Tommy Hancock
| Tommy X Hancock
(Singer and fiddler often called the | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 25, 1929 Lubbock, Texas Later resident of Austin, Texas |
| Died | January 2, 2020 (aged 90) |
| Spouse | Charlene Condray Hancock Five children: |
Tommy X Hancock (March 25, 1929 – January 2, 2020) was a singer and fiddler who played for bands on the South Plains of Texas. He was called the “godfather of West Texas music."
After military service as a paratrooper and policeman at the end of World War II, he performed with the Cotton Club band in his native Lubbock. The band was named the Roadside Playboys, “connoisseurs of hillbilly swing,” according to Curtis lee Peoples (born 1967), the archivist of the Crossroads Music Archive at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library in Lubbock. After a fire, Hancock opened another Cotton Club in the 1960s and then a third Cotton Club after still another fire. His club was a place for cowboys and the counterculture, according to the Texas State Historical Association.[1]
Hancock was an early supporter of acts like Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Sonny Curtis, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock (no relation), and the second-generation Maines Brothers Band. He and his wife, the former Charlene Condray (born 1938), a native of Morton in Cochran County, also in West Texas, and their children left Lubbock in the 1970s. After numerous moves, they settled in 1980 in Austin. The family toured for years as The Supernatural Family Band. Charlene Hancock and daughters Traci Lamar and Conni later performed as The Texana Dames.[1] They also had a son, Tommy Joaquin Hancock (born 1961), a resident of Austin.
Hancock was also a dancer. In 1998, he published a book “Zen and the Art of the Texas Two-Step." Some called him “Lubbock’s original hippie” and used LSD, according tto a 2004 profile in The Austin Chronicle.[1]
Archivist Curtis Peoples said he first met Hancock in the 1990s and worked to bring the Tommy and Charlene Hancock Family Paper Collection to the Crossroads Music Archive. The material includes recordings of the Hancocks' music, manuscripts, and photographs. Peoples described
Hancock as a string that runs through decades of Texas music. Kenny Maines of the Maines Brothers Band, said that he played at the Cotton Club for Hancock when Maines was a young teenager. Maines called Hancock a "larger-than-life" personality who was willing to experiment with his music to get the best product.[1]
Tommy and Charlene Hancock were named to the West Texas Walk of Fame in 2012.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Sarah Self-Warbrick (January 2, 2020). 'Godfather of West Texas Music' Tommy Hancock dies at 90. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved on January 18, 2020.