Hoyle Nix was a western swing artist, fiddle player, and bandleader. At six, Hoyle learned how to play the fiddle and formed the West Texas Cowboys with his brother Ben in 1946. The West Texas Cowboys cut their first record in 1949 for the Dallas-based Star Talent record label, where the initial release, Nix’s “A Big Ball’s in Cowtown,” a folk-derived rewrite, proved to be an enduring standard. He spent the next ten years recording albums with many small Texas record companies, such as Queen, Caprock, Bo-Kay, and Winston. Hoyle eventually started his record label, Stampede, in 1968, named after his original Big Spring dance hall of the same name. During the 1950s, the popularity of the West Texas Cowboys grew, and the band expanded to no less than nine members. Hoyle has been inducted into the Nebraska County Music Hall of Fame, the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame, the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame, and the Western Swing Hall of Fame. He died at the age of 67 in 1985.
Hoyle Nix was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in 2022.
