AM: You are in the Texas Hall of Fame, the West Texas Walk of Fame and you’re the Musical Ambassador for Texas. What does this mean to you?
GPN: Being Ambassador means a lot to me because actually, I have gone out of my way in order to promote Texas music, Texas artists and the Texas music industry. That’s why I started a publishing company, so we wouldn’t have to go to Nashville. We can do it ourselves. We started out slow and let it build to set an example for others. This tells them, “You can do this too.” You can start your own publishing company and you can make your own records here in Texas. We’re not going to be superstars but we’ll lay the foundation for others.
Paul Val is one of the most exciting Blues Rock revival
guitarists emerging on the music scene. His style is groove oriented and roots
inspired. He demonstrates a high level of proficiency in the traditional Blues
genre and renews it by breathing new life into the music.
Growing up in Riverside, California, Paul always had a
strong connection to Texas music, so it’s no surprise he ended up in Austin,
where he befriended Memphis Blues Singer, Soul Man Sam, who put him in front of
live audiences.
Paul Val started listening to punk rock music as a five year
old, but shifted to heavy rock & roll and ended up in the blues by the time
he was fifteen. Still, his early bands and recordings are more rock influenced.
Paul's first EP album, 'Steady Rock and Roller' was released in 2020 and spawned two singles, 'Gone Too Far' and "Cheap Tequila'.
Paul's unique sound personifies the future of the blues in
America.
Alan Mercer: So, Paul,
you grew up in Riverside, California. Did you grow up in a musical house?
Paul Val: Yes, but it
was punk rock music. My father, Mark Hernandez was a punk rock musician. He also
did live sound for the Southern California scene. He also toured as a bass
player.
AM: Wow! You really
did grow up in a music world!
PV: My first concert
was Gwar and Misfits when I was four years old.
AM: You write the
best songs. They are all killer!
PV: Thank you.
AM: Tell me about
your latest song, ‘Dreaming Of A Woman’.
PV: I like to write
from personal experience. Whether it’s autobiographical or I see it happen to
someone else in the world of life, I will write a song about it. For instance,
if I am driving my car and someone cuts me off, I want to write a song about
it. Something like that.
AM: “Dreaming Of A Woman’
is pretty straight forward blues, isn’t it?
PV: Yes, that’s what I
want to do.
AM:: Can you tell me about another song you wrote, ‘Miss
Influencer’?
PV: Yes, that song is
about the state of the world we are in. It’s about how people’s online presence
can dictate who they are as a person. We are all equal, social media is not
real, it’s what we see on a screen. That’s why the pre chorus says, “If you
live that perfect life, you’ll never know what’s wrong or right.” The chorus
goes on to say you can have all the followers but when we are dead and gone it
won’t mean a thing. Social media is always changing, so all these people who
are considered famous online won’t mean anything when it changes.
AM: One of my favorite
songs in ‘There’s Something You Should Know.’ That song is so amazing. I love
the production. Isn’t that a different kind of song than your others?
PV: Yes, of course,
there are songwriter blues and straight forward blues and straight rock &
roll.
AM: Your first album
is more rock & roll oriented and I do love it too, but I do enjoy hearing
the growth in your music.
PV: I recorded that album
when I was 24. I was already playing the blues, but I didn’t feel like I had
mastered it yet. Not that I’ve mastered it now, but I do have more of a grasp
of it. What I play now is more mature than that album.
AM: What about a new
album anytime soon?
PV: We are working on
it right now. ‘Dreaming Of A Woman’ is the first single off this debut full
length album. We are going to release it on vinyl too.
AM: Are you going to
put the other two songs on the album too?
PV: I’m not sure, but
we probably will.
AM: Who influences
you musically?
PV: Everybody since I’ve
been born. It took along chain of people. Where do I even begin? The list would start
with The Misfits, the Ramones, Slash and Stevie Ray Vaughn. I discovered B.B.
King and Gary Moore was a huge influence. Like every other guitar player, I
started copying people but now I find my own sound. I don’t want to sound like
anybody else.
AM: You have
definitely found your sound.
PV: That was my goal.
AM: Do you like Southern
Rock?
PV: You know, I never
got into it. Maybe I will in the future. I’ve said that about a lot of other
music and then five years later I’m listening to it and loving it. For some
reason, I don’t know why, I never got into Eric Clapton growing up, but literally
the last five years of my life, as I started getting older, I am a huge Eric
Clapton fan and now he is a huge influence on me.
