Pierce, Webb (1926–1991)

US country singer and songwriter. He developed the honky-tonk style and enjoyed two decades of hit records in the US country-music charts. He was one of the first artists to have a pedal-steel guitar on his recordings (inconspicuous on his debut ‘Wondering’ in 1952, strongly featured on ‘Slowly’ in 1954), an instrument that later became almost ubiquitous in country music.

Born in Louisiana, Pierce became known in 1950 through a live radio show called the Louisiana Hayride; he was a regular on the programme until 1954, when he moved to the more prestigious and more conservative Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. The honky-tonk music that he and his band, the Wandering Boys, made their own used electric guitars, pedal steel, and fiddle, and dealt as often as not with bars and broken hearts, usually in uptempo numbers. His hits include ‘Back Street Affair’ (1952), ‘There Stands the Glass’ (1953) (both written by Pierce), and ‘In the Jailhouse Now’ (1955). By the 1970s his sound had dated and he was largely neglected until a duet album with Willie Nelson in 1982 revived his fortunes.