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Ferlin Husky

b. 3 December 1925, on a farm near Flat River, Missouri, USA. Husky learned to play guitar as a child and during World War II served in the US Merchant Navy. His mother wanted him to be a preacher and his father a farmer, but after discharge, he found radio work as an announcer and disc jockey but gradually turned to performing while at KXLW St. Louis. In the late 40s he moved to California, where he appeared on the Los Angeles Hometown Jamboree and played clubs in the Bakersfield area. Believing that Ferlin Husky, his real name, was unsuitable, he first called himself Tex Preston, then changed again to Terry Preston. He also developed an alter ego country philosopher character, Simon Crum, whom he introduced into his act. (A few years later, Sheb Wooley also adopted a similar practice with his character Ben Colder, who sought to entertain with his supposed humorous parodies on popular and country songs.)

In the early 50s, he recorded for Capitol Records and worked with Tennessee Ernie Ford. In 1953, as Ferlin Huskey, he recorded "A Dear John Letter" with Jean Shepard, which became a smash US country number 1, as well as reaching number 4 on the US pop charts. An answer version called "Forgive Me John", also had success in both charts. Following success with his self-penned "Hank's Song" (a tribute to Hank Williams), Huskey finally dropped the name of Terry Preston. In 1957, now minus the "e" again, Husky joined the Grand Ole Opry and achieved another smash hit number 1 with his million-selling recording of "Gone", which, ironically, he had first recorded unsuccessfully as Preston five years earlier. In 1960, he charted a further country number 1 with the gospel/country "Wings Of A Dove", which also became a Top 20 pop hit. He recorded "The Drunken Driver", a tear-jerking narrative about a father who runs over his son, which has been rated a classic by some and one of the worst recordings ever made by others.

He became a popular entertainer on many network television shows, including hosting the Arthur Godfrey Show and appearing as a dramatic actor on Kraft TV Theatre. While not always singing traditional country material, he maintained his country popularity through the character of Simon Crum. In this guise, he demonstrated a great talent for impersonating other country stars, presenting rustic comedy, and even managed a number 2 country hit with "Country Music's Here To Stay". He recorded an album of pop songs called Boulevard Of Broken Dreams in 1957 and also recorded several rock 'n' roll singles such as "Wang Dang Do". Husky has appeared in several films including Mr. Rock & Roll and Country Music Holiday.

From the 60s to the mid-70s, he toured extensively with his band, the Hush Puppies, and had regular country chart entries including "Once", "Just For You", "True True Lovin'" and "Freckles And Polliwog Days". He moved to ABC Records in 1973 and achieved a country chart entry, "An Old Memory Got In My Eye", in 1975. Husky has been married six times and has nine children, one of whom is called Terry Preston. In 1977 he had a heart operation but he recovered and continued to perform and record.

More about Ferlin
 

Ferlin Husky was just a wiry 25-year-old with a guitar and a pencil-thin mustache when he moved to Bakersfield in 1950.

He stayed less than four years.

But they were four productive years, both for Husky and the talented performers he found, fostered and befriended.

The Mississippi native was calling himself Terry Preston when, in 1950, he moved from Salinas to Bakersfield to take a job as a disc jockey with KBIS. The show was broadcast live from the Rainbow Gardens, a big hall located on what was then Bakersfield's main drag, Union Avenue.

During his four-year stay, Husky, also a budding recording artist, gradually worked himself from behind the turntable to the front of the stage. His band, the Termites, became the star of the show, held before an all-ages crowd every Friday and Saturday night. No matter how poor or dirty their jobs -- farm laborers and oil-field workers comprised the bulk of the customers -- people almost always came "cleaned up," usually in Levi's and western shirts, perhaps a few cowboy hats. Some wore suits.

It was a special occasion, the highlight of their week, and ticket prices reflected it: $2 was a steep charge for many. But the dance hall was nothing special to see. It had the acoustics of an airplane hangar and the intimacy of a school cafeteria. Of course, it wasn't any worse than the competing dance halls of the day: the Beardsley Ballroom, the tiny Rhythm Roundup, and Cousin Ebb's Pumpkin Center Dance, among others.

"The stage was three feet off the floor, and there were no tables, just benches all the way around the hall," Husky said. "There was no liquor or nothing, just a place outside, so many feet from the building, where you could get wine and beer."

