TEXAS MUSIC IS LOVED GOEBEL REEVES For NOVEMBER 12th 2014 Goebel Leon Reeves (October 9, 1899 – January 26, 1959) was a Sherman Texas born Western and Folk singer/songwriter. His most famous song is Hobos Lullaby, which he and numerous singers did as well. Of those, notably was Woody Guthrie and years later Woodys son Arlo. Reeves grew up in Austin while his father was a shoe salesman. His father rose from selling shoes to become a member of the Texas State Legislature. His mother taught the voice and piano. In 1917 he enlisted in the army as a bugler; he was wounded in frontline action WWI. He was discharged and in 1921 adopted the life of a hobo, writing and singing songs as he travelled. It was from this time that an aura of mystery surround the life of the Texas Drifter. He travelled to Italy as a merchant seaman in the mid-1920s and toured Europe. But Europe was not ready for the Drifter and so, broke and hungry, he stowed his way back. He arrived in Galveston in 1929, and the first sound he heard was a Jimmie Rodgers record playing from a record store. Reeves big break came in 1931. He was invited to join the clientele of a high-class New York restaurant and clutching his guitar, in he went. Graham McNamee, an NBC announcer, introduced him as the The Texas Singing Bum to Rudy Vallée, who immediately placed Reeves on his network radio show. Reeves was a great success, and signed an NBC contract for three and a half years. Reeves, not being the worlds greatest accountant, divided several meals into $3.50. But when he got his pay check he was shocked; the three and a half turned out to be $350. e. His last sessions were in 1938 for the McGregor Transcription Recording Co. of Hollywood, California. These were numerous but not of his usual high vocal standard. The last transcriptions for McGregor were poems read to a strumming guitar, just before he joined the Wobblies (the Industrial Workers of the World). In the 1940s Reeves was semi-retired in Bell Gardens, a Los Angeles suburb. He lived completely alone, having lost touch with family and all his friends. Goeble Reeves died of a heart attack in Long Beach Veterans Hospital on 26 January 1959 .
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 03:39:47 +0000