it is one of Bob Wills' signature songs. The spoken narrative about Bob Wills is done by Leon Rausch, the Playboys' vocalist. He tells that story every time the Playboys perform, and it is really beautiful. So lonely and true.

10. Long Time Gone – The Flatlanders - Joe Ely
We are all huge Buddy Holly fans. When we heard about this project I wanted to get the right song. Long Time Gone really fits. We learned Long Time Gone from an old Everly Brothers record – Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. It is an old Tex Ritter song. It has a sad lonesome feel and beautiful harmonies. It really captures that old time sound.

11. Statue of a Fool – Larry Welborn
This song starts off slowly, and then really builds up. Many country and early rock songs from the 1950's built up this way. It also has great chord changes, it’s not just a three chord progression. Although it was written in 1962, which is after Buddy's time, it has that old time sound. When we were recording this project it kind of snuck in, and it sounded so good that we decided to keep it.

12. & 13. I Saw The Moon Cry Last Night (2004) / (1953) – Jack Neal & Buddy Holly
Buddy and I had a friend named Don Guess, and he was always coming up with titles that he thought would be good for songs. So that is how this song came about – Don suggested the title and I wrote the song. That was in 1949. I hung onto it for awhile, and Buddy and I played it at KDAV on our weekly radio show. Back then we played a lot of country duets. We recorded it during 1953 in the little studio at KDAV. You can hear Buddy on lead guitar, and me on rhythm guitar and vocals. I remember we were really nervous. We recorded straight to acetate, and if we made a mistake we couldn't go back and fix it. But we got a really good take. Fifty one years later, during the sessions for this CD, I chose to record this song again. I'm playing piano on the new version. The new recording went pretty much the same way -- I went over the song a couple of times with the band, then we recorded it in one take. We really nailed it. The new version has a nice swing feel.

14. When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold – Larry and Travis Holley.
Larry: When we were growing up, we used to love to listen to the old country music. Travis and I rode our bikes downtown to deliver newspapers and we used to go to the Busy Bee Café. They had a jukebox and we would listen to Ernest Tubb, Jimmie Rogers and Roy Acuff. After the war we listened to Hank Williams, Ted Daffan, and lots of others. Buddy liked country music, and before he hit it big in rock he toured with Marty Robbins and Hank Snow. Travis: I learned this song after I got out of the Marines. It was sung by Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan. They were local favorites in Lubbock, and we heard them all the time on KDAV. Occasionally we got to see them perform live. One time Larry and I got to go downtown and play onstage with them during a live radio broadcast. They had a huge hit with this song, and I have always liked the way they sang it.

15. Careless Love – Paul Watson
Careless Love is one of my favorite tunes. In between recording sessions at the studio I happened to mention it to Tommy Allsup. Somehow or another, we ended up jamming on it several times during the project with no intention of recording it. Then, twenty minutes before we were to leave for the airport, Tommy suggested that we record it. We got a really nice take. What a pleasant surprise.

16. Gotta Travel On – Billy Grammer
I met Tommy Allsup in 1962 and he told me that he and Buddy had played Gotta Travel On during their tours. I never knew that Buddy had played my song and it was an honor to find that out. I was in Turkey, Texas for the Bob Wills Festival this year, and I met up with Tommy again. We talked about the old times with Buddy, and Tommy told me about this project, so I recorded this version. I still get requests for this song, and I play it all the time.

17. Just Because – Paul Watson
I learned this song from legendary country blues guitarist John Jackson. John was a friend and inspiration. John's wide repertoire included several country tunes. John told me that he learned Just Because from Texas honky tonk singer Ernest Tubb. Coincidentally, when we were recording this project, I spoke with Buddy Holly's brothers and they said that Just Because was one of Buddy's and their favorite songs when they were young. When I was invited to participate in this recording, I knew what I wanted to do - Just Because!

18. Rehearsal (That'll Be The Day) – Larry Welborn
This is a snippet of a rehearsal for a show we did during these recording sessions. That's me singing, Robert Reynolds on bass, and Carl Bunch on drums. When I play That'll Be The Day, I always tell people, "I played bass on that song, I didn't sing." Back when I was with Buddy, we used to rehearse at Buddy's house, and sometimes at Bob's house. When we went to record That'll Be The Day, we loaded up the bass in Buddy's Oldsmobile and drove up to Clovis. We had some supper at a drive-in, and then went to Norman's studio. We were recording on a two-track tape machine, so we pretty much had to get it right the first time.

19. I Hear the Lord Calling For Me (1953) – Jack Neal & Buddy Holly
This is a gospel song. Buddy and I were hanging out with our friend Don Guess. Don suggested the title, and I wrote the song. We were all pretty church minded back then. Buddy and I always used to end our radio shows with a gospel song. We recorded this on the other side of the acetate we made at KDAV in 1953. It’s just a pretty gospel song.

20. Goodnight Irene - Jack Neal / Carl Bunch / Larry Welborn
When the word started to spread about this project, musicians from all over wanted to contribute. Players flew in from Nashville and California. Buddy's original band members brought old friends. The project took on a life of its own. More than thirty musicians came together for a week of recording, playing, and performing. Some of the best times were the informal jams outside of the studio. This song represents the spirit of that week. When we went to record this song we called everyone into the studio and cut a live ensemble track. You can hear the laughter and happiness at the end.