Lives Lived - Tex Emery Passes
Tex Emery
Emery Anthony Herperger
September 6, 1930 - August 17, 2023
By Robert Thomas
“Tex Emery died. He was a hell of a character. Was on the Grand old Opry. I'd really like you to go to R&S restaurant and talk to (name redacted) about him for a story. He deserves acknowledgment. The man just lit up a room. He was special,” one of my readers wrote to me.
Emery, for those who do not know, was called “The Legend” in not only local but also throughout the country music world.
He was a western Canadian country star on television and radio.
He had played for royalty seen stage lights from big and little venues almost everywhere all this in the 1940’s and 1950’s when the lap steel guitar was without today’s pedals.
Weddings, anniversaries, TV shows, concerts, whether big or small Tex Emery had seen them all in 70 years of show business.
When the industry changed to the present pedalled instrument Tex Emery was a purist remaining true to the instrument’s roots.
“Straight steel was where Tex originally shone. With the old stuff you couldn’t touch him,” Saskatchewan country music legend Brian Sklar said about Tex’s C6 jazz tuned lap steel guitar.
“Tex” emery Anthony Heroberger at one of his steel guitars
The jazz tuning itself is not what is now called the standard or traditional for steel guitars with pedals.
Tex staying true to his straight steel guitar in some ways left him behind in the evolution of country music.
But in other ways he shone by staying true to the foundations of country music. This is the stuff legends are made of - determination and talent.
Despite his championing the straight steel guitar Tex Emery at the same time explored and played other genres of music.
A consummate gentleman known not just for his music but also for his multitude of stories and making making the rounds and coffee row much more exciting and electric when he was there, is how local seniors described him.
He was a self taught steel guitar musician who not only played with some of the well known giants of country music but he was also their friend.
He appeared on stage with the likes of Gene Autrey, Hank Snow, Wild Carter, Grandpa Jones, Bob Wills, Hal Lone Pine and jazz guitarist Lenny Breau amongst others.
Although he never appeared on the Grand Old Opry stage Tex Emery had been called on numerous occasions to back up some of the venues most famous performers as part of the Ray Little Gang.
Tex Emery had lived in Regina - where he sold real estate - and also Halifax and in the end he made his home in Moose Jaw. The likely reason we never met.
And yes, in his final years he lived in Moose Jaw - or rather an acreage near Rouleau.
Sklar knew Tex Emery not only from the music business but because Tex Emery was the realtor Sklar bought his present house from 30 years ago.
Despite Tex Emery never playing with Solar’s band Sklar one year had travelled to Winnipeg for a steel guitar show with Tex Emery being one of the two people Sklar was interested in listening to.
“Tex is a legend and I remember him from the Ray Little Gang on the radio as a kid in Prince Albert. They didn’t have the show on TV in Prince Albert it was just on the radio,” Sklar said.
Sklar spoke at length about a time gone by in the 1960’s when on Saturday afternoons local television stations would broadcast live music from local area musicians.
The golden age for local country music and Tex Emery was part of it.
It all got me thinking just exactly who was Tex Emery and what made him so special?
What sort of man was he to be awarded the Legends and Legacy Awards from the Saskatchewan Country Music Association in the 1990’s?
Lenny Blinski is a steel guitar player with Lenny and the Gypsies Band who admits he never met Emery but he knew of his music and the effect Emery had on the industry.
Growing up in the 1950’s he had fond memories of Tex Emery’s television show.
“I remember watching him on local television as a child with my dad and I thought oh man he is pretty good. But at that time I didn’t know a lot about music,” Bliniski said.
Despite not ever meeting Tex Emery his name was still out in Canadian Country Music circles and he was a trailblazer in the day of the pure Country movement.
A time where the great Hank Snow performed classics such as “I’ve Been Everywhere” and before that performed for Queen Elizabeth at the Calgary Stampede.
When Snow played for royalty at the Calgary Stampede it was national news - and Tex Emery was right there with another band playing right along.
“I never met him because I was on the road a lot for 20 years…but I can say he was well respected and really good steel guitar player,” Biliniski explained.
