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Ray Wylie Hubbard
Biography
A leading figure of the progressive country movement of the 1970s, singer/songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard remains best known for authoring the perennial anthem "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother." Born November 13, 1946, in Soper, OK, Hubbard and his family relocated to Dallas during the mid-'50s; there he learned to play guitar, eventually forming a folk group with fellow aspiring musician Michael Martin Murphey. Befriended by the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Hubbard later formed a trio named Three Faces West, which regularly performed at the Outpost club in Red River, NM, a musical hotbed also trafficked by artists including Steve Fromholz and Bill & Bonnie Hearne. Upon the breakup of Three Faces West, Hubbard toured the southwestern coffeehouse circuit as a solo act before forming another group, Texas Fever; they too proved short-lived, and he returned to New Mexico to again take up residence at the Outpost.

While in Red River, Hubbard rekindled his friendship with Walker, who in 1973 recorded Hubbard's most famous (if least representative) composition, "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," on his acclaimed Viva Terlingua LP.