Let me tell you about Tinker Carlen, a good friend from Lubbock TX.

                Auf dieser Seite möchte ich Euch von einem guten Freund 

                aus Lubbock Texas berichten, sein Name ist TINKER CARLEN.

                Jugendfreund von BUDDY HOLLY ab dem 7. Lebensjahr.

                 Hier erzählt er mir und Dir seine Geschichte. Sein Buch mit

                 den Erinnerungen gibt es seit September 2007 zu kaufen.

Tinker Carlen
performing
with
Buddy Holly
on stage
in 1957.

Es folgt eine der langen E-Mails, die Tinker mir schickte.

Eine von vielen. Seitdem habe ich einen "erweiterten Horizont"

zum Thema Buddy Holly dank der glasklaren Erinnerung eines

Menschen, der mit Buddy lebte und viele Jahre an seiner Seite war.

Ergänzen möchte ich, dass ich lange Telefonate mit ihm führte,

die zumindest für mich nicht einfach waren, da Tinker im breiten

Dialekt der Texaner sprach, eine echte Herausforderung.

Ein Zeitzeuge, der viel mehr weiß als selbsternannte Experten,

die alles nur vom Hörensagen haben und dann selbst weitererzählen,

das ist fast schon "stille Post", wie man bei uns zu sagen pflegt. 

Ich habe es lieber aus "Erster Hand", das ist authentisch. So wie hier.

Tinker Carlen

                                            Hi Hans,

      feel free to ask me anything about Buddy's music or life. 

   I was with with him before he even learned how to play guitar

       and sing. I was with him when we started our first band.

Bill, Tommy and Tinker in 2006

This tells how we met all the kids in our band and the story about

everyone that played with Buddy, and our thoughts and dreams

that someday we might make it big. 

Johnny Rogers, one of my favourite Buddy impersonators, meets Tinker Carlen in Lubbock during the Buddy Holly birthday celebrities in 2006.

Courtesy Johnny Rogers

I first met Buddy when he lived on 6th St, and I lived at 1628 7th St,

just across the street from where Buddy's statue now stands (which

was a vacant lot where we played baseball after school). 

We couldn't have been over seven years old at the time. 

We would go over to visit a boy named E. J. Holub and dig caves in

his backyard.  

On this picture sleeve you see Tinker Carlen on the left together with Jack Neal.

All of us had pigeons and we would take each others pigeons home

with us and tie notes on their feet then turn them loose and they

would fly home, delivering our notes to each other. 

That's how we stayed in touch with each other. 

Raining In My Heart

We were in the Cub Scouts together until Buddy's folks moved

out of the neighborhood. 

They moved northeast of town and Buddy finished grade school at

Roosevelt Grade School.   I would still see him on weekends. 

All the kids would go to the movies, and in the summer we would

go swimming at MacKenzie State Park.

Looking for the Hi-D-Ho

Every time stars from the Grand Ole Opry came to town, we would

go see them.  It would be Bill Carlile and the Maddox Brothers, and

Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.  

Looking for the Hi-De-Ho

While Buddy was in school he had to ride the school bus.  There

was an older boy who rode the bus by the name of Wayne Maines. 

He started teaching Buddy how to play the guitar.  Wayne had a

band with his brothers, called the Maines Brothers Band, he but

took time to show Buddy some chords.

The Maines Brothers band includes Lloyd and Kenny who still

currently play in the band. The Maines brothers grew up and had

kids.  Lloyd has a daughter who started a band called the Dixie

Chicks.  Her name is Nately.

Tinker Carlen performing at the Buddy Holly Center Lubbock, 2006. The man with the red shirt in the background is Larry Welborn.

I started playing guitar when I was two years old.

I started out on a guitar made from a cigar box. I cut a hole in

the center and used a board for the neck and stretched rubber

bands over it. 

I would order books from the back of comic books which touted

a person could "learn to play guitar in 7 days."  

That was a waste of money. 

