About the Band

The Texas Tumbleweeds were formed in 1998.  The group plays the Texas sound of western swing and early cowboy music in addition to some country and western favorites.  The group started out as a trio but added other members depending on the venue.  We currently have five members.  Our specialty is private parties. We have preformed at ranches, conventions, wedding and anniversary receptions, birthday parties, Texas Arts Council programs, libraries, colleges, parks and recreation areas to name a few.  We have played for several years at the Harvest Festival at Six Flags Over Texas and at the Texas State Fair.
Mary Nell Moss Tripp grew up singing with her daddy, Grady Moss.  As a teenager she sang with his band which included Steve Rodriguez, Ronnie Tutt, and Tommy Morrell.   She sang and called squared dances every weekend until she married and started a family.  She performed ‘Broadway’ show tunes with an all girl repertoire group for 20 years.  During that time she also was a member of the Dallas Symphony Chorus for 25 years.  She began to perform again with her dad in 2004 for all of his out of town jobs and  at Six Flags Over Texas.  She took over the reins of the Texas Tumbleweeds when he died in September 2005.  They are presently in the process of making a CD to honor her dad.
David Brewer played guitar many years in Reno, Nevada in the house bands and backed such stars as Frank Sinatra, Dean Marin, Andy Griffin, Henry Mancini and others.  He has played with Steve Mitchell, America’s Singing Cowboy at Six Flags Over Texas, The Texas Bluebonnet Playboys and other bands.  In the metroplex he plays big band music as well as the country, western, cowboy songs and swingtime genre.  David resides at The Colony, Texas.
‘Mac’ MacRae has played bass with many of the local bands.  He traveled with the Starlighters band for several years and with Tex Williams for a few more when he took over that band.  He is a free lance recording artist and has played with Tommy Morrell , Craig Chambers, Valorie Price and Footloose.  He has played with backup band for Roy Clark, Jay Sheppard, Little Jimmie Dickens, and Hank Thompson.  He recently played with Bill Cates at the Jazz Festival in Denton He has performed with the Texas Tumbleweeds since September 2005 at Six Flags Over Texas, The Texas State Fair and at private parties.


Jess Meador is a 17 year old junior champion fiddler from rural Wise County near Decatur, Texas.  He began playing at the age of 7 with renowned fiddler and teacher Dale Morris. At the age of 9 Jess won the prestigious title of Texas State Junior Fiddle Champion (the youngest to win this award).  During the next few years jess began playing in Texas clubs and honky-tonks and made regular appearances at the Johnnie High Country Music Revue.  Along with braggin’ rights to many other fiddlin’ competitions across Texas and elsewhere, Jess captured the titles to the 2005 Junior World Championship and the 2006 Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering fiddle competition.  In May 2006, he was named Cowtown Society of Western Music’s ‘Rising Star’.  Recently, Jess has preformed at Six Flags Over Texas, The Texas State Fair and Billy Bob’s of Texas and was a featured entertainer for the Single Action Shooter’s Society at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas.  In addition, he regularly plays with a variety of metroplex bands for both public and private appearances.  A versatile fiddler Jess’ love of Bob wills, western swing, and honky-tonk shines brightly in his music and always WOWS the crowd.

Mike got his first guitar, a Montgomery-Ward flat top, for $2.50 in 1943 during WWII. In 1946 he switched to lap steel guitar and then to one of the new Fender twin 8 guitars.

He and his brother Dave were fervent fans of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and listened to all the daily broadcasts from Tulsa and Oklahoma City. They organized a group of High School musicians in the little town of Apache, OK and began playing local jobs. During college they worked local nightclubs in Lawton, OK to help with tuition. Later, Mike worked with various groups on the west coast and backed stars such as Eddie Dean, Lefty Frizzell and Tex Williams.

In 1987, after retiring from Aerospace, he relocated to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Here he taught himself to play tenor banjo and became a part of the Dixieland Jazz world, working in various restaurants and casinos.

In 1987 Mike had also started his own business repairing and restoring clocks, turning a hobby into a business. When hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast in 2005 it also blew away most of his customer base. That was when the decision to move to the Dallas area was made. Since that time Mike has lived in Carrollton, TX and has established a successful clock repair business there. He continues to play Western Swing along with his brother Dave and the Texas Tumbleweeds.

You can check out his clock repair work at his web site: www.clockrepairdallas.com.