AM: So, is your new
goal to release the album and tour to support it?
PV: The goal is whatever
the outside forces have in mind for me. My goal has always been to keep blues
alive and guitar-based music alive and to be the next big thing. I want to be
as big as possible, but I only have so much control over that. I’ve learned to
let things go. It will all depend on how much support I get. If I get a team
that helps financially to come in and throw a bunch of money to make me great.
AM: That is honestly
what it takes.
PV: I like to say
what is the difference between a good artist and a bad artist? Money. Chris Cain
is the best blues guitarist in the world, and nobody knows about it.
AM: You are a music
star in Austin.
PV: Yes, that’s because
I keep playing in front of people. No one can stop you if you’re in front of
people. That’s what I figured out. I have been playing literally 7 times a week
when I first moved to Austin. Now I can headline Antone’s and sell it out. Now,
how do we get beyond that.
AM: I think everyone
likes your kind of music.
PV: I agree. The
funny thing is I’m playing contemporary “old people blues” and I have people in
their 20’s in my audience. When you go in to record for a label, they want you
to record whatever is popular, but I strongly believe that this will work.
AM: Do not give in.
PV: People fall into
that trap and that is why so much music sounds the same.
Three contemporary photos taken by Alan Mercer in Los Angeles in February 2011
George Jones began his career by performing on the street to help earn money for his large and impoverished family, and after a brief stint in the military began to pursue his musical ambitions in earnest. In 1955 Jones landed in the country Top Ten with "Why Baby Why," and for the rest of his career was very rarely far from the charts, releasing hit single after hit single as a solo artist and as a duet partner with some of country’s biggest stars, most notably Tammy Wynette, who was also his third wife. Battling his personal demons along the way, Jones amassed an impressive musical legacy that earned him a 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other honors.
George Glenn Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas, on September 12, 1931. One of eight children in a poor family, his father was an alcoholic who sometimes grew violent. "We were our daddy's loved ones when he was sober, his prisoners when he was drunk," Jones later wrote in his autobiography, I Lived to Tell It All. But despite these hardships, Jones and his family members shared a love of music, often singing hymns together and listening to records by the likes of the Carter Family. They also enjoyed listening to the radio, tuning into programs from the Grand Ole Opry.
With his songs about heartbreak, by the early 1960s, Jones had established himself as one of country music’s top singer as he continued to find chart success with singles such as "Window Up Above" (1960; No. 2) and the No. 1 hit "Tender Years" (1961). In 1962 the balladeer again returned to the top of the charts with what is regarded as one of his trademark tunes, "She Thinks I Still Care," and the following year teamed up with Melba Montgomery for the first of several albums, What’s in Our Heart, which reached No. 3 on the charts and proved to be their most successful collaboration.
But Jones maintained a presence on the charts on his own as well, scoring Top 10 hits with the 1964 single "The Race Is On" (No. 3) and 1965’s “Love Bug” (No. 6). The latter half of the 1960s was much the same for Jones, with both his solo efforts and his collaborations meeting enthusiastic reception. Among his notable tracks from this period are the singles “I’m a People” (1966) and “As Long As I Live” (1968), as well as the 1969 duet album with Gene Pitney, I’ll Share My World with You, featuring the No. 2 charting song of the same name.
Jones died on April 26, 2013, at Vanderbilt University Medical
Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where the 81-year-old had reportedly been
hospitalized with irregular blood pressure and a fever just a week earlier.
With a career spanning more than 50 years, Jones is regarded
as one of country music’s all-time greatest stars. His clear, strong voice and
ability to convey so many emotions won over thousands of fans, as well as
earning him the envy of his peers. As fellow country star Waylon Jennings once
said, "If we could sound the way we wanted, we'd all sound like George
Jones."
Portraits of Johnny Bush taken by Alan Mercer in Weatherford, TX on October 14, 2017
Johnny Bush was a country music singer-songwriter whose song “Whiskey River” became a signature song for outlaw country legend Willie Nelson.
