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Mandolinist

By Michael Mendelson so I guess some of my musical background

EOPLE LOVED TO hear Bob Wills came from my mother's side of the family.

R holler; it was his trademark. But Bob

didn't just holler for anybody. The leader
of western swing's seminal Texas Playboys
On my dad's side of the family, some of
them played a little bit; but my dad never
played. Grandfather played fiddle, but I
would only let go when the music was just don't remember hearing him. I just remem­
right. When he called out: "The biggest ber hearing that he played."
Httle instrument in the world! Tiny Moore Tiny had barely started school when his
and his mandolin!" he must have raised a family moved to Port Arthur, on Texas's
few eyebrows. A mandolin. in a western Gulf Coast. It was there that he had his first
swing band? music lessons. "When I was six or seven
But there it was, played by Billie "Tiny" years old we moved to Port Arthur," he
Moore-a native Texan, a Texas Playboy, recalls, "so most of my growing up was
later one of Merle Haggard's Strangers, done there. Before I finished high school,
and one of the finest western swing instru­ my brother Dee Moore, who was ten years
mentalists of all time. Tiny has been playing younger than I, had a bad case of asthma
the fiddle and mandolin for 50 years, and and couldn't live in the climate; so my dad
he has become so highly respected by got transferred to Dallas, and soon after we
acoustic mandolin players that they often moved back to Energy. I had taken violin
forget he plays virtually all his music on an lessons in Port Arthur, formal violin lessons. Tiny left the group, and Hamilton
electric mandolin. But whether playing with And this was a time when, if you had a County, after graduation. His father, unable
or without amplification, he has been a sig­ 'legitimate' violin teacher, you just did not to make the fann pay, had already moved
nificant influence on a whole generation of play popular music of any kind. My mother back to Port Arthur. The rest of the family
string musicians. would buy the popular songs of the day­ followed after the school year ended. Tiny
"I was born in Hamilton County, Texas, 'Highways Are Happy Days,' I can think of went to work in a Port Arthur grocery
on May 12, 1920," he relates. "I say 'county' several old songs like that-and we'd play store at $8 a week. Soon, however, he met
because it was out on the farm; the name them at home. My teacher found out about a young tenor banjo player named Woody
of the community is Energy, Texas. At one it and really raised Cain; she really didn't Edmuston. Edmuston knew a still younger
time it had two stores. Today it is back to like that at all. Now, after we moved back guitarist named Jimmy Wyble, who was
one store, which is also the post office and to Energy, I had a great uncle who played later to play with Bob Wills and to become
the local gathering place. There's not even fiddle and a little guitar. He and 1 played a well-known jazz artist in his own right
a school or a church there now. My mother together, along with my mother and a [see Frets' sister magazine Guitar Player,
taught piano. They tell me she used to put couple of cousins, at school parties and June '77]; and the three began working
me in the buggy when I was a youngster, things like that. My first paying job was a together.
and go to people's houses and teach piano; typical country dance, where a family would "Jimmy and Woody and myself played
take all the furniture out of a couple of together in Port Arthur for a while, doing
rooms and invite the neighbors. My uncle little things like clubs," Tiny says. "Back
and 1played that and 1made 75 cents. Boy, then we played popular music. We didn't
1 was rich there for a day or two. So that's necessarily play country songs. In those
really the way 1started in, playing fiddle and days I was not a fan of the Grand Ole
guitar." Opry, [ must say-of the old 'blood on the
Tiny's first performance experience with highway' songs. So we did whatever songs
a band, aside from his high school orchestra were popular at the time. We copied a lot
in Hamilton County, was with a group of of Benny Goodman things, espeCially from
fellow high school students who called them­ the Goodman sextet; so even then I was
