Dick Curless Biography
Richard William Curless, 17 March 1932, Fort Fairfield, Maine, USA, d. 25 May 1995. Both his parents were musical and in 1948, after the family moved to Massachusetts, he was soon appearing as the Tumbleweed Kid in his own show on local radio in Ware, Massachusetts. Later he joined a band called the Trail Blazers and moved back to Maine. In 1951, he was drafted into the army, later commenting: "They must have been hard up. I had a bad eye and heart trouble". He was sent to Korea, purely as an entertainer, and became very popular on the AFN network as the Rice Paddy Ranger. He was discharged in 1954 and worked local clubs until ill health caused him to rest. In 1957, a win on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Show on network television, with his version of "Nine Pound Hammer", led to him finding work in Hollywood and Las Vegas. In the late 50s, recurring ill heath, lack of major success and personal problems led to him returning to Maine, where he bought a lorry and worked in the logging business. He returned to Hollywood in the early 60s but decided that he was not destined for success further afield and soon went back to Maine, where he worked in local clubs. In 1965, at the request of his friend, the writer Dan Fulkerson, he recorded, at his own expense on the minor Allagash label, a song called "A Tombstone Every Mile". The recording attracted the attention of Capitol, who released it on their Tower label and it became a Top 5 US country hit. The song was written about a stretch of dangerous and icy road through the Maine woods and was another of the truck-driving and travelling-themed numbers that became popular following Dave Dudley's success two years earlier with "Six Days On The Road". During 1966 and 1967, he was a regular member of Buck Owens' All American Show and toured extensively in the USA, Europe and the Far East. He sang on the soundtrack of the 1968 film Killer's Three but the same year was again incapacitated by ill health. He also had to resort to wearing the eye patch that became his trademark. He commented, "I couldn't see much at all since the right eye was interfering with the vision I had in the left". Further hits followed, though only "Six Times A Day" achieved Top 20 status. He recorded "Big Wheel Cannonball" in 1970, which was the trucker's version of the old train song "Wabash Cannonball", originally sung by Roy Acuff in the late 30s. He also had success with the strangely titled "Drag "Em Off The Interstate, Sock It To "Em, J.P. Blues". In 1973, "The Last Blues Song', somewhat appropriately, provided his last country chart hit. Curless" style certainly leaned towards the blues, although someone once likened his voice to an 18-wheeler revving up. In the 70s, he devoted some attention to song publishing and a talent agency but seemingly drifted into semi-retirement in his native Maine. In 1987, he attempted a comeback as a recording artist by recording an album in Norway with Norwegian musicians. In 1989, he recorded a superb album for Allagash featuring the songs of his friend Smokey Rogers, but poor distribution prevented it achieving the success it deserved. In the early 90s, he made some tours and also played in Branson, Missouri, as part of the Country Gold show that featured other stars of his era, including Bill Anderson, Bobby Bare, George Hamilton IV, Ferlin Husky, Melba Mongomery and Leroy Van Dyke. Late in 1994, he was hospitalized and on operating, the doctors discovered that what they had for years assumed to be a medical condition created by ulcers was, in fact, caused by a rare and inoperable stomach cancer. In December 1994, he completed the aptly named Traveling Through for Rounder Records and, in March 1995, much against his wife's wishes, he made his final tour. Curless died on 25 May 1995. Waylon Jennings summed up things when he stated, "He had one of the great voices of country music and he certainly knew how to use it." In 1995, Bear Family Records released a 7-CD box set that contained all the recordings he made between 1950 and 1969, including around 50 previously unissued tracks. He will perhaps be remembered as the first international country star produced by the New England state of Maine.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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