Huelyn Duvall born 18 August 1939

Huelyn Duvall (born August 18, 1939) is an American Rock and roll and rockabilly musician.

Born Huelyn Wayne Duvall on August 18, 1939 in Garner Texas to Bill and Ila Duvall. His Father was a school teacher, his mother was a housewife. He got his first guitar when he was 14, most of the influences were the local radio which was country music. 

Huelyn"s Father was the superintendent of the school in Huckabay, where he graduated in 1957. The school only had about 300 students total. It was in nearby Stephenville (population was about 10,000, known for Dairy Cattle Milk Production), that Huelyn got involved with recording.

In 1955-56 he started hearing a lot of rock and roll artists such as Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Buddy Knox, Buddy Holly and several others. In 1956 while still in high school Huelyn met Lonnie Thompson (a lead guitarist) he was in college. They both liked the new music and started playing together. At a local radio station they would record enough songs on the weekend to have one played each day the following week. Next weekend start the process all over again.

Lonnie had a Les Paul custom guitar and Ralph Clark a blonde bull bass. Huelyn's dad bought him a Gibson J50 guitar (after his Harmony guitar had "Got Squashed under one of the new styled power seats"). James Mathison a drummer joined the group shortly after and Johnny Thompson (Lonnie's twin brother) played rhythm guitar and backup vocals with Lonnie. Between February and September 1957 the group did approximately 50 local shows from high schools to colleges to radio stations to theaters to sock hops to everything in between. They became regulars at the Majestic Theatre in Ft. Worth at the Cowtown Hoedown and at the Big D Jamboree in Dallas.

In the summer of 1957 Lonnie introduced Huelyn to Danny Wolfe who was a musician, singer and songwriter. They quickly started to put material together for a recording session as Danny had got Huelyn a contract with Challenge records, a Gene Autry company that had just gotten started. The first recording session was at the Owen Bradley Studio in Nashville on September 27,
1957, they recorded "Teen Queen", "Comin' Or Goin'", "Boom Boom Baby" and Pucker Paint. Grady Martin played lead guitar, Floyd Cramer on Piano, "Buddy" Harmon on drums and The Jordanaires.

                                

During the 50’s Duvall performed with Eddie Cochran, Johnny Horton, Bobby Darin, Dale Hawkins, The Champs, and others. His Little Boy Blue charted on Billboard in 1958 and Eddie Cochran told him it was one of his favourite songs. Duvall recorded Boom Boom Baby two years prior to Billy "Crash" Craddock and his version of Double Talkin' Baby was sent to Gene Vincent as well as Modern Romance to Sanford Clark.

By 1959 without a hit record and no management support, there was no way of make a living in music and supporting a band. Between 1959 and 1960 Huelyn and his band played Friday and Saturday nights at a place called ANDY'S in Strawn about 25 miles from Stephenville. They were called Huelyn Duvall and The Arrows. It was around this time Huelyn met his future wife Sandy. They married July 1, 1961 and moved to Houston where they spent nine years.

From 1962 through 1969 Huelyn worked in computers for Systems

Services Co. in Houston and also attended the University of Houston. Their first daughter DeLayna was born March 28, 1962 and Leah (Named after the Roy Orbison classic) was born April 2, 1965. In 1970 worked for a large electronics component manufacturer in Mineral Wells as Director of Data Processing until 1980. In 1980 went to work for Brazos Valley Computer Center in Mineral Wells doing bank computer processing as the Executive Vice President and later owner of the business.

The mid-80's saw a resurgence in original rockabilly artists and many of them started to perform again. In 1985 Huelyn was approached by Cees Klop to perform in Europe. The first show was in Eindoven, Holland at the Rockhouse 25th Annual Rock and Roll Meeting with Eddie Bond and Janis Martin. Next it was to London for the famous "Mean Fiddler" venue produced by Willie Jeffery. All the shows were sold out and the crowds were excited to see Huelyn back singing the great songs he had recorded in the 1950's.

His dynamic stage act continues to this very day as he regularly tours with top Swedish group “Wildfire Willie & The Ramblers”. A strange side note to Duvall's career: it is his voice yelling "Tequila!" at the end of the hit 1958 instrumental by the Champs. 

(Mainly edited from rockabillyhall.com)

Rockabilly legend, Huelyn Duvall Rockin' it up with the song "Teen Queen" backed by the Howlin' Hound Dogs and Iz, at the Red,Hot & Blue Rockabilly Fest. on Labour day weekend,Sept.2011 in Montreal,QC,Canada.