Singer/songwriter/drummer Johnny Bush, born John Bush Shinn
III in Houston, began his country career as a vocalist and guitar player in
1952 at the Texas Star Inn in San Antonio. Eventually he switched to drums and
in the early '60s began working in Willie Nelson's band, the Record Men. A year
later, he joined Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. During his three years with the
band, Bush tried to cut a record deal, but the labels felt he sounded too much
like Price to be marketable. Nelson stepped in and paid for Bush to cut his
first album, Sound of a Heartache. After strong local response, he first hit
the charts in 1967 with the minor hit "You Oughta Hear Me Cry." The
next year he had three hits, including the Top Ten "Undo the Right."
In 1972, Bush had a Top 20 hit with "I'll Be
There," which led to a deal with RCA and a Top Ten hit with his song
"Whiskey River," which later became Willie Nelson's signature song.
Just as Bush reached the brink of stardom, he started to lose his vocal range.
Doctors were not able to diagnose the reason until 1978, when they found he had
a rare neurological disorder, spastic dysphonia. This did not prevent his
recording, but his career soon took a downturn. Working with "voice
builder" Gary Catona in 1985, Bush was able to bring back about 70 percent
of his original voice. The following year he and Darrell McCall teamed up to
record the successful honky tonk album Hot Texas Country. He then assembled a
large country band and began performing around San Antonio.
In 1994, he and the band released Time Changes Everything
and launched a major tour; the 1998 follow-up, Talk to My Heart, was regarded
as one of his finest recordings in many years. Bush continued a prolific
release schedule into and during the new millennium, on occasion even releasing
two albums in a single year. His recordings during this period included Lost
Highway Saloon and Sings Bob Wills (both 2000), Green Snakes (2001), Honkytonic
(2004), Texas State of Mind and Devil's Disciple (both 2006), and Texas on a
Saturday Night (co-billed to Justin Trevino) and Kashmere Gardens Mud: A
Tribute to Houston's Country Soul (both 2007).
Johnny Bush passed away at the age of 85 on October 16, 2020
Let’s start with a little bit of history to start this blog
off. Probably the most famous contemporary Music Stars from the Fort Worth area
are Kelly Clarkson, who grew up just south of downtown in Burleson, TX, and
Kirk Franklin, but there are several other talented folks who paved the way
before Kelly and Kirk. Here are just a few. This is in no way intended to be a thorough
biography. You should research these musicians to learn their full stories.
Ray Sharpe
First, we have Ray Sharpe. Born Edward Ray Sharpe on
February 8, 1938, in Fort Worth, TX. Best known for his 1959 dual market hit
"Linda Lu," the singer-songwriter parlayed interest in his early
recordings into a solid following in domestic clubs and international
festivals. Sharpe's style encompasses all the best elements of early rock 'n'
roll. As a singer-songwriter, he has mined Chuck Berry-type humor from the
situations and wordplay in his songs. As a guitarist, he alternates snarling
single note Albert King guitar bends with with twangy, free-flowing rockabilly.
"When I wrote 'Linda Lu' back in the 1950s, I didn't
think much of it," Sharpe told Randy McNutt, author of We Wanna Boogie:
The Illustrated History of the Rockabilly Movement. "A buddy of mine named
Mike had asked me to write a song about his girlfriend, Linda, who used to come
into the club to dance." He further recalled, "I wrote the song to
rib her a little bit. You see she had a fascinating rear end, so to speak. When
she danced, people watched." After playing the song in clubs, the singer
forgot about it until his second recording session at Hamilton. "Then in
the winter of 1958 I went to the Audio Sounds recording studio to make a record
with Duane Eddy's band backing me up," Sharpe recalled. "My producer
Lee Hazelwood asked me if I had one more song to make four, and I was stuck. So
I started playing 'Linda Lu" for him."
"Linda Lu" became something of a bar-band anthem
in the United States, where it was covered by various acts, most notably
blue-eyed soul rocker Wayne Cochran. In the United Kingdom, Johnny Kidd &
the Pirates hit the British Top 50 with their version.
Although "Linda Lu" continues to be his most
popular composition, Sharpe's songs have been covered by artists as diverse as
Neil Young, J.B. Hutto, and Rickie Van Shelton. A stroke of good fortune came
his way during the early 1990s when, like his contemporary and close friend the
late Ronnie Dawson, he was rediscovered by rockabilly enthusiasts. Nowadays he
mixes bookings at domestic blues festivals with overseas rockabilly revivals,
where he is overwhelmingly received as the star he deserves to be.
