ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Roy Nichols

(Oct. 21, 1932 ~ Jul. 3, 2001) 

Roy Nichols made his way to Bakersfield, California (CA) from Fresno, CA in the days when Bakersfield was just starting to boom. Distinctive in his style throughout his career, he made a name for himself by supporting Lefty Frizzell, Wynn Stewart and Merle Haggard. 

Roy was lead guitarist for Merle Haggard & the Strangers. He played back-up for Wynn Stewart for five years, before joining the Strangers, where he spent more than two decades. 

Roy Ernest Nichols was born in Chandler, Arizona, in 1932. After moving to Fresno, CA as a young boy, Nichols took up the guitar and by the age of sixteen was proficient enough to play on a local radio show hosted by DJ Barney Lee, where Nichols' expertise on the strings was heard by Fred Maddox, bass player and leader of the Maddox Brothers and Rose. Maddox offered the youngster a job and Nichols began what would be a lifelong career in music. 

Nichols played with many local San Joaquin Valley acts, but his next major touring job was with Lefty Frizzell, who by the time Roy joined the band in 1954 was a huge star. 

Nichols found considerable work as a sideman and recorded a few sides with the Farmer Boys for Capitol Records in Hollywood, California. His flashy solo on the Farmer Boys 1955 recording of Charming Betsy is one of the fastest country guitar solos ever recorded and in fact may equal or surpass anything that Jimmy Bryant ever recorded. 

After his stint with Frizzell, Nichols joined the Cousin Herb Henson’s Trading Post television show in Bakersfield, CA where he remained lead guitarist until Henson died in 1963 of an aneurism. During that time Nichols rubbed shoulders and played with everyone from local Bakersfield stalwarts Buck and Bonnie Owens to Billy Mize and Cliff Crofford, as well as nearly every artist who toured through Bakersfield and appeared on the show. 

Nichols took other jobs to supplement his income and in 1961 he began a long association with honky-tonk legend Wynn Stewart. Nichols performed with Stewart at his Nashville Nevada Club in Las Vegas, Nevada for several years, where he famously asked the visiting Merle Haggard to get up and play a few songs during an intermission (a chance meeting that resulted in Merle's first break, playing bass with Wynn Stewart and using Stewart’s composition Sing a Sad Song as his first hit record).

Nichols would record and tour with many acts in the early 1960s. Between 1961 and 1964 he recorded several sides with Rose Maddox (many of which also featured future Stranger Norm Hamlet on steel guitar), including the entirety of her Big Bouquet of Roses album (LP), the Alone With You LP, and several single releases. 

In 1961, possibly through the Maddox connection (Rose Maddox joined the Johnny Cash road show in 1961), Nichols toured with Johnny Cash and was the lead guitarist on Cash's hit Tennessee Flat-Top Box, recorded at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, CA.

Nichols recorded many sessions (some with Merle Haggard on rhythm guitar!) for Bakersfield stalwart Tommy Collins between 1960 and 1964, also for Capitol Records. Collins' sessions were literally a breeding ground for young Bakersfield talent, giving valuable early studio experience to Buck Owens, Lewis Talley, Fuzzy Owen, Nichols and others. 

Nichols also recorded with Wynn Stewart extensively between 1962 and 1965, though he does not appear on either of Stewart's big hits, Wishful Thinking from 1961 (right before Nichols began recording with Stewart) and It’s Such a Pretty World Today from 1967 (right after Nichols left to tour with Haggard full time). Nonetheless, Nichols contributed some wonderful solos to many of Stewart’s records, such as Donna on My Mind, Halfway in Love and Take It or Leave It. 

Roy Nichols is famous for his use of the Fender Telecaster guitar, a guitar that he (as well as James Burton) used to create the trebly, biting twang that defines 1960s country. Roy also had a custom-made Mosrite double-neck guitar with his name on it that he played often in the early 1960s. 

Capitol Records recorded a live album in September 1963 at the Bakersfield Civic Auditorium in honor of the tenth anniversary of Cousin Herb Henson’s Trading Post, released under the inappropriate title Country Music Hootenanny (a title Capitol Artists and Repertoire (A&R) man Ken Nelson fought against and lost). Nichols was the lead guitarist in the house band, appearing on tracks behind such acts as Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, Rose Maddox, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis and Merle Travis. The album also represents the only track ever released under Roy Nichols' name, a virtuosic instrumental version of the old-timey standard Silver Bell, incorrectly listed on the cover as Silver Bells. 

The Bakersfield Civic Auditorium show was memorable not only because of the album recorded that night, but also because it was where Ken Nelson first approached Merle Haggard about recording for Capitol Records. Merle turned Nelson down flat, declaring his loyalty to Fuzzy Owen and Lewis Talley of Tally Records, who had just started releasing Merle Haggard singles a short time earlier. 

However, Nelson persevered and within a year and a half Merle Haggard was recording for Capitol Records with Fuzzy Owen as his manager and Roy Nichols as his first call session guitar player. When Merle put together his road band in 1966, now known as the Strangers, Roy Nichols was the lead guitar player. It was a legendary association that would last for twenty-two years. 

The partnership was not without its ups and downs, however. In the early stages of Merle's career, Nichols took work with other, better-paying artists when Haggard's bookings were down (which is why Phil Baugh played on Swingin’ Doors). Nichols was working a well-paying gig up in the Lake Tahoe area and couldn’t make the session). 

As time went on, Nichols’ alcohol and drug abuse got so bad that it couldn’t be ignored. In 1976 Nichols had a reaction to a mystery drug he took in Europe that was so severe, he essentially lost his ability to play the guitar and had to learn the instrument again from the ground up. Although Nichols did continue to play, he never fully recovered from this incident, which led to him leaving the Strangers in 1987. 

Nichols retired from playing, with his poor health being a major factor. He did appear in the PBS documentary The Bakersfield Sound, playing guitar behind Fred and Rose Maddox and he appeared live for one last star-studded night of legendary Bakersfield musicians at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood, CA in 1992. The Academy of Country and Western Music honored Nichols with nominations for Guitarist of the Year several times. 

In 1996 he suffered a major stroke and was confined to a wheelchair and on July 3, 2001, he died. It was an event sadly unreported in most newspapers and the media, largely due to Chet Atkins’ death only days before. 

Researched and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Nov. 29, 2011.

Source: Wikipedia, Roots of Country Music Archive Files, Nov. 2011.