selves the Clod· Hoppers-not to be con­ thinking swing."
fused with the early Nashville string band Tiny acquired his nickname during the
by the same name. As a fiddler and gui­ same period. "I got the nickname of 'Tiny'
tarist, he played with the group for two from Woody," he says. "At the time I grad­
years prior to his graduation from high uated from high school, I was the biggest
school, in 1937. thing in the class. I weighed 267 pounds.
"There was the rhythm guitar and a I've had a weight problem all my life-still
singer, bass fiddle, tenor banjo, and trum­ have it, but now it's under better control."
pet," he recalls. "We were kind of a swing About 1940, Tiny began working in a trio
band. We played at a lot of store openings ith'. another jazz guitarist, Lloyd Ellis, "We
and things around town. As I remember, it played around Port Arthur a little bit-not
was not too bad a band." too many jobs, but playing fOl: enjoyment,"
20 FRETS MAGAZINE/FEBRUARY 1980
he recalls. "I probably learned more then
about jazz than I did in anyone other
period. We decided to try a band and take
it to Mobile, Alabama. We had a steel
'player, a guitar player, a bass player, and
myself. Back in those days, you got a radio
program to publicize where you were going
to be playing, and you played the radio for
nothing. So we got our radio program,
moved into this one·big·room apartment
plus kitchen-all four of us-and proceded
to starve for about a month because there
was no work to be had! We finally got a
couple or three jobs, played the radio pro·
gram and a couple of clubs. We worked in
a hotel cocktail lounge for a month, I guess.
It didn't go over too well. We just had to
give up, and I went back to Port Arthur."
It wasn't long before Tiny-still primar­
ily a fiddler-got his first taste of bandlead·
ing and recording. "I went to Louisiana with
a Cajun band by the name of Happy Fats
and his Rainbow Ramblers," he says. "We
lived in Rayne, Louisiana, and our program
was in Lafayette on KVOL. Not long after
that I got in with a group in Port Arthur
called the Jubileers' [not the same as the
Port Arthur Jubileers, who recorded for
Decca]. The band was originally formed to
advertise the Sears and Roebuck company.
I finally took the band over, and we made
some records on the Bluebird label. That
was my first recording work. Then I got a
chance to go with a band in Houston called
the Crustene Ranch Gang [named for the
sponsor, Crustene shortening]. They had a
weekly radio show over the Texas Quality
Network, plus a station in Little Rock. We'd
go around and play store openings, celebra·
tjons, and dances. Gee, we made forty or
fjfty bucks a person at those dances. It was
good for maybe a year or so. From that
point the world war broke out. I got my
'greeting' [draft notice] in 1943 and went
into the Air Force. I spent two years of that
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as a radio
operator and teacher."
The seeds of Tiny's mandolin career
were sown just prior to his hitch in the
service. "I had started playing mandolin
right before I went into the Air Force, on an
electric mandolin," he remembers. "It was
a homemade instrument that a fellow made
for me. I've still got it. There was a guy in
Houston by the name of Leo Raley, who
played the first electric mandolin I had ever
heard. I heard him on the radio. Now, Leo
didn't play any jazz; he played strictly lead.
And there was a young feHow from around
Port Arthur and Beaumont who played a BRUCE MUSIC KURLAN MUSIC CENTER AKA PSALTERY MUSIC
swing-type thing, except I've forgotten his FT. WORTH, TX WORCHESTER, MA ORANGE, CA
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tian on records, and I admired him very HILDEBRAND MUSIC JONES·POTTS MUSIC CO. DAVE PERRY GUITAR &
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Hawkins was a favorite of mine. I also ad· HUFFMAN'S FOR MUSIC THE FIFTH STRING LAKELAND, FL
mired a steel guitar player named Bob Dunn. CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA GREENVILLE. SC FAZIO'S FRETS AND FRIENDS
[Ed. Note: Dunn began his influential career DES PERES, MO
in 1934, with Milton Brown and the Musical
Brownies. See "Steel Guitar: The, Western
Continued
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FEBRUARY 1980lFRETS MAGAZINE 21

