I grew up in a little town in N.E. Texas and as a boy, listened to my handmade crystal radio, 4 - 8 stations in range of my real radio, and 78 RPM phonograph (stereo didn't exist), as the evolution from the Big Band Era music of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Spike Jones, slowly evolved into Rock and Roll.
The one thing that didn’t change was the “Classic” country music that came through the speakers as I listened to The Grand Ole Opry and The Louisiana Hay ride.
Thinking back, it seems that one day I was listening to Tommy Dorsey play his trombone, and the next day, out of nowhere, like an unexpected tornado arriving at my front door, Bill Haley And The Comets burst through the radio’s speaker, playing “Rock Around The Clock”. Soon that was followed by Carl Perkin’s “Blue Suede Shoes”, Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire”, Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue", and Elvis Presley’s “You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog”.
About that same time, my dad bought us a Black and White TV and here came The Mickey Mouse Club, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
It’s no wonder I fell in love with music. I was surrounded daily by the sounds of Texas singers and songwriters and it didn’t take long before I became hooked on the songs of Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys and the Light Crust Doughboys.
I first picked up a guitar when I was 6 years old and took lessons from J. T. Adams, a religious singer. I failed to be able to learn guitar at that time, however my love of music directed me to another instrument and I learned to play the trombone, and managed to become a member of the High School Marching Band for a few years. I had a really neat uniform, but marching at football game half times, quit appealing to me, as I discovered women and the effects that guitar playing and singing had on them.
In my teenage years until my early 20’s, more Texas singers and song writers came to my attention; Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightning Hopkins, Lead Belly, Big Mama Thornton, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzel, George Jones, Tex Ritter, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Don Williams, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves, J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), Lead Belly, Buddy Holly, and Roy Orbison.
I noted that none of these singers played trombone, so I traded in my trombone on a 6 string acoustic guitar and traded a case of beer to a cowboy going to my college to be a veterinarian, to teach me the chord progression in the key of C. I played the 4 chords over and over again, and I would usually sing Johnny Cash songs, although I began to move into other artists that were becoming so prominent in the early and mid 60’s, Eric Burton and the Animals and The Rolling Stones.
Texas songwriters and entertainers continued to gather momentum and eventually, I harvested the sounds of Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Buck Owens, Ray Price, Doug Sham’s Sir Douglas Quintet, T-Bone Burnett, Edgar Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Mickey Newbury, Phi Ochs, Townes Van Zandt, Janis Joplin, ZZ Top, Meat Loaf, Asleep at the Wheel, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billie Joe Shaver, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Mac Davis, Clint Black, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Don Henley, Freddie Fender, Mike Nesbitt of The Monkees, and Delbert McClinton.
In 1966, I left Texas, headed to Quantico, VA, and after receiving my commission as a 2nd Lt. in the Marine Corps, I was off to Vietnam, and one of the first things I did upon arrival, was to buy a very cheap guitar. At the same time, I discovered that I could make money (and/or barter) with my music.
I became a professional musician in of all places, Vietnam! I actually got my first paying gig in a combat zone, if it is fair to say that singing and playing for drinks in tips, counts as a “paying gig”. My Venue was a plywood constructed Officer’s Club in PhuBai, where I played (when not being deterred by rocket and mortar attacks from an unseen audience who was set on insuring that our side didn’t have very much fun) the songs of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and Roger Miller.
And every morning a familiar “Wake Up” call would come through my cheap transistor radio, “Good Morning Vietnam” which would introduce me to the events of the world and new music and new singers whom I had never heard of before.
One night in 1967 or 1968 (my tour of duty), sitting on the ground with a make shift movie screen, I saw a movie called Nashville Rebel starring a guy named Waylon Jennings (who had been Buddy Holly’s bass player the night of the air plane crash which took the lives of Buddy, Richey Valens, and The Big Bopper). That was seven years before Waylon and Willie would shake up America with their Outlaw Country Music. By then, I was already doing Waylon’s old music, so I jumped on the bandwagon quickly and started doing only Outlaw Country.
After returning from Vietnam, and upon discharge from the Marine Corps, I took my guitar, car, and brand new suit to Los Angeles, and the Corporate World; Los Angeles and Hollywood would become my next stop along the way of living my life.
It got very exciting as I began hanging out in Hollywood’s Ye Little Bar with entertainers, sports stars, and actors, and I started singing Neil Diamond songs at Kelly’s Steak House in Marina Del Rey, where I lived. No contract was signed, but in exchange (a little barter) for my songs, I would get paid good scotch and prime rib for my effort. Playing and Singing for drinks in tips and living the Marina Del Rey and Hollywood wild life was a fantastic learning experience and lifestyle for me in those days.
But Corporate America continued to pull me into it and on New Years Day 1973, I left Marina Del Rey and arrived and settled in Denver, then a cow town, and found myself once again playing my music to audiences that were into Outlaw Country music.
In 1975, thanks to my friends Tommy McDonald and his cousin Lamar Fike, the founder of Elvis’s Memphis Mafia, I found myself with the Elvis Presley entourage in Vail for his 41st birthday, and for the last one and half years of his life I was fortunate to occasionally join up with his entourage and wear a back stage pass in his spectacular concerts.
During this time, I began writing songs for Tommy and Lamar, recording them in studio, and entertaining every chance I got. after Elvis’s death I put playing music aside, except in my basement, until I retired.
Then one day in the winter of 2011, very bored with the retirement life, I was wintering in Carmel, California sitting on my front porch across from The Golden Baugh Theatre, a performing arts center. I listened as entertainers did a performance featuring the tribute songs of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, James Brown, and others who were truly the innovators of the Rock and Roll era.
As I listened to the music of the exciting young professional singers and actors, it occurred to me that I had at one time, in my younger life, played all the songs the repertoire group played that night.
I’ve always been a dreamer, but after hearing their marvelous performance, I decided to get back into the entertainment and songwriting world, which had once meant so much to me. I owe the Golden Baugh Management and Performers a very big - Thank You!
In spite of the fact that I was no longer young, I still had my voice and I wanted to play to audiences, once again.
I founded Spirit Wind Productions in 2011, which brings me to NOW!
After gathering new material I had never sung before, and hundreds of hours spent practicing, I have now renewed my love affair with song writing and entertaining.
Both my venues and repertoire and the songs I now write, are diverse and I am actively pursuing gigs to play, and I’m always recording both the songs I write and the music I sing.
What about the future?
I hope to continue entertaining and trying to sell the songs I write. I’m too old to believe that there are any recording contracts out there for me, so sometime in the near future, I will very likely expand Spirit Wind Productions to include my own personal record company. Why not? I’ve already invested in the equipment needed and there is no limits to the creativity offered by today’s electronic innovations.
And of course that leads to the final step, giving myself a recording contract and finding someone like Elvis Presley’s wardrobe designer, Nudie, to make me some glittery outfits.
For now, I'm delighted to once again enjoy being able to perform and write my music.