Noch ein Foto von meinem Freund Tinker während der Feiern im Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock 2006, anlässlich Buddy's 70. Geburtstag am 7.9.2006. Im Hintergrund Larry Welborn im roten Shirt.

I started taking lessons from Dunigan Studio of  Music. I met a boy there

by the name of Don Guess who was taking lessons to learn how to play

the steel guitar.  Don, to me was the best musican of all time. He later

joined our band. 

There was a boy named Bob Montgomery whose folks had just moved

to Lubbock from Lampasas, Texas.  He could play rhythm guitar. 

Then there was a kid who worked for Buddy's dad helping build houses. 

He could play the piano. His name was Jack Neal.

Jack Neal und Tinker Carlen, eine absolute Rarität, die beiden zusammen auf der Bühne zu sehen. So geschehen am 25. September des Jahres 2007.

While we were playing in a talent show in a little town called Ropesville,

we broke a string and had to go to Brownfield, Texas, to get a new one. 

While we were driving to Brownfield, we saw a town on the right side of

the road by the name of  Meadow, Texas. We stopped at a store and went

in to see if they had any strings.

2 friends of Buddy, 2 partners of Buddy.

There was a kid sitting on a nail keg playing guitar and singing a song called

"Jimmy Brown."   I asked him what key he was in.  He said,  "I don't know,

I just heard it on the radio." 

I asked him if he would like to join us at the talent show.

He said,  "Oh I ain't no guitar picker, I'm a fiddler."   He picked up a fiddle

and almost sawed it in half.  He said,  "Well if you want me, I'll go." 

His name was Sonny Curtis.  We won the $25.00 prize and split it six ways. 

It was three or four dollars for each of us.  Thats how Sonny joined us.

Those good old boys . .

One night we were driving around town and saw a medicine show and saw a

little boy standing on a #2 wash tub, playing it as a bass fiddle and slapping

it like crazy.  

After the show we asked him how did he learn to play like that? 

He said his base string was loose and he couldn't tune it.   I asked him how

much money they were paying him.  He said,  "One whole dollar a night." 

I said if you join us, we'll pay you $2.00, and thats how Larry Welborn

joined the band. 

.. performing together after a long time.

We practiced and got real good.  We didn't have a drummer. 

One night at the 16th & J club we were listening to a western band.  

It was called WAYNE AND THE RIVER SIDE RANCH HANDS. 

They took a break and asked us to sit in while they were on break. 

The owner of the club said he would pay us fifty cents each. 

We got upon the stage and their drummer asked if he could play

with us.  

That's when Jerry Allison (J.I.) joined the band. 

All photos on this page courtesy Glenda Ward, if not otherwise mentioned.


Here you see Tinker, Award - Winning Classical Guitarist Susan Grisanti from Lubbock and Jack Neal.

That same night is when we went to the movies at the Lindsey Theater, and

saw the movie called "The Searchers" starring John Wayne.  A line he kept

saying in the movie was "that'll be the day."  Later on when the movie was

showing at the State Theater, Buddy and Jerry went to see the movie again.

That's how thay come up with the punch line on the song.  

Our first band was called the Rhythm Playboys.  Through the years at

different times, we would use different names, depending on who was

playing with Buddy. 

When he played at KDAV, Jack Neal would play with him. 

They were the first on the radio and sometimes it would be Buddy and

Bob Montgomery who played.  Occasionally it would Buddy, Bob and Larry. 

When I played with them we were called the "Hip Cats." 

Finally, the band got so big we split it into three different groups.

Larry called his band the "The Four Teens."  

I called my band "The Cats" and Buddy called his band "The Crickets." 

We were all the same band but going under different names.  

That is how we all got started.  

I hope this will help you, we were just a bunch of kids like everybody

else having fun and making music.

We had our good times and some bad times, but as for me it's been

one hell of a ride!

Take care  

Tinker Carlen

Thumbs up to my good friend Tinker Carlen for this special report.

                 Dieser Bericht meines Freundes Tinker Carlen hat ein

                               Riesenlob verdient !   Danke, Tinker !