MOORE
Swing Era," Guitar Player, Dec. 79.] Dunn
could make a steel guitar sound more like a
tenor sax than anybody I ever heard, the
way he used phrasing, so I tried a little bit
to do that style. We were playing dance
music, so we tried to play things that would
swing and make people want to dance."
After mustering out of the service, Tiny
went back to Port Arthur. During the war
he had halved the number of strings on his
mandolin, reacting-like many other musi­
cians-to the string-shortage scare that
grew out of wartime metal scarcities. "I
liked the single-string setup better, after 1
got used to it," Tiny says, "and I never did
go back. It was a little bit easier to finger, Bob called me over and asked if I had a ever, then maybe fd come up with a lick. It
but mainly I liked the sound. It sounded mandolin there. We went out to the car was strictly a community-type thing.
more like an electric guitar, and I was trying and dug out the little amplifier and the "Now, two fiddles-this was something
to copy people like Charlie Christian and mandolin, and I set it up on the counter else. I think it helped my musical ability
other early jazz guitarists." there in this little restaurant. They plugged tremendously, working with Bob and with
He soon got a chance to display his it in for me in the back, and I auditioned on Joe Holley and Louis Tierney. Joe played
developing style to bandleader Bob Wills. the stool there in the diner. And after that one certain part-I think it was above the
"One Sunday night in the summer of 1946, I worked in the band with Bob for about lead that Bob was playing-and Louis was
Bob Wins and the Texas Playboys were in four years.» playing the other part, below the lead. Well,
town at the Port Arthur Pleasure Pier, a Tiny, who was then using a Gibson elec­ those two would work for a while, then
place out on the big lake there," Tiny says. tric mandolin, found the experience of play­ leave the band, work somewhere else and
"I had become acquainted with Junior ing with Wills an unforgettable one. "Bob come back. As a result [to fill in], I learned
Barnard, one of his guitar players, while Wills was a tremendous bandleader," he both parts on the fiddle and learned how to
working at the shipyards in Houston before says. "For instance, a lot of times he might do both kinds of harmony."
I went into the service. I asked Junior if not start with us, and we never would really Tired of traveling, Tiny eventually de­
there was any chance of getting on the be sure if he was going to be there if he cided to put down roots in' Wills Point,
band, but he said he was sure Bob wouldn't didn't start with us. So we would work our California, near Sacramento. "In early 1950
be hiring anybody. So a drummer friend of tails off, trying to make the band sound as I came out to Wills Point," he says. "I was
mine, Richard Prine, and I were going to good as possible so the people would not still working for Bob, but now I was manag­
take a Httle trip up through Dallas, up to be too irate. But the minute he stepped on ing the Wills Point Ballroom. I felt we needed
Oklahoma, and look for work~to see if we the bandstand, the band would sound a local band to help us get some radio
could find a band that needed a drummer entirely different, just from his leadership. publicity, so after a few months I called Bob
and a fiddler/mandolin player. Right after He was just a natural leader, that's all. and asked if he would send out Billy Jack
the dance we decided to take off. We drove "We worked out strictly 'head' arrange­ Wills, who at the time was married to my
through Beaumont, which is 15 or 16 miles ments [simple four or five bar riffs to set the wife's sister, Evelyn [the McKinney sisters,
from Port Arthur,and we went past this melody]. Most of the swing-type arrange­ Evelyn and Dean, worked for a number of
Httle sandwich stand-we called them 'pig ments that we did were done on our own. years as vocalists in Bob's band]. About
stands.' We decided we'd better go back After I joined the band, Eldon Shamblin the middle of 1950 we got on radio KFBK in
and get us some coffee and a sandwich, [guitar-see Guitar Player, April '75] and Sacramento. Our band was small-five or
because it was a long way to Houston. We Herb Remington [steel guitar] usually six pieces-but it was very successfullocally~
drove back, and there were Bob Wills, worked them out. Then after Johnny While working with what became known
Tommy Duncan, and Billy Jack Wins sitting Gimble [fiddle and mandolin] joined, he as the Billy Jack Wills Band, Tiny began
in there eating. Richard had met Bob, so he would be in on it, too. Eldon might start pondering the advantages of having an
went over and started talking with him. out, 'Let's try this for four bars,' or what­ extra string on his mandolin. During an
appearance in Los Angeles, he met in­
novative instrument builder Paul Bigsby and
asked Bigsby if such an instrument were
feasible. "I got to thinking that the extra
string would give me a lot more mobility
and a wider range," Tiny recalls, "Paul
Bigsby said he'd be glad to give it a try, so I
ordered it right there, that night. But I didn't
get it for a year." The 5-string electric man­
dolin, with the same scale length as Tiny's
Gibson electric mandolin but with a wider
fretboard, arrived in 1952. Tiny has been
playing it ever since. It is tuned C-G-D-A-E,
bottom to top, incorporating on one instru·
ment the ranges of both the mandolin and .
the mandola. Tiny says he uses standard
Black Diamond mandolin strings, with a
guitar sixth string for his C string. Currently,
he changes strings about once a month,
though when he had a heavier performance
Continued

