From:   "Dik de Heer"  
Date:  Sun Nov 9, 2003  2:43 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Huelyn Duvall (2)

Johnny Vallis sent me this. Though it isn't Huelyn's birthday and
Duvall already received the BTBWY treatment on August 18, 2002,
I'll forward it to the list.

Dik

HUELYN DUVALL

A History by Johnny Vallis

Born Huelyn Wayne Duvall on August 18, 1939 in Garner
Texas to Bill and Ila Duvall. When he was born he was
welcomed with a sister Doris (7 years old) and a
brother Bob (3 years old). Then to be followed four
years later by another sister Ruthie, two years after
Ruthie, Carolyn was born.
His Father was a school teacher, his mother was a
housewife. He got his first guitar when he was 14, most
of the influences were the local radio which was
country music. Huelyn"s Father was the superintendent
of the school in Huckabay, where he graduated in 1957.
The school only had about 300 students total. It was in
nearby Stephenville (population was about 10,000, known
for Dairy Cattle Milk Production), that Huelyn got
involved with recording.

In 1955-56 he started hearing alot of rock and roll
artists such as Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Buddy
Knox, Buddy Holly and several others. In 1956 while
still in high school Huelyn met Lonnie Thompson (a lead
guitarist) he was in college. They both liked the new
music and started playing together. At a local radio
station they would record enough songs on the weekend
to have one played each day the following week. Next
weekend start the process all over again. One day the
owner of a dairy that Lonnie worked at (milking cows)
said that we would sound better if we had a slap bass.
Lonnie found Ralph Clark at another college close by
and we began to work together.

Lonnie had a Les Paul custom guitar and Ralph Clark a
blonde bull bass. Huelyn's dad bought him a Gibson J50
guitar (after his Harmony guitar had "Got Squashed
under one of the new styled power seats"). James
Mathison a drummer joined the group shortly after and
Johnny Thompson (Lonnie's twin brother) played rhythm
guitar and backup vocals with Lonnie. Between February
and September 1957 the group did approximately 50 local
shows from high schools to colleges to radio stations
to theaters to sock hops to everything in between. They
became regulars at the Majestic Theater in Ft. Worth at
the Cowtown Hoedown and at the Big D Jamboree in
Dallas. They weren't allowed to play rock and roll at
the Cowtown Hoedown until one night with a packed
house, Huelyn told the band that they were going to
rock the house and see what happened. Several encores
later, rock and roll was there to stay. The Group had
even taken a country name (Huelyn Duvall and the
Troublesome Three) to please management.

In the summer of 1957 Lonnie introduced Huelyn to Danny
Wolfe who was a musician, singer and songwriter. They
quickly started to put material together for a
recording session as Danny had got Huelyn a contract
with Challenge records, a Gene Autry company that had
just gotten started. The first recording session was at
the Owen Bradley Studio in Nashville on September 27,
1957, they recorded "Teen Queen", "Comin' Or Goin'",
"Boom Boom Baby" and Pucker Paint. Grady Martin played
lead guitar, Floyd Cramer on Piano, "Buddy" Harmon on
drums and The Jordanaires. Huelyn was very disappointed
that his band was not going to be used on the session.
They had played so much together and all of them had
become very good friends, but Huelyn had no control
over that. They wanted to use studio musicians. (The
Troublesome Three never played professionally again
though they remain good friends to this day.)
January 27, 1958 Huelyn did his second session for
Challenge at Goldstar Studios in Hollywood. He recorded
"Fools Hall Of Fame", "Friday Night On A Dollar Bill",
"Hum-m-m-dinger" and "You Knock Me Out". This is where
he met Dave Burgess. Huelyn did dates in Los Angeles
and San Diego at the same time in Auditoriums.He also
had a session set to cut a couple of instrumentals with
some local musicians from the area. They had no lead
guitar player and he was asked to sit in on the
session. However, he declined because he couldn't play
lead guitar. The main cut was called "Train To Nowhere"
and needing a B side they hurriedly put together a cut
called "Tequila". Huelyn provided some oooh's and aah's
on "Train To Nowhere" and yelled Tequila! at the end of
the instrumental. As Huelyn said "It turned out to be
the closest I ever got to a hit record".

Before Huelyn left Hollywood Dave Burgess and him
agreed to do a two month stint in Las Vegas. Dave had
connections and the money was going to be very good.
However, a Disc Jockey in Cleveland turned the record
over to the B side Tequila and the rest is history.
There went the Las Vegas show and it seemed all the
promotion on Huelyn's records. It was the first hit for
Challenge and they seemed to drop everything else.

May 25, 1958, Huelyn had just recorded his third
session at Owen Bradley's studio in Nashville. He
recorded "Juliet", "Three Months To Kill" and "Little
Boy Blue". Huelyn recalled "No one seemed to care at
Challenge even though it made #88 on billboard top 100
and the top 10 in Los Angeles. At that time you could
have a hit in one part of the country and never heard
in another. Even though I had 2 managers I was getting
very few bookings. I suppose everyone was waiting for
one of the songs to hit without promotion. Once again
what does an 18 year old from Texas know?"

"Three Months To Kill" was never promoted in the USA.
Huelyn had one other opportunity that he was not told
about until later. Lew Chud of Imperial wanted to sign
him to do a song that he"d cut a demo for Rick Nelson.
"They would not let me out of my contract." recalls
Huelyn. After the May 1958 Nashville session he kept
waiting for something to happen but it never did. He
signed a seven year acting contract with Republic
Pictures to do a movie a year. Once again nothing ever
happened.

Huelyn played a show in New Orleans right after "Little
Boy Blue" came out with Bobby Darin, Jimmy Clanton,
Dale Hawkins and several others. The Memorial
Auditorium held 6,000 people and it was packed! The
stars signed autographs for 2 hours. Huelyn remembers
"It seemed every where I ever performed I was well
received."

Danny Wolfe built his own recording studio in 1958.
They recorded the two remaining records on Starfire
"ACROSS THE AISLE" and "ITS NO WONDER". Also on Twinkle
records "BEAUTIFUL DREAMER and "TEAR STAINED LETTERS".
The studio musicians included a local songwriter and
guitar player named Jimmy Green and Tooter Boatman's
group The Chapperals. Danny wrote a lot of songs and
Huelyn recorded most of them at one time or another.
Huelyn kept thinking that Joe Johnson at Challenge and
Danny Wolfe were going to set him up some tours and
shows as they had promised. They were both managers at
10 percent each per contract. They kept saying that the
next release would be a hit.
In 1959 he went to Tarleton State College in
Stephenville where Lonnie also went to school. At that
time without a hit record and no management support,
there was no way of make a living in music and
supporting a band. Between 1959 and 1960 Huelyn played
Friday and Saturday nights at a place called ANDY'S in
Strawn about 25 miles from Stephenville. They were
called Huelyn Duvall and THE ARROWS. The posters on the
wall read "DANCE To The Sharp Music Of The ARROWS".
Tooter Boatman's Group played there during the week and
on Sunday. Things were looking up personally. Huelyn
met Sandy at her job in Ft worth, the same placed his
brother worked. "I went to see him one day and fell in
love with a beautiful young secretary." Huelyn
remembers. He found out later that she had been at one
of his concerts at her high school and she knew of him.

Huelyn and Sandy married July 1, 1961 and moved to
Houston where they spent nine years. From 1962 through
1969 Huelyn worked in computers for Systems Services
Co. in Houston and also attended the University of
Houston. Their first daughter DeLayna was born March
28, 1962 and Leah (Named after the Roy Orbison classic)
was born April 2, 1965. In 1970 worked for a large
electronics component manufacturer in Mineral Wells as
Director of Data Processing until 1980. In 1980 went to
work for Brazos Valley Computer Center in Mineral Wells
doing bank computer processing as the Executive Vice
President and later owner of the business.

The mid-80's saw a resurgence in original rockabilly
artists and many of them started to perform again. In
1985 Huelyn was approached by Cees Klop to perform in
Europe. The first show was in Eindoven, Holland at the
Rockhouse 25th Annual Rock and Roll Meeting with Eddie
Bond and Janis Martin. Next it was to London for the
famous "Mean Fiddler" venue produced by Willie Jeffery.
The Dave Travis band played for both shows. All the
shows were sold out and the crowds were excited to see
Huelyn back singing the great songs he had recorded in
the 1950's.

Huelyn states "It's not that I couldn't or wouldn't do
it on my own, I just feel if I had been with the right
management things might have been different. Different
for the good or bad I will never know."

"Little Boy Blue" was a charted Billboard hit in 1958.
Eddie Cochran told Huelyn it was one of his favorite
songs when they worked together in Fort Worth. He
recorded "Boom Boom Baby" two year prior to Billy
"Crash" Craddock. His version's of "Double Talkin"
Baby" was sent to Gene Vincent as well as "Modern
Romance" for Sanford Clark.