For 14 years, Hoot Hester honed his extraordinary fiddler skills on country music’s most hallowed stage as a member of the Grand Ole Opry staff band. Spending 43 years in Nashville, he also backed up the likes of Conway Twitty, Randy Travis, Bill Monroe, Ricky Van Shelton, and even Ray Charles. Today we’re exploring the life and career of Hoot Hester, born on a small farm near Louisville, Kentucky, on this day (August 13) in 1951.
How Did Hoot Hester Get His Nickname?
By age two, Hubert Dwane Hester was better known as “Hoot”, a nickname he acquired from the popular cowboy actor Hoot Gibson.
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He grew up surrounded by music, learning piano from his mother and guitar and fiddle from his father and four uncles. Also picking up the mandolin, Hester formed a bluegrass band with his cousins.
Upon graduating from Southern High School in Louisville, he began his music career with the local Bluegrass Alliance.
A Long and Storied Country Music Career
In 1973, Hoot Hester moved to Nashville, where he first began performing with country music group The Whites.
Next, he traveled the U.S. with Donna Fargo, Mel Tillis, and Jerry Reid before deciding to settle in Nashville after he and his wife, Lola, started a family in the early 1980s.
An in-demand session player, Hester formed Sound Factory with steel guitar player Buddy Emmons and session guitarist Phil Baugh. They went on to become the staff band on the television shows That Nashville Music and Nashville Alive.
After Nashville Now went off the air, Hester helped found a western swing band called The Time Jumpers. In 2000, he joined the house band of the Grand Ole Opry as a fiddle player and utility musician.
Additionally, Hester became a frequent collaborator of the late bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs. Their partnership lasted until Scruggs’ death in 2012.
The last years of his life saw the Hall of Fame fiddler team up with his daughter to produce and write for her band, Rachael Hester and the Tennessee Walkers.
He also became her bandleader, regularly performing with her at Nashville’s famed honky-tonk Robert’s Western World.
Remembered Fondly
On August 30, 2016, Hoot Hester died in Madison, Tennessee, following an 11-month battle with cancer. He was 65 years old.
Speaking with The Tennessean after his death, Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs remembered Hester as “a team player and a tasteful musician.”
“Whatever was required of him, he did it well,” Stubbs said.
Earl Scruggs’ grandson, Chris, eulogized Hester as a kind, gentle soul who left his instrument do the talking.
“He had the best one-liners for any occasion, and they were always funny no matter how many times you heard them,” Chris Scruggs told The Tennessean. “He wasn’t a man of many words, and that showed in his playing. They say musicians show their personality on their instruments, and he was a mater of taste, touch and tone.”
Featured image by Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
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