T. Texas Tyler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

T. Texas Tyler (born 16 June 1916, died 28 January 1972) was a country music singer and songwriter, primarily known for his song, The Deck of Cards.

He was born just outside Mena, Arkansas as David Luke Myrick. Tyler recorded first for Black & White Records (Los Angeles) within "The Six Westernaires", - from September 1945 onwards extensively for 4 Star Records (Hollywood) until the end of the 1950s. Some now legendary recordings in the country boogie (or pre-rockabilly) style were produced for the company with top session musicians on steel- and electric guitar, e.g. the driving instrumental "Guitar Boogie Woogie" (4 Star-1114; recorded in May 1946). The accompanying group of musicians were billed as "The Oklahoma Melody Boys" additionally on the record labels. He wrote and performed a spoken word record The Deck of Cards in 1948 and was a frequent performer on Grand Old Opry and Louisiana Hayride, as well as having his own Television show in Los Angeles, California in 1950. Some of his 4 Star recordings were leased to US.-Decca Records from 1952-1955. His career hampered at the end of the 1950s, because of personal problems, although some albums on King Records (USA) with 4 Star material and hymns have been released. Finally he was enjoying a fine revival in the 1960s, when he recorded 2 albums (one containing hymns) for Capitol Records and in 1966 another one for Starday Records.