Tex Morton (born Robert William Lane in Nelson, New Zealand,
also credited as Robert Tex Morton; (30 August 1916 – 23 July 1983) was a
pioneer of New Zealand and Australian country and western music, vaudevillian,
actor, television host and circus performer.
Morton was born the eldest of four to Bernard William Lane,
a postal clerk and Mildred Eastgate and attended Nelson College between 1930
and 1931. He attended Haven Road and Nelson Boys’ schools, and then Nelson
College (1930–31), where he was described as a good student who loved singing
and playing the guitar. He was fascinated by radio, learned Morse code and
became a boy scout. Despite running away from home several times, he remained
the apple of his family’s eye.
Lane wanted to be an entertainer. During the depression he
became an itinerant musician and swagger, busking on street corners and
offering guitar lessons at a shilling a time. He is said to have founded New
Zealand’s first country music club, in Nelson, and around 1932 he recorded
about 20 songs in Wellington. Possibly the first commercial recordings of
country music outside the United States, they were played on radio stations in
Auckland and Nelson. About 1933 he caught a ship to Australia.
Lane fell back on the rough-and-tumble life of a hobo,
working daredevil jobs in construction and sideshows, before establishing a
reputation as a country and western singer in Sydney. In 1936, under the stage
name Tex Morton, he recorded four songs for the Regal Zonophone label, and
within two years he was the biggest music sensation either side of the Tasman.
Known as the ‘Yodelling Boundary Rider’, Morton added sharp-shooting and
whip-cracking to his repertoire, and began touring Australia with his own Wild
West Rodeo show. On 24 November 1937, in Sydney, he married Marjorie Brisbane,
a salesgirl and model; they spent their honeymoon in New Zealand. Twin sons
were born in 1941, but the couple separated soon after.
Morton was composing and recording at an astonishing rate:
between February 1936 and May 1941 he released at least 90 songs. Although they
were not the first Australasian songs in the hillbilly style popularised by
Goebel Reeves and Jimmie Rodgers, they rate as the most significant. Morton
collected folk songs from the Australian bush and added music to ballads made
famous by poets Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson. In these songs, such as
‘Wrap me up in my stockwhip and blanket’, and in his own compositions, ‘The yodelling bagman’ and ‘Wandering stockman’, he fused turn-of-the-century Australian poetry with American country music, and helped create the modern legacy of Australian country music. A poster from his pre-war peak claimed sales of 10,000 records a month in Australia and New Zealand, rivalling Bing Crosby.
‘Wrap me up in my stockwhip and blanket’, and in his own compositions, ‘The yodelling bagman’ and ‘Wandering stockman’, he fused turn-of-the-century Australian poetry with American country music, and helped create the modern legacy of Australian country music. A poster from his pre-war peak claimed sales of 10,000 records a month in Australia and New Zealand, rivalling Bing Crosby.
During the Second World War Morton entertained Allied troops
in Australia and the Pacific. In 1949 he toured New Zealand, where he recorded
a further 12 singles for the Tasman label, and became the first life member of
the Composers, Artists and Writers Society of New Zealand. He sold his rodeo
show and moved to Hollywood and then Montreal. By the early 1950s he was
transformed into ‘The Great Morton’, setting box-office records in North
America with his one-man show of singing, poetry, rope-spinning,
sharp-shooting, hypnotism and extrasensory perception demonstrations. Under the
name Dr Robert Morton he opened a clinic in Toronto which earned an
international reputation in hypnotism.
About 1955 he returned to Hollywood to
appear as a cameo actor in television and films. In the late 1960s Morton toured New Zealand several times
and compèred the popular ‘Country Touch’ television series. Returning to
Australia during the early 1970s, he became a notable character actor in
television and films, and reached the top three in record sales charts with a
song about a racehorse, ‘The Goondiwindi grey’. At Tamworth in January 1976 he
became the first person elevated to the Australasian Country Music Awards Roll
of Renown; the following year he was inducted into its Hands of Fame.
Morton remained a ham-radio enthusiast throughout his
career, with numerous worldwide contacts. But even after all-night radio
sessions, he was careful with his appearance. He was described as ‘meticulous
almost to the point of conceit’ with his dress, wearing ‘silk ties, and always
the best stetson hat’. He was of average but wiry build, and stood out as a
conversationalist. His sister recalled, ‘Our mother always used to say he
swallowed a packet of gramophone needles when he was a child’. He also gained a
reputation for being generous with his fortune.
In 1982, at his final major public performance, Tex thrilled a crowd of 5,000 people in the 2TM Big Top erected in Tamworth for a series of super shows and the Country Music Awards.
He died in Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital on 23 July
1983, after a short battle with lung cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were
buried in Nelson beside his parents, his plaque bearing the epitaph ‘A
Millionaire in the Experience of Life’.
(Edited from Encylopedia of New Zealand & Wikipedia)
2 comments:
For “Tex Morton - The Legendary Sings
The Hits Of Country Music's Yesteryear (2019)” go here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wld6aagudu8tuhx/Tex_Morton.rar/file
1. Wabash Cannonball (3:01)
2. I've Got You Right Out of My Mind (2:54)
3. Hallelujah I'm a Bum / The Great American Bum "We Are Three Bums" / I Don't Work for a Living (3:54)
4. Don't Make Me Go to Bed and I'll Be Good (3:12)
5. She Was Happy Til She Met You (2:27)
6. One Golden Curl (2:56)
7. Wrap Me Up with My Stockwhip and Blanket (2:26)
8. Slipping Around (2:39)
9. He Holds the Lantern (While His Mother Chops the Wood) (3:21)
10. Frankie and Johnny (3:04)
11. My Daddy Is Only a Picture (3:07)
12. In Eleven More Months and Ten More Days (3:45)
13. You and My Old Guitar (2:54)
14. The Cat Came Back (3:00)
15. Old Man Duff (3:25)
16. I've Known the Truth (2:58)
17. The Story of Parson Joe (3:31)
18. Just Because (2:44)
19. May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister? (3:11)
20. Rose of Shenandoah Valley (2:29)
21. They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree (1:38)
22. Waiting for a Train (2:12)
23. When You Have No-One to Love You (2:41)
24. Treasure Untold (2:49)
25. The Letter Edged in Black (3:16)
26. I'll Never Slip Around Again (2:45)
27. Railroad Boomer (2:53)
Originally hailing from New Zealand before finding fame in Australia, Tex Morton was a vaudeville and touring show entertainer whose early recordings outsold Bing Crosby on the local market. This set contains unique versions of classic country hits sung with just Tex or his guitar with his distinctive Jimmie Rodgers styled runs and also with his band, The Roughriders.
A singer, yodeller, poet, hypnotist, sharpshooter, mind-reader and actor - Tex could, and did, do it all! His musical and showbiz career spanned across six decades and saw him perform around the world. All the material on this set is freshly remastered from original discs. (Jasmine notes)
A big thank you to Polar Bear @ forwardwiththe song blog for original post.
This singer has some really great songs about horses, rodeos and so forth. His voice was distinctive and, when heard on the radio, everybody knew who it was singing. Thanks Boppinbob.
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