Ernest Tubb

The first of country's honky-tonkers, Ernest Tubb came to fame in the 1940s, making famous such immortal classics as "Walking the Floor Over You," "Thanks a Lot," "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry," and innumerable others. A singer of limited range but limitless geniality, not to mention a killer backing band, Tubb was adored by country audiences for the better part of a half-century. His baritone drawl and clip-clopping honk-tonk rhythm proved enormously influential on subsequent generations of country singers.