Texas Vocal Vibrato

[John Steele (deceased)]

I notice in recent recordings, Jake Hooker has been backing off the "machine gun" vibrato a bit. A welcome change, to my ears.
-John

[Larry King]

DITTO John Steele.....we call it sheep vibrato or billy goat vibrato. He's a great singer without that forced , overdone sound.

[Dayna Wills]

Quite accidentally, I discovered a way to control MY vibrato. I was lying in bed, smoking a cigarette, and learning the lyrics to a new song. As I sang, the ashtray, which was balanced upon my tummy, moved up and down with my vibrato or not, if I didn't engage it. But! The big breakthrough was that I could control the speed of it by getting the ashtray to speed up or slow down. I figured out how to do this without the ashtray and standing up. At that time, my vibrato was rather fast, not quite billy goat, but a close second. Using the ashtray technique, I was able to slow it down and smoothe it out. Singing without one at all is very difficult (for me) and people who are able to do it usually have great pitch. I notice it especially with blue grass singers and also Elana James of Hot Club of Cowtown. She is right on the money.
PS I quit smoking in 1984.