Dick Barrett
Dick Barrett was born in Maysville, Oklahoma on August 6, 1918. As a young child though, his family lived in Quail, Texas. Dick’s father and grandfather were fiddlers and many of his family members played music. When he was six, his father started to encourage him to play music. Major Franklin was a fiddler who really motivated Dick to work at playing the fiddle.
“I kept learning a little on the fiddle, and the guitar, and I played a few school house dances with Ernest Tubbs back then before he moved on. At the end of the dance, I would get anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar for the job, depending on how many dancers there were. My family and I would play house dances and make about a buck a piece.”
Dick began to be interested in Western Swing and concentrated on learning about that style. Dick moved away from Texas and became fiddler for Tex Ritter and at times, subbed in as a fiddler for the Sons of the Pioneers. He became one of the most successful competitors ever with a long and colorful history as a breakdown fiddler.
For the last 24 years Dick has lived in Montana with his wife Lisa and he does the bow work for the Violin Shop that his wife Lisa runs. They still travel about 50,000 miles a year playing and promoting Texas fiddling. At 85, his favorite part of life was sitting down to a good jam session in someone’s home playing tunes and enjoying company that music seemed to bring. When asked what he favorite tunes are, he replied with a smile, “I love them all.”