22 FRETS MAGAZINE/FEBRUARY 1980

MOORE After leaving Wills, Tiny continued In 1970, Merle Haggard gathered a .
schedule he changed them weekly. He uses entertaining on his own. He got a job on a number of the original Texas Playboys to
a medium-gauge "Tiny Moore Music Cen­ local television station, and for the next five record a tribute album to Bob Wills. That
ter" f1atpick. years he was known to the younger set in session brought together a number of mu­
Two years after switching to his S-string, Sacramento as Ranger Roy, while working sicians who had not seen each other for
Tiny was briefly reunited with Bob Wills. as a musician on the weekends. Around many years, and Tiny was one of them.
"Bob came out here in the latter part of 1961 he lost his job at the station as the The release of A Tribute To The Best Damn
1954," Tiny says, "and decided he was result of a strike. He then decided he needed Fiddle Player In The World (or, My Salute
going to just work with us one night a a more stable economic base, so he opened To Bob Wills) (Capitol, ST 638), probably
week and take it easy. Well, Bob was not the Tiny Moore Music Center (2331 EI did more to revitalize western swing music
the type of person to do that. It had to be Camino, Sacramento, CA 95821). He has than any other record of the decade. In
his band; it had to be his show. That was had it ever since, and he continues to teach 1973, another album was recorded, the last
the makeup of the man. And he couldn't guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. He also main­ one on which Bob Wills was to appear. For
stay in one place very long. So after we tains a small retail outlet, his most unusual The Last TIme (United Artists, UA LA216­
tried this for only a month or two in early item being an electric S-string mandolin J2) was a fitting memorial to the father of
1955 he decided he was going to go on the custom built by Jay Roberts of Yuba City, western swing.
road again. I didn't want to go, so that's California. The instrument is patterned after Through these recording sessions, Tiny
where we parted company." Tiny's original Bigsby. and the other ex-Playboys were brought
out of retirement. Tiny became a member
of Merle Haggard's Strangers for a period
of about three years from 1973 through
1976.· He still works with Haggard when·
ever the band is in the Northern California
area, playing with the Strangers and making
arrangements for hiring local talent. Tiny
has also "rediscovered" his old friend Eldon
Shamblin, the man whom Tiny character­
izes as "the best rhythm guitar player in the
world, as far as I'm concerned." Even
though Eldon lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the
two veteran musicians make a point of get­
ting together whenever they can.
With the growing popularity of fiddling
and western swing, Tiny has. been more
and more in demand as a performer. An
active member of the California Old Time
Fiddlers Association, he is a frequent parti­
cipant at contests. As part of the Blender
Trio" with his wife Dean and guitarist Vern
Baughman, Tiny appeared at the Western
Regional Folk Festival near San Francisco
in 1978. For the past two years he and
Shamblin have taken part in South Dakota's
annual Split Rock Swing Festival, put on by
the South Dakota Friends of Old Time
Music. They are scheduled to appear again
this year.
The most recent highlight of Tiny's
career came last year, when he was invited
to record an album on the Kaleidoscope
label with Jethro Burns [Frets, Oct. '79].
As if the two mandolin wizards (plus pro­
ducer David Grisman [Frets, Mar. '79]
sitting in on a couple of cuts) were not
enough, the rhythm section was a jazz
player's dream: Eldon Shamblin on guitar
Shelly Manne on drums, and Ray Brown
on bass. The album was titled Back To
Back (Kaleidoscope [Box 0, El Cerrito, CA
94530], F-9), and initial response (see "On
Record," p. 58) has been so good that
Kaleidoscope has plans for a solo Tiny
Moore album later this year. Four decades
after his first recording dates, Tiny Moore
is still laying down some of the hottest man­
dolin tracks ever put on record. III

For an in-depth look at Tiny Moore's

style, see David Grisman's "Mandolin" col­
umn on page 78.
26 FRETS MAGAZINE/FEBRUARY 1980