Country music is one of the most popular and commercially successful forms of music in the world. Ironically, it is this same commercial success and intense marketing spotlight on the contemporary that has obscured the music's roots in the small towns and rural regions of the American heartland. Cowboy song, popularized on the silver screen in the 1930s and 1940s, and Texan country swing modeled after Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys were two essential ingredients in the evolution of country music.
For veteran Texas country musicians who preferred to "stay home" rather than to follow Nashville's faddish lead, Texas country roots music is as alive and contemporary as it was in its commercial heyday.
Don Walser was born in 1934 in the small Texas Panhandle town of Brownfield and grew up in nearby Lamesa. His mother died when he was 11, and his father worked nights as a cotton mill superintendent. To fill the solitude of the daylight hours, he listened to the music of West Texas plains on the radio and watched the early cowboy crooners at the movie theater. He began to sing as a young boy, learning the songs, style, and yodeling skills of his musical models.
He joined the National Guard at 15 (claiming he was 17), married his wife Pat at 17, and raised a family of four children. Instead of leaving West Texas to pursue his musical career on the road or in Nashville, he stayed home to devote himself to his family, playing clubs, VFW halls, and honkytonks at night and on the weekends. After 45 years with the National Guard as a mechanic, a superintendent, and an auditor, he retired.
Don passed away on September 20, 2006 and this website is a tribute to his legacy. He will be missed by his family, friends and fans all around the world.