Artist	Song
Dave Dudley	Thanks For All The Miles
Dave Dudley	Two Six Packs Away
Dave Dudley	I Washed My Face In The Morning Dew
Dave Dudley	Boo On You
Dave Dudley	Six Days On The Road
Dave Dudley	Bull Shippers
Dave Dudley	I Got Lost
Dave Dudley	Freight Train
Dave Dudley	Coffee, Coffee, Coffee
Dave Dudley	I Won't Go Down That Road
Dave Dudley	Speed Traps, Weigh Stations & Detour Signs
Dave Dudley	Lonely Corner
Dave Dudley	Hello Viet Nam
Dave Dudley	I Wouldn't Wait Around
Dave Dudley	Jack Knife
Dave Dudley	Honey
Dave Dudley	Last Day In The Mines
Dave Dudley	If It Feels Good Do It
Dave Dudley	Operation X
Dave Dudley	Mister Gloom
Dave Dudley	Stray Dog
Dave Dudley	Trucker's Prayer
Dave Dudley	Louisiana Saturday Night
Dave Dudley	Truck Drivin' Son Of A Gun
Dave Dudley	Viet Nam Blues
Dave Dudley	Tulsa Telephone Book
Dave Dudley	Quittin' Time
Dave Dudley	Sleepy Eyed John
Dave Dudley	I Feel A Cry Coming On
Dave Dudley	Taxicab Driver

Comment:

Dave Dudley, Pioneer of Truckers' Songs, Dies at 75

New York Times
December 24, 2003
By PHIL SWEETLAND


NASHVILLE, Dec. 23 - Dave Dudley, the pioneer of
truck-driving country songs and a former radio D.J. who
recorded more than 40 country hits from 1961 to 1980, died
on Monday in Danbury, Wis. He was 75.

The cause was a heart attack, his wife Marie told The
Associated Press.

Mr. Dudley was not the only progenitor of country songs for
and about truckers; C. W. McCall's 1975 hit "Convoy" had a
brief run at the top of the charts.

But Mr. Dudley had the greatest success in the genre of
truckers' music.

His influence on American culture went beyond music; his
portrayal of truckers as independent, outspoken heroes
facing impossible odds was later incorporated into popular
movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977).

David Darwin Pedruska was born on May 3, 1928, in Spencer,
Wis., and grew up in Stevens Point, Wis.

He recorded under the name Dave Dudley, a variant of a
childhood nickname, Duddy.

He played semipro baseball until an arm injury forced his
retirement from sports in 1950. But it was in music that he
made his mark. He worked the Midwest and West as a D.J. at
stations in Wisconsin, Iowa, Idaho and Minnesota,
moonlighting as a performer in local honky-tonks.

He formed the Dave Dudley Trio, which performed from 1950
to 57. When he moved to Minneapolis to work at radio
station KEVE, he formed a band, the Country Gentlemen.

In 1961 Mr. Dudley first appeared on the Billboard country
charts with "Maybe I Do" on Vee Records and he returned in
1962 with "Under Cover of the Night" on Jubilee Records.

In 1963 the Grand Ole Opry star Jimmy C. Newman let Mr.
Dudley hear a new tune, "Six Days on the Road." An up-tempo
song, it was a departure from the ballads Mr. Dudley had
specialized in, and he was initially reluctant to record
it.

With its driving guitar, straightforward vocals and
accurate descriptions of the challenges and heartbreaks
facing truck drivers, "Six Days on the Road" was an instant
hit and ushered in the genre of truck-driving songs.

The release, on the independent Minneapolis label Golden
Wing Records, led Mercury Records to sign him in Nashville.

He became a national star, and his other hits included
"Mad" (No. 6 on the Billboard country singles chart, 1964),
"Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun" (No. 3, 1965), "What We're
Fighting For" (No. 4, 1965), "Vietnam Blues" (No. 12,
1966), "There Ain't No Easy Run" (No. 10, 1968) and "The
Pool Shark" (his only No. 1 single, 1970).

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