Like so many performers, the Masseys began as a family band in their native Texas, led by Harry “Dad” Massey. Of his eight children, he raised three brilliant musicians: Victoria Louise, born in Hunt County, Texas, August 2, 1902; Allen, born in Midland, Texas, December 12, 1907; and Dott Curtis, also born in Midland, May 3, 1910.
The family moved to the Hondo Valley of New Mexico, just west of Roswell, in 1914, and the three youngsters quickly demonstrated that they had inherited the musical skills of their fiddlin’ father. Before long, Dad Massey had himself a fine family band with Louise on vocals and piano, Allen on guitar, and curt fiddling and playing trumpet/cornet and singing as well. When Louise became a teenage bride in 1919, her husband, multi-instrumentalist Milt Mabie, was simply added to the act on string bass, and the little family band turned professional and began touring in 1928.
After a couple of years on the road, they landed a spot on WIBW in Topeka, Kansas, then began a five-year run at KMBC in Kansas City where they added Californian Larry Wellington on accordion. This led to their being hired by what, at the time, was the nation’s premier radio bard dance, the National Barn Dance over WLS in Chicago. It was there that their down-home songs done with great musical sophistication brought the admiration of rural and city listeners alike. In addition, they dressed with great Western flair, making them one of the first acts to add a considerable visual impact to their stage show.
The Masseys began recording about this time as well, cutting primarily Western material for the American Record Corporation’s galaxy of Depression era labels, including O’Keh, Conqeror and Banner among many others. Their first recording session was October 13, 1933, in which they recorded three fine Western tunes “The Cowboy’s Dream,” “The Trail to Mexico,” and “The Big Corral.” Their early repertoire remained very heavily Western with songs like “There’s An Empty Cot In The Bunkhouse Tonight,” “Old Pinto,” “Rounded Up in Glory,” “Beautiful Texas,” “El Rancho Grande,” “The Cowboy’s Dream,” “Carry Me Bac to the Lone Prairie,” and many others, both cover songs and originals. They eventually recorded over 100 titles, sometimes billed as The Westerners, and sometimes billed as the Massey Family. Their billing became even more scattered by the mid-1930s when it was sometimes Louise Massey and The Westerners, sometimes Curt Massey & The Massey Family. There were even a few old-time fiddle tunes released as Henry A. Massey (Dad of The Westerners). Eventually, of course, Louise’s glamor and romantic vocals led to the name we now know best: Louise Massey and The Westerners.
Next they took their increasingly sophisticated sound to New York, appearing in a network radio show called “Show Boat” over NBC, and then returned to Chicago to star in “Plantation Party” before landing their own starring series, “Log Cabin Dude Ranch,” in which Louise played the musical proprietress of a dude ranch. They even found time to appear in one singing cowboy western, a 1938 Tex Ritter Monogram feature called “Where the Buffalo Roam.”
The group hit their stride just past the turn of the decade, scoring two huge hits: “The Honey Song (Honey I’m In Love With You)” and, of course, the immortal “My Adobe Hacienda” in 1941 – a huge hit for them. It was recorded by Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and virtually every Western singer of the era. The song also became a pop hit with Eddy Howard’s harmony-laden 1947 version.
Milt and Louise had dreamed about building their adobe getaway since the 1930s and eventually retired to it while their career was very much in full swing. “We had done all the things we had set out to do,” she recalled. “I wanted to come home…It was time for us to enjoy our own life.” They enjoyed their adobe hacienda – which is now on the National Registry of Historic Places – in Roswell, New Mexico, until Milt’s passing in 1973. Louise followed a decade later.
As for the rest of the Westerners, Larry Wellington remained in Chicago and active in music until his death in 1973. Allen Massey went west, worked in radio and with the Hossier Hot Shots and died in 1983. Curt probably had the most successful long-term career of all as a musician, band leader, singer, and radio and television actor as well as host, arranger, producer, and songwriter. Among his many credits was the theme to the television series “Petticoat Junction,” which he wrote and performed. Curt died in 1991.
Although best remembered today for that one brilliant song, a closer look at their career reveals musicians of enormous breadth and talent. They brought a visual flair that was far ahead of their time and, indeed, paved the way for the showy outfits we now associate with the golden era of the singing cowboy. Likewise, their musical sophistication made Western Music accessible to legions of listeners who may have otherwise never learned to care for the music of the West. Douglas B. Green
Talents: Singer
Awards:
- 2013 Hall of Fame Inductees