Dick Curless born 17 March 1932

Richard William Curless (March 17, 1932 – May 25, 1995) was an American country music singer best known for singing truck-drivin' songs such as "Drag 'Em Off the Interstate, Sock It to 'Em J.P. Blues." A tall man with an eye-patch and rich baritone voice, Curless was often called the "Baron of Country Music," after one of his popular songs, "The Baron."

The Trail Riders

Curless was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, United States, and moved with his family to Massachusetts at the age of eight. After his high school years, Dick joined a local western band called the Trail Riders, and at 17 he began touring with country singers Yodeling Slim Clark, Hal Lone Pine and Al Hawkes. A year later, in 1950, Dick moved to Bangor, Maine, but the Trail Riders continued playing and doing some small-scale tours. Dick made up the stage name "Tumbleweed Kid", and soon got his own radio show in Ware, Mass. At that time he made his first recordings for the New York City-based Standard label, and also met his future bride Pauline, to whom he got married in 1951.

Life seemed to smile at Dick for once, but then somehow all the happiness turned to a fully opposite direction. Though Dick had a bad eye (which is why he had to wear an eye-patch) and serious heart problems, he was drafted and sent to the Korean war in 1952 for two years, first as a truck driver and later as a radio host with the stage name "Rice Paddy Ranger" and he also made a popular recording, "China Nights", under that name. After coming home in 1954, Dick continued to appear in radio and television shows. He also did some one-night stands in local joints (Silver Dollar House in Bangor, for example). When his health condition started to fail, he simply walked away from the spotlights and returned to his home area in Maine, spending almost a year in the wilderness, totally separated from publicity and without singing a single note during this time.

In 1956, Curless returned to the public spotlight and appeared on the CBS television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He spent much of the late 1950s performing in clubs in California and Las Vegas but occasionally returned home to Maine to recover from periods of illness and fatigue. While in Maine, Curless recorded several singles including "China Nights" at Event Records with Al Hawkes, but his budding career was interrupted by an ill health.

Eventually he temporarily left the music industry and bought his own lumber trucking vehicle in Maine.

In 1965, Curless recorded one of the biggest hits of his career, "A Tombstone Every Mile", which cracked the top 5 on the Billboard country charts and propelled him to national fame and soon was working with such stars as Gene Hooper, Lone Pine, and Betty Cody. From 1966 to 1968, he toured the nation with the Buck Owens All American Show. The pinnacle of his career came in the late 1960s with eleven top-40 hits, including "Six Times a Day (the Trains Came Down)". Altogether, he recorded 22 Billboard top-40 hits throughout his career.

                               

In 1970 Curless signed to Capitol and scored a Top 30 hit titled "Big Wheel Cannonball," based on the classic "Wabash Cannonball." The follow-up, "Hard, Hard Traveling Man" (1970), made it to the Top 40.

In 1975 Dick had most of his stomach removed, but he never really recovered from his health problems. However, it didn't prevent him from recording 20 new songs in 1976 at the Hilltop company's studios in Tennessee with Curtis McPeake & the Nashville Pickers (released only in Europe on an album called "CB Special"). Soon thereafter Dick experienced a religious transformation, and retired slowly from the music business, even though MR Records issued some of his singles in the late 1970's.

During the 70’s and 80’s he recorded infrequently and eventually became a born-again Christian. He was inducted into the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame on April 30, 1978, and got the DECMA Country Music Pioneer Award in 1982.

He released the albums Welcome to My World and It's Just a Matter of Time in Norway in 1987. The albums were successful in Europe, especially in Norway and Germany. In 1989 Dick's own Allagash Records issued the LP "Close Up", which was a tribute to his all-time singer-songwriter favourites and colleagues, including Smokey Rogers, Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Pee Wee King and Brook Benton

By 1992 Dick worked at the Cristy Lane Theater in Branson, Missouri, and appeared randomly in TV and memorial concerts. In Germany he was a big star all the way to the end, and in the early 1990's he made his last recordings there, with the German singer Tom Astor.

In 1995 the world saw the last comeback of Dick Curless, but tragically it wasn't meant to last long. The "baron" passed away on May 25, 1995, aged 63, shattered by stomach cancer, right after his strongly emotional Rounder album "Travelling Through" was released. (Edited from AllMusic, Wikipedia & Black cat Rockabilly)