Don Guess

Born May 14th, 1937 in Aspermont, Texas

At the age of 6, his family moved to Clovis, where Don grew up in a musical family. His mother & two sisters sang on KICA in Clovis & had their songs recorded at Norman Petty Studios in the late 40s as "The Guess Sisters". At a very early age Don learned to slap bass, play guitar, piano, & steel guitar.

Don met Buddy when they were school kids, and soon wound up accompanying Don's mother on piano, Don on guitar, Buddy played the violin. By the age of 13, Buddy, Don, Jack Neil & Bob Montgomery were picking in clubs together. They started out performing bluegrass & country, but after 1955 when they saw Elvis Presley in Lubbock, they switched to rock & roll. "We were alternating our instruments, but later on I only played steel & bass fiddle for Buddy".

Credited as writer for "Flower Of My Heart", "Queen Of The Ballroom", "Girl On My Mind", "Modern Don Juan", "You Are My One Desire", and "Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight". He made the three recording trips to Nashville for Buddy's "Bradley's Barn" sessions with Norman Bradley.

After Buddy & Don parted ways in 1956, Don recorded 4 singles under his own name. At Clovis, he appeared on recordings of Charlie Phillips' "Sugartime", & various Terry Noland songs. He also appeared on recordings by Faron Young, Marty Robbins, Buddy Knox, Roy Orbison, Trini Lopez as well as touring with Hank Thompson, Sonny James, George Jones & Wanda Jackson.

Eventually, he left the full-time music scene to pursue a career in insurance. He died of cancer in October of 1992.