Asked about ‘The Legend’ monicker assigned to Tex Emery it was something that was fitting for the man.
“I was quite impressed with him,” Bilinski said about Tex Emery and his playing the Jazz Neck and Texas Swing steel guitars.
Bilinski himself is no slouch in the country music industry on the road for 20 years being part of the opening act for k.d. Lang when she was still strictly a country music musician.
Despite not meeting Tex Emery in person Bilinski says Emery still overshadows his recent shows with people coming up to ask him if he knew Emery and to present them with their condolences.
“He was quite a bit older than me,” Bilinski said adding Tex Emery influence was felt in the industry.
Many who played with Tex Emery who really knew him have sadly passed on.
Tex Emery and the ray little gang playing live at CKCK TV Regina in the 1960’s. The iis still in the television station’s lobby - photo credit Twitter Bilinski said about Tex Emery “I think, almost everybody if they didn’t know him, they had certainly heard of him and his music.
Tex Emery was born in Stockholm, Saskatchewan on September 6, 1930 and his formative years growing up were during the Great Depression. As a 17 year old teenager he taught himself to play the steel guitar.
It was a devotion that lasted throughout his 70 years as a musician that turned into a mission and a passion to pass on an appreciation for the instrument.
Tex Emery became a champion for the steel guitar in hopes of making sure the instrument was not forgotten and pushed out.
Donny Young was one of Tex’s longtime friends knowing him since the late 1950s.
During this time Tex Emery was a member of the Ray Little Gang who are on CKCKTV from the mid-1950s and into the 1960s.
The group would perform Friday evening and then head down to Minot, North Dakota to produce a live show that ran from noon until 1 PM and then head back to Regina for a second live show of the day at CKCK TV.
The show aired about 4:30 PM, but often times it was shown after the news came on.
“People turned into it to beat hell,” Young said.
The Ray Little Gang featured the likes of Ray and Anne Little originally from Bangore, Maine, Jim Roberts, Joel Kane and Porky Charbonneau as emcee.
Tex would do double duty on the show, playing the steel guitar and bass for the band and also dressing up with a black cap on a tooth and a wig often with straw and it providing comedy through his alter ego Sunshine Ficklegrass.
The Ficklegrass character was a goofy hillbilly that all shows of the era carried for comic relief including the highly popular Hee Haw produced out of Nashville.
Although Tex might be remembered for playing the older lap straight steel guitar he could also play the newer versions.
He would go to conventions where they demonstrated, and offered the latest model of steel guitar and then buy a few to sell them because they were big and expensive and local music stores didn’t like to carry them.
Despite being able to play both types of steel guitar his ability to play the old straight steel guitar in addition to his more jazzy sound helped Tex in the business.
“He was unique. He had his own genre. Any outlived everybody and in the end he was the only one who could play it,” Young said.
“He was a superstar in Western Canada,” Young said about Tex, adding that the longtime member of local 446 of the musicians union being part of the Ray Little Gang was as good as anything.
“He was a consummate entertainer… he was a good guy. You were always happy to see him. He was always happy he could really tell stories, and whatever.”
Tex Emery plays another informal gig - photo credit YouTube
Tex was also smart enough to realize in order to survive as a musician you have to be prepared to play a variety of music for your clientele.
Tex Emery would stay with the band when they were rebranded the CKCK Caravaners later in the 1960’s.
The shows popularity continued, and for a time there was even a sort of a battle or friendly rivalry with the CBC affiliate in Moose Jaw as they had their own local televised country band in response.
In the last years of his life Tex Emery continue to entertain by doing gigs for trust funds, nursing homes and senior citizen centres.
He was likewise known for going to coffee at local restaurants where people who met him, said, he electrified and lit up the place just by his presence.
For Young Tex’s death is a tough one to take.
“He was a dear friend and I will miss you, but his music will live on,” Young said.
The Funeral Mass for Tex Emery will be held on Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. in Resurrection Roman Catholic Church, 3155 Winsdor Park Road in Regina.
Locally a celebration of Tex Emery's Life will be held on Friday, August 25, 2023 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the Army and Navy Vets, 279 High Street West in Moose Jaw.