Bobby Day
Rock and Roll and R&B singer and songwriter Bobby Day
was best known for his only major hit “Rockin’ Robin” recorded in 1957 on the
Classic Label. In 1958, the single, written by Leon Rene under the pseudonym
Jimmie Thomas, reached no. 1 on the R&B chart, no. 2 on the Billboard Hot
100 chart, and sold over one million copies. Day was a multi-instrumental
artist, music producer, singer and songwriter.
Robert James Byrd was born July 1, 1930, in Fort Worth,
Texas. He moved to Los Angeles at age 15 and began performing with the
Hollywood Flames at the Otis’s Barrelhouse Club in Watts, Los Angeles.
Best known for his songwriting ability, Day wrote and
recorded “Little Bitty Pretty One” but it was made popular by Thurston Harris
whose version hit no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958. The single was
also recorded by Frankie Lymon in 1960 followed by Clyde McPhatter in 1962. The
Jackson Five recorded the song in 1972 where it reached no.13 on the Billboard
Hot 100 chart and no. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart. Day wrote and recorded
“Over and Over” that climbed to no.40 on the pop chart in 1958. The Dave Clark
Five, an English Rock & Roll band in 1958 made their own version which hit
the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. Among
other songs he wrote and recorded were “The Bluebird, The Buzzard and the
Oriole,” and “That’s All I Want” in 1959. Day recorded on several record labels
including Rendezvous, RCA, Sure-Shot, and Jama Records.
Day appeared on several variety shows in the 1950s, 1960s
and 1970s including American Bandstand and The Midnight Special. Both were live
music variety shows featuring performances by popular artists, interviews of
celebrity guests, and teenagers dancing.
Bobby Day died of prostate cancer at age 60 on July 27,
1990, in Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife Jackie and their four
children.
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman was one of the true jazz innovators, whose
sound was instantly recognizable and unquestionably unique. Coleman's work
ranged from dissonance and atonality to liberal use of electronic accompaniment
in his ensembles, as well as the engagement of various ethnic influences and
elements from around the globe. While experimenting with time and tone, his
strong blues roots were always evident.
For the most part, Coleman was self-taught, beginning on the
alto saxophone at age 14. Coleman's earliest performing experiences were mostly
with local rhythm-and-blues bands. Coleman settled in Los Angeles in 1952. His
search for a different sound and approach, a means of escaping traditional
chord patterns and progressions, led some critics to suggest that he did not
know how to play his instrument. In reality, he was studying harmony and theory
zealously from books while supporting himself as an elevator operator.
The year 1959 was an important one for Coleman and his band:
he signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records, recording the first album
to really present his new sound, Tomorrow Is The Question!; his quartet was
invited to participate in what became a historic session at the Lenox School of
Jazz in Massachusetts, being championed by John Lewis and Gunther Schuller; and
the band began an extended engagement at the Five Spot Cafe in New York. Meanwhile,
Coleman was developing an approach to his music that he was to dub
"harmolodics."
Roger Miller
Roger Miller was more than just a honky-tonk man and singer.
He was also a songwriter, a guitarist and fiddler, a drummer, a T.V. star, a
Broadway composer, and perhaps, above all else, one of the wittiest
personalities in Country music.
Though he's known largely as a writer of novelty songs, due
to such hits as "Dang Me," "Chug-A-Lug," and "England
Swings," Roger Miller was in fact one of the finest country songwriters of
the '60s and '70s, and an important influence on the progressive country
movement. Blending country with jazz, blues, and pop, he utilized unusual
harmonic and rhythmic devices in his sophisticated songcraft, creating
timeless, widely covered gems ("King of the Road," "Husbands and
Wives") that have been tackled by everyone from Dean Martin to Giant Sand.
In the '80s, he wrote the songs for the Broadway musical Big River, which ran
for over 1,000 performances and won seven Tony Awards.
Miller was born in Fort Worth, TX, but raised in the small
town of Erick, OK, by his aunt and uncle, following the death of his father and
his mother's debilitating sickness. Initially, he was attracted to music by
hearing country over the radio as well as by his brother-in-law, Sheb Wooley.
By the time he was ten, he earned enough money picking cotton to buy himself a
guitar. At the age of 11, Wooley gave him a fiddle and encouraged him to pursue
a performing career. Miller completed the eighth grade and left school to
become a ranch hand and rodeo rider. Throughout his adolescence, he played
music in addition to working the ranch. Soon, he was able to play not only
guitar and fiddle, but also piano, banjo, and drums.
