Lee Mays: The Award Winning Smooth Jazzman

 

All photos by Alan Mercer except the 2 album covers

Lee Mays, a.k.a. Percy Mays, is a singer, songwriter, and producer who is internationally recognized and critically acclaimed. In 1976, Mr. Mays made his mark in the world of contemporary Christian music with the release of his self-made vinyl album, "Shine Your Love". In 1978, the title song, "Shine Your Love" was released as a single on Word Records by The Cruse Family. That song contributed to The Cruse Family's 1978 album entitled, "Transformation", which won the Dove Award for "Best Album of the Year".

Since the early 2000’s, the “Shine Your Love” album has been a highly sought after item on internet auction sites such as eBay, Yahoo Japan, and other auction sites due to the fact that it had become a vinyl collector’s gem over the decades. The music of “Shine You Love” has also been licensed by several independent record companies including The Numero Group in August 2022.

Lee's first album 'Shine Your Love' from 1978 under the name Percy Mays

In December of 2015, Mr. Mays released the “Real Love” CD on the Soul Invasion record label. The 13 songs on the “Real Love” CD contain a mixture of smooth jazz and R&B/Soul sounds. In 2014, the single, “Give Me Another Chance” featuring Fulton Turnage, was among the year’s Top-30 songs in the United Kingdom on the Global Soul Radio Station, which is UK’s #1 Internet radio show.

From 2015 to 2021, art directors and booking agents in jazz clubs and concert halls booked Mr. Mays for concert appearances in major cities throughout Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, and Italy. To his credit, Lee currently has one Italian feature film and three Italian short films in which his music can be heard.

Lee Mays 'Real Love' album cover

In August 2022, Lee won the Amsterdam Freedom Independent Film Festival's Best Original Score award for his compilation of 11 songs in the Italian short film, La Carrozza dei Sogni (The Carriage of Dreams), directed by Frances Sapphire.

In March 2023, Lee won Best Original Score for a second time with La Carrozza dei Sogni at the 2023 Luis Buñuel Memorial Awards in Calcutta, India.

Alan Mercer:  Lee, you have a brand new song coming out. What can you tell me about it?

Lee Mays:  The new song is called ‘Rainbow In My Heart’ and it’s actually not a new song. I’ve been playing with it for the last few years. Now, I have beefed up the production and finetuned it. I got the software, that I’ve had for years, off the shelf when we were on lockdown. I taught myself to use it because what else was there to do?

AM:  Covid was good for musicians in a way.

LM:  Yes, I had to become introspective, like we all did. I had been spending thousands of dollars a year going to recording studios in Dallas. There is nothing like going form spending ten thousand