Mel Tillis › Similar Artists

Jack Greene - 100% match to Mel Tillis

Jack Henry Greene, 7 January 1930, Maryville, Tennessee, USA. Greene took guitar lessons when he was eight years old, then added drumming to his abilities. Moving to Atlanta in the late 40s, he became part of the Cherokee Trio with Lem Bryant and Speedy Price. He then became a member of the Rhythm Ranch Boys and was a popular radio entertainer on Georgia Jublilee on WTJH. Gr Read more

Sonny James - 99% match to Mel Tillis

James Loden, 1 May 1929, Hackleburg, Alabama, USA. The Country Music Hall Of Fame includes a guitar that Sonny James’ father made for him when he was three years old. James has been performing since that time and has played fiddle and guitar with the Lodens’ family revue. Sonny won several junior fiddle championships, although he was to play guitar on his records. Read more

David Houston - 96% match to Mel Tillis

9 December 1938, Bossier City, Louisiana, USA, d. 30 November 1993, Bossier City, Louisiana, USA. Houston’s forefathers included Sam Houston, who fought for Texas’ independence from Mexico, and the Civil War general Robert E. Lee. His parents were friends of 20s singer Gene Austin, who was his godfather and encouraged his talent. Houston made his debut on The Louis Read more

Carl Smith - 87% match to Mel Tillis

Stonewall Jackson - 85% match to Mel Tillis

6 November 1932, Tabor City, North Carolina, USA. Jackson’s family tree does in fact extend to the famous Confederate general of the American Civil War, hence his name. After the death of his father when Stonewall was aged two, his mother relocated to Moultrie, Georgia, where, at the age of eight, he worked on his uncle’s farm. When he was 10 he swapped his bicycle Read more

Connie Smith - 82% match to Mel Tillis

Constance June Meadows, 14 August 1941, Elkhart, Indiana, USA. Raised in West Virginia and Ohio as one of 14 children, Meadows longed to be a country singer and taught herself to play the guitar while in hospital recovering from a leg injury, caused by an accident with a lawnmower. She sang at local events as a teenager and appeared on several radio and television shows. She Read more

Hank Locklin - 80% match to Mel Tillis

Lawrence Hankins Locklin, 15 February 1918, McLellan, Florida. d. 9 March 2009, Brewton, Alabama. A farm boy, Locklin worked in the cotton fields as a child and on the roads during the Depression of the 30s. He learned to play the guitar at the age of 10 and was soon performing on local radio and at dances. His professional career started in 1938 and after an interruption fo Read more

Ferlin Husky - 79% match to Mel Tillis

3 December 1925, on a farm near Flat River, Missouri, USA. Husky learned to play guitar as a child and during World War II served in the US Merchant Navy. His mother wanted him to be a preacher and his father a farmer, but after discharge, he found radio work as an announcer and disc jockey but gradually turned to performing while at KXLW St. Louis. In the late 40s he moved Read more

Faron Young - 77% match to Mel Tillis

25 February 1932, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, d. 10 December 1996, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Young was raised on the farm his father bought just outside Shreveport and learned to play the guitar and sing country songs as a boy. Greatly influenced by Hank Williams (in his early days he was something of a soundalike) and while still at school, he formed a country band and beg Read more

Moe Bandy - 76% match to Mel Tillis

Marion Bandy, 12 February 1944, Meridian, Mississippi, USA. Bandy was nicknamed Moe by his father when a child in the home town of the legendary Jimmie Rodgers, so it is perhaps not surprising that he grew up to be a country singer. He later stated: ‘My grandfather worked on the railroads with Jimmie Rodgers. He was the boss of the railway yard in Meridian and Jimmie Ro Read more

Gene Watson - 74% match to Mel Tillis

Gary Gene Watson, 11 October 1943, Palestine, Texas, USA. Raised in Paris, Texas, in a musical family, he first worked as a professional at the age of 13. In 1963, he moved to Houston, where he found daytime employment in car engine and bodywork repairs. During the evenings, his vocal style, with its slight nasal sound in the best country tradition, made him a very popular h Read more

Claude King - 73% match to Mel Tillis

5 February 1923, on a farm near Keithville, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. His date of birth has, since 1961, frequently been cited incorrectly owing to promotional material released by his then manager, Tillman Franks, who at the time thought it tactful to lose a decade from his new client’s age. King showed an early interest in music and was a proficient guitarist by the Read more

Bill Anderson - 72% match to Mel Tillis

Don Gibson - 71% match to Mel Tillis

3 April 1928, Shelby, North Carolina, USA, d. 17 November 2003, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. If loneliness meant world acclaim, then Gibson, with his catalogue of songs about despair and heartbreak, should have been a superstar. Considering himself ‘a songwriter who sings rather than a singer who writes songs’, Gibson is best remembered as the author of three standar Read more

Webb Pierce - 70% match to Mel Tillis

8 August 1921, near West Monroe, Louisiana, USA, d. 24 February 1991, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. His father died when Pierce was only three months old, his mother remarried and he was raised on a farm seven miles from Monroe. Although no one in the family performed music, his mother had a collection of country records which, together with Gene Autry films, were his first cou Read more