Joseph Washburn, an only child, grew up in Port Arthur, where his father was the postmaster. Joseph learned to play the tuba and the double bass in his school band and also enjoyed singing. His high school band director taught him how to arrange music for any combination of instruments. After graduating from high school, he moved to New York to pursue work as a musician. A stylish young man with a slow Texas drawl, he soon earned the nickname “Country.”

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After playing in several bands, Washburn eventually joined the Ted Weems Orchestra, the group best known for backing Elmo Tanner on his famous whistling version of “Heartaches.” Washburn served as the band’s arranger, tuba player, bass player, singer, and announcer.

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“Country” also had his own theme song with the band, titled “Good Morning, Good Evening, Good Night!” In 1940, the Ted Weems Orchestra appeared on the radio quiz show Beat the Band, where contestants heard song titles and tried to guess the tune—a concept Johnny Carson later revived on The Tonight Show. Washburn occasionally appeared in a segment where he would present a song title and then play it on his double bass. Beat the Band was sponsored by Kix cereal.

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In 1942, Spike Jones—then the drummer for the John Scott Trotter Orchestra, Bing Crosby’s group—conceived the idea for a new band that would use the instrumentation of an earlier era. That meant relying on the tuba instead of the string bass for the low end. Washburn, with his rare ability to perform bass lines on tuba at a professional level, was the perfect fit for the job.