Dick Dyson

Another musician very active on the Dallas scene in the decade after WWII, Dick Dyson is far less biographically elusive than Homer Clemons or Gene Crabb. He was also far more prolific with releases not only on local labels like Blue Bonnet and Tri-State, but also on Bullet and Decca. Born near Gatesville, Texsa in 1914, he came to Dallas in the 1940's and by mid-decade was playing in bands at joints like the Old Top Rail and the Sky-Vue, as well as working on radio with the Crazy Water Gang. In 1946, he and Buddy Griffin led a band at Carlsbad, New Mexico, though by 1947, when he signed to Herb Rippa's Blue Bonnet label, Dyson was back in Dallas leading his own Blue Bonnet Boys (also billed as the Musical Texans and Texas Cowhands). In addition to backing Stoney Carlisle and Jack Kenny on sessions, the band cut at least six releases for Rippa under Dyson's name. The stomping "You Waited Too Long Blues" features crooner Johnnie Pearson, who had recorded with Bill Boyd in 1941, in a rare blues mold; fiddler Ted Hodges, trumpeter Chubby Crank, the Bob Dunn-worshipping steel guitarist Ken Lasater and Dyson on lead guitar all solo, while longtime Texas Playboy pianist Al Stricklin also makes an appearance. (Al Stricklin was on all of Dyson's Blue Bonnet releases and a number of his Tri-State releases, as well.) Dyson's bassist Billy Stewart later became a longtime member of Hank Thompson's Brazos Valley Boys, while drummer Ray Shaffer also cut Blue Bonnet releases with Tiny Colbert and Eddie Miller (as did trumpeter Chubby Crank). In 1948, Dyson signed with Tri-State and enjoyed a regional hit that summer with his cover of "Cocaine Blues," which was picked up by the Coast label in California. The following year, he had one release on Bullet and recorded a last, very bluesy session for Decca in 1954. The unissued "Whistlin' Blues" written by Dallas scene bassist Liston Weaver and sung and played by Dyson on an informal demo, betrays the depth of Dyson's debt to black blues (and his rural Texas roots), a very convincing performance, full of Blind Lemon Jefferson-inspired guitar work -- Dyson's widow recalls that his blues performances always brought black kitchen workers out front to listen at clubs. Dyson worked with Al Dexter and Dexter's ex Rosa in her Dallas nite club house band in the 1950's, then drifted out of professional music, teaching guitar in later years. He died in 1976; longtime friend and musical partner Ken Lasater, who later married Dyson's widow, remained semi-active in the Dallas area until shortly before his death in 1997.