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an amDassaaor ror country music — the pure old sound that takes one back to the roots of country music.
With the resurgence of interest in country music in the last decade or two in this country, Tex is more popular than ever. The clean vocal and instrumental numbers by Tex, Slim Dusty and American groups like the Carter Family are classics. There are no electric instruments, just acoustical.
Of his performances and lectures for students in Rappahannock schools on previous visits he says he’s always been amused at the questions children ask. “They always want to know why I talk funny,” he says with a chuckle, “and I tell them ‘I don’t talk funny, Americans talk funny,’ and they laugh. Then I teach them a little Australian, words like wallaby, wombat, emu, kangaroo, kukabara, billabong and didgeridoo. Those are Aboriginal words.”
Some of the words are known to the children he talks to, Tex said, such as kangaroo. Some are not, like didgeridoo. He explains, “A didgeridoo is a long hom-like instrument which the Aboriginals play and it has only two notes. It sounds twangy and is made of hollowed out bark of trees which termites have eaten through. People thought the Aboriginals burned a hole through the wood and hollowed them out but that’s not the case. If you’ve seen ‘Crocodile Dundee’ then you’ve heard them.”
Tex has even turned his home in Melbourne into a museum. He calls it Meridian, alter Jimmie Rodgers home town, and has collected innumerable mementos and country music paraphernalia. “I never got married because I never throw anything away. All the girlfriends I had would come here and after a while they’d say ‘We need to get rid of that ‘junk’ or we need to clean up this area’ and I’d show them the door,” he laughs.
Tex is also active in the Australian American Association, founded during WWH, which helps to promote young Australian entertainers and working to maintain the friendship between countries. “We have to keep the friendship going and work toward good will.”
Tex gets no compensation for his work with children or young performers. He does it because he wants to spread his love of music and life to others. He’s a self’-made man who has earned his living doing what he loves best — making music, and friends.
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