Townes Van Zandt
With an understated voice that quietly overflowed with
melancholy, humor, and insight, Townes Van Zandt was an icon of American
songwriting. His songs would become hits for other artists, but substance abuse
issues, problems with record labels, and general hard luck saw him spending the
majority of his life as a cult figure at best, drifting across the world
playing tiny rooms up until his early death at 52.
Van Zandt was respected and
admired by his contemporaries during his life, particularly for a hot streak of
records he recorded in the early '70s that included High, Low and in Between
and The Late Great Townes Van Zandt.
His legacy would grow after he was gone, with various books and documentary projects examining the tragic beauty that touched both his art and his life. Van Zandt was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 7, 1944.
T-Bone Burnett
In a musical career that dates back to the mid-'60s, T-Bone
Burnett has earned the respect of his peers and a loyal cult following as an
uncommonly thoughtful and frequently witty singer and songwriter with a
singular take on the moral dilemmas of modern life. The updated rockabilly of
1980's Truth Decay and the expansive rock sounds of 1983's Proof Through the
Night won him plenty of accolades as a songwriter, but he's enjoyed
significantly greater success as a producer, helming projects for a diverse
array of artists, from Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, and Gillian Welch to Los
Lobos, Rhiannon Giddens, and Imelda May, giving them a sound that's warm and
dynamic, and imaginative arrangements that are engaging while serving the song
and the vision of each artist.
He's won a number of Grammys and has a
successful second career coordinating music for film and television, with his
credits including 2000's O Brother Where Art Thou, 2012's The Hunger Games, and
2012's debut season of the TV series Nashville (created and produced by his
wife, Callie Khouri). As his work in TV, in film, and as a producer took up
more of his time, Burnett's own albums became a sideline, but he could still
produce strong, deeply moving album, typified by 2019's The Invisible Light:
Acoustic Space and 2022's The Invisible Light: Spells, two entries in a cycle
of albums he insists will be his last.
Born Joseph Henry Burnett on January 14, 1948 in St. Louis,
Missouri, he grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, soaking in the area's indigenous
blend of blues, R&B, and Tex-Mex sounds.
Delbert McClinton
The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas
roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his
ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were
no distinctions between any of them -- in the best time-honored Texas
tradition. A formidable harmonica player long before he recorded as a singer
(he played the signature harp riff on Bruce Channel's 1962 number one hit
"Hey! Baby"), McClinton's career began in the late '50s, yet it took
him nearly two decades to evolve into a bona fide solo artist with 1975's
Victim of Life's Circumstances.
After working hard for a few years, McClinton
scored a Top Ten hit when the slick, funky "Giving It Up for Your
Love" peaked at number eight in 1981. While it was his only pop hit, it
laid the groundwork for an enduring career as an American roots artist. McClinton's
profile received a boost in 1992, when he won a Grammy Award for "Good
Man, Good Woman," his duet with Bonnie Raitt. More duets and awards
followed as he settled into a blues direction with several albums for New West
(two of which were Grammy winners). McClinton continued to use blues as a
foundation for him to explore other roots music in the 21st century, releasing
new material and touring steadily.
Delbert McClinton was born in Lubbock, Texas, on November 4,
1940, and grew up in Fort Worth. Discovering the blues in his teenage years,
McClinton quickly became an accomplished harmonica player and found plenty of
work on the local club scene, where musicians often made their living by
playing completely different styles of music on different nights of the week.
Welcome to my newest blog, The Sounds of Fort Worth! I've had my first entertainment blog, Alan Mercer’s Profile, that started in
Los Angeles, for 14 years. The primary purpose when I started it in 2009 was to showcase my photography, although I soon learned that often the interview would overshadow the photos, so I made it more about the subject and when Covid hit I started interviewing people over the phone and using their existing photographs. My idea of what the blog was had to evolve in order to survive.
When I moved to Texas in 2014, I kept the blog going,
but the subject matter shifted from Los Angeles based musicians and
actors to Texas musicians. I didn't realize how rich Texas is with talented musicians, actors & artists. So, I decided to start another blog
that will be more specifically about music and the arts of the DFW area, but
concentrating on Fort Worth. Also this blog will be more of a community project
with other writers and photographers contributing content. If you are a writer or a photographer and want to contribute please write me at my email ra321547@gmail.com
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