Cousin Herb Henson -- later to star on his own television program, KERO's "Trading Post Show," which was broadcast five days a week from Bakersfield's El Tejon Hotel -- performed at the Rainbow Gardens. So did Fuzzy Owen and Lewis Talley, who would later start Tally Records and give an ex-con named Merle Haggard his first show-biz break.

"They had some great performers," Husky said. "Whenever they'd put on a show, people would stand up and pack up to the front. I always liked that."

During his stay here, Husky and his wife took in Tommy Collins, a 21-year-old singer from Oklahoma who, in 1951, visited Bakersfield with a girlfriend and, seeing the star-making potential of the still-evolving club scene, decided to stick around. Collins, who later wrote George Strait's "If You Ain't Lovin', You Ain't Livin'," and some 300 other songs, lived in a room on the top floor of the Huskys' home on Monterey Street.

Husky gave Collins, whose given name is Leonard Sipes, more than just room and board, according to Husky: He gave Collins his stage name, vital professional direction, even some assistance developing his singing style. He also showed Collins how to handle rowdy crowds, something the Rainbow Gardens had in abundance.

"There were some tough old boys there and they liked to fight," Collins said. "And fights would break out. I mean bad ones. There've been killings. I have watched Ferlin more than once ... come down off the bandstand and put an arm around each one of them's waist and walk outside with them. And how he kept them from fighting, I don't know."

A year after Collins moved in, the Huskys took in Dallas Frazier, a 12-year-old songwriting prodigy from a ranch near the Pumpkin Center labor camp, who'd won a talent contest at the Rainbow Gardens. Frazier, who roomed with Collins, went on to pen the '80s hit "Elvira" and another 300 tunes. In 1948 Husky signed with 4-Star Records, in part because he knew that the Maddox Brothers and Rose, one of the dominant West Coast country groups of the 1940s, was signed to that label. But by 1952 he had moved to Capitol Records. And while he waited for his big break, he played guitar in the local clubs, first with Bill Woods' Orange Blossom Playboys and then in Tommy Collins' band.

In 1953, that big break arrived: "A Dear John Letter," a duet with Jean Shepard of Visalia, became a national hit. Husky shaved off his Clark Gable mustache and hit the road to trade on his new fame. Collins, in need of a replacement, eventually hooked up with a young picker from Sherman, Texas, named Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. -- a promising but raw musician (and former Orange Blossom Playboys bandmate) who, according to Husky, benefited from the influence of his predecessor.

Owens succeeded thanks in part to "the tone of his voice, a trebly, penetrating sound that I set for him," Husky said. "That real whangy-dangy, penetrating nasal sound: that's Buck."

In 1953, Husky forever parted with Terry Preston, the stage name he had used in his earliest professional recordings and stage appearances (he had also recorded as Ferlin Huskey, adding an extra "e" to his last name). Husky's father, abetted by Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson, had finally convinced Ferlin that his given name had as good a "country" ring as any he might invent.

With Shepard, Husky recorded another hit, "Forgive Me John," a sequel to their breakthrough song, and then won acclaim for "Hank's Song," a tribute to Hank Williams, who had died in 1953. Husky and his comic alter ego, Simon Crum, were now "name" performers.

In 1957 he re-recorded a song he had cut five years before, as Terry Preston, on the West Coast. The difference between the two versions of "Since You've Gone," Husky said, aptly exemplifies the difference between the Bakersfield and Nashville sounds. "When I re-recorded it in Nashville in 1957 as Ferlin Husky, I used an echo chamber and a choir, a group of singers. The first time, it was just me, a drummer and a couple of guitars."

Later in 1957, Husky demonstrated his versatility by playing a featured acting role in a "Kraft TV Theater" play, and in 1958 he made his movie debut in a film starring Zsa Zsa Gabor and singer Faron Young, titled "Country Music Holiday."

Husky had few hits in the years that followed, but in 1967 he reached the Top 10 with "Once." And in 1974 he made the charts with two singles: "Freckles and Polliwog Days" and "Champagne Ladies and Blue Ribbon Babies," both written or co-written by his old friend and protege, Dallas Frazier.

Now 71, Husky is in his seventh year performing in Branson, Mo. Husky (and his old sidekick, the ubiquitous Mr. Crum) has been performing most recently at the Box Car Willie Theater in Branson.

 

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