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Coming
north out of Beaumont
on Highway 96 in the 1950s, one passed through a community called
Voth. Driving through now on a modern, four-lane freeway, one is
hard pressed to find that place so familiar then when the old road
cut an "S" to cross the railroad tracks. Just on the southside of
the crossings sat a beer joint named "Neva's," and there, my father
said, was where Lefty Frizzell sang about a girl who was "always
late" with her kisses. I heard Frizzell sing that song dozens of
times on Radio Station KTRM and knew of him as a headliner in the
C&W business. He was just that, for a time, until Elvis Presley
and rockabilly music left Frizzell's beer joint ballads behind.
William Orville R.C. Frizzell was born in Corsicana,
Texas, on March 31, 1928, to an itinerant oil field worker and
his wife who moved around Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, following
the work. Lefty Frizzell appeared on a children’s radio program
late in the 1930s, and by the time he entered his teens had begun
entertaining at local fairs, beer joints, and dances. Frizzell's
twangy voice and guitar accompaniment reminded some who heard him
perform of Jimmy Rodgers, although there is a consensus among those
who study this genre that Frizzell did not deliberately imitate
the Singing Brakeman. Frizzell cut his first recording for Columbia
Records in 1952 and remained a headliner for the company for nearly
a decade. His most successful recordings included "If You’ve Got
The Money, Honey, I've Got The Time," "I Love You A Thousand Ways,"
"Long Black Veil," and "Always Late." His last Top Ten recording,
"Saginaw, Michigan," was released in 1964.
When Presley,
Jerry Lee Lewis, and other entertainers became dominant in Country
Music, Frizzell returned to appearances in the dance halls, beer
joints, fairs, and rodeos where he began his entertainment career
in the 1940s. Frizzell died in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 19,
1975.
Country music
historian Bill Malone considers Lefty Frizzell a leader of the field
during the 1950s that influenced the style of such later major entertainers
as Willie Nelson and George Jones. The latter also began his career
in entertainment in Jefferson County, and likely sang for his supper
in Neva's—and dozens of other dance halls and beer joints where
the lights are low and the girls all get prettier at closing time.
Anyway, that's they way it was, when Lefty sang "Always Late."
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