The Delk Band History
It all Started with Forrest Delk
Forrest Delk learned to play fiddle beginning at age seven. His mother, Annie, played mandolin and was instrumental in developing his interest in music. While a high school student in Silver City, New Mexico, he played in the orchestra for a while but never developed a taste for that "long-hair music." He also played trombone in the school band.
It was summer 1934 when Forrest, at 17 years, was asked to play for an outdoor dance at Apache Grove, Arizona. He and some musician friends loaded up in a Model A Ford and drove to Apache Grove on a Saturday afternoon. About the time they arrived, it started raining and it rained so hard that all the creeks came up and nobody could get to the dance. When they returned home the next day, they had to cross all the creeks that had washed out the night before and Forrest called his band the "Gully Jumpers" from that time on.
Forrest and his Gully Jumpers played for dances throughout southwest New Mexico for over sixty years. Robbie Arnspiger started playing mandolin with Forrest in late 1934 and they were together for nearly fifty years. Robbie hung it up sometime in the early 1980s. He and his wife of 62 years, Grace Ola, live in Silver City.
During the late 1930s and '40s, Forrest played for many a dance at the Lion's Club building in Bayard, New Mexico. During that era, some of the others who played with him were his sister Aloha on piano, Tex Little on guitar, Julian McSherry on drums, Roberta Ramsey on piano and Junior Hedges on saxophone.
In the late '40s, folks in the Mimbres Valley got together and built a community hall that became known as the Roundup Lodge Hall. Forrest played for dances here for over 35 years. It was during the early years of this era, that Judge Rickburg on rhythm guitar and Ed Werner on bull fiddle played with him.
The next era, during the late '50s and '60s, Forrest and Robbie Arnspiger were still together but new additions to the bank were Mutt Johnson on steel guitar, Buzz Wetzel on rhythm guitar, Bob Kasten on drums and Dean Lee on bass guitar. Forrest's daughter Lynda and sons Joe and Jimmy also played through the '60s and into the '70s.
Forrest and his band played for many square dance festivals through the late '40s and '50s. Square dancing was extremely popular during this time. In addition to the regular monthly dances at the Mimbres Roundup Lodge Hall, he frequently played at the White Signal Community Hall near Tyrone, New Mexico and quite often at the Legion Hall in Animas, New Mexico and many times at Cliff, New Mexico.
He also played for the annual Old Timers' Reunion in Deming, New Mexico for close to 26 years, the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Convention in Albuquerque for many years and the infamous "Aggie Brawl" at New Mexico State University several times.
Forrest Delk's unique style of dance music is legendary in New Mexico and his legacy continues on. Today, several of his grandchildren are musicians and will cary the tradition to the next generation.
Forrest Delk died April 15, 1996 following a brief illness. His wife, Gertrude, lives at the family ranch east of Silver City.
By Joe Delk
Today, The Delk Band is still very active, and although we are not looking for work, work seems to find us.
The core of The Delk Band today is still Neal, Mark, Byron and Joe Delk. In addition to Robert Flowers, who has been part of our family for 30 years, we are fortunate and proud to have Roy Garcia, Ty Martin and Michael Dean as mainstays in our musical family as well.
We continue to play the same old, traditional western dance music that my dad Forrest Delk played back in the 1930's. Traditional dance tunes like “San Antonio Rose”, “Faded Love”, “Marie”, “Kentucky Waltz”, “Down Yonder” and “Put Your Little Foot” are still on our songlist. Those songs will live forever.
No flash player!It looks like you don't have flash player installed. Click here to go to Macromedia download page. |
 |
Today, we are called upon to provide dance music for events like the Joint Stockman’s Meeting held in early December in Albuquerque, the Luna County Old Timers Reunion held in April in Deming, the Cowboys For Cancer Research Fundraiser held the 2nd Friday of October in Las Cruces and the Southern New Mexico State Fair & Rodeo also in Las Cruces.
Last year, Bucky Allred* and I saw a need to join together and embark on a fundraising effort to help the Gila Livestock Grower’s Association (GLGA) and Americans for Preserving Western Environment (APWE) raise money to help them build their legal defense funds and fund their public awareness outreach programs. Our friends and neighbors in and around the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, which encompasses the Gila National Forest and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, are bearing the brunt of the devastating impact the Mexican wolf reintroduction program is having on those who are forced to live with wolves on their ranches, in their yards and in their communities.
Out of that need grew the “Cowboy Dinner and Dance” - Honoring Rural Families, Rural Traditions Preserving Our Rural Heritage. We have held four of these events since the first one in T or C in August 2008 and have raised over $40,000 for these two groups.
At each Cowboy Dinner and Dance, Bucky and I are joined by our friend and fellow musician, Dee Ford. What a thrill it has been for me to not only be on stage with Neal, Mark, Byron, Robert, Roy and Ty but to also have Bucky Allred and Dee Ford at my side is just icing on the cake.
What you see at these dances are families, friends and neighbors coming together to share a meal, visit with one another and enjoy an evening of dancing to good dancin’ music. It helps us remember “the good ole days” and helps us show our younger generation what it was like and allows our older generation to remember the way it was.
*Bucky and his wife Garnelle own the Blue Front Bar and Café in Glenwood, New Mexico.
A Delk Family Tradition
By Joe Delk
My dad, Forrest Delk started playing for dances in 1934 at the age of 17. It was on a trip to Apache Grove, Arizona to play for some Arizona cattlemen when the skies opened up and rained so hard that all the draws flooded and my dad’s band became known as “Fiddlin’ Forrest Delk and His Gully Jumpers” from then on.
2009 makes it 75 continuous years that our family has had the honor of playing for rural country dances here in New Mexico and Arizona.
My sister, Linda Delk Cox, brother, Jimmy and I grew up going to school during the week, working cattle with our dad and mother on the weekend and going with them to a dance on Saturday night. As I look back now, playing for dances was something my dad did not only for his enjoyment but because it was what he did for the people in the rural communities in the southwest. . . .it was a way of life and a family tradition.
I, along with brother Jimmy, became full-fledged “Gully Jumpers” around 1960.
My wife, Diane and I married in 1968 and moved back to the ranch east of the mining town of Santa Rita, New Mexico when I finished school in 1970. The ranch where I grew up is situated directly east and south of the Chino Copper Mine and includes the famous landmark, the Kneeling Nun. We moved to the Lampbright Camp on the 2C Ranch in the spring of 1970.
Our oldest son, Neal, was born in the spring of 1970, Mark in the spring of 1971 and Byron in January, 1974. The boys grew up working cattle, re-leathering windmills, cleaning corrals and going with Diane and me to play for dances with “grandpa”.
There were always instruments around our house so the boys were exposed to fiddles and guitars early on but it wasn’t until Neal was in the 8th grade that he and his friend, Robert Flowers, took part in the school guitar program that Neal and Robert really became enthused about the guitar.
Mark decided at the age of 7, that he wanted to play drums so we ordered a set through his granddaddy’s drug store in Deming and we endured many an evening listening to Mark “play” his drums.
In the early 80’s, it looked as though we might someday have us a band in our family. If I played fiddle, Neal the guitar, Mark the drums, all we needed was a bass guitar and we’d have us a band. So, Byron became our bass guitar player because he didn’t have a choice. We called ourselves simply “The Delk Band”.
The first dance we ever played for was an annual fundraiser in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, July 10, 1984. I’ll never forget that night?
Here I was with three boys ages 14, 13 and 11, on a bandstand about to play the first note of the first tune we ever played for the general public. I had selected “Maiden’s Prayer” to start off. As I looked at the crowd waiting for us to begin, I looked at the boys and I wondered to myself, what in the heck do I think I’m doing? I was so nervous. My hands were shaking uncontrollably. But, I had to get started because our crowd was eagerly waiting for us to begin.
I placed the fiddle under my chin, looked around to make sure Mark was ready and I drew the bow across the “D” string playing the first note of the song. My right hand was shaking so bad that the bow began bouncing on the string and I couldn’t make it stop. I had no choice but to keep going. It was not a pretty sight.
Gib and Johnnie Jo Bartlett from Hatch, New Mexico were the first dancers on the floor. I will be forever grateful to them.
We did get through that first song and that began a journey of playing for dances in nearly every community from Van Horn, Texas to Willcox, Arizona and most of southern New Mexico. Grandpa could not have been more proud of his grandsons, nor they of him especially when he would get on stage and play with them.
It has been a heckuva trip! The boys and I will celebrate 28 years of playing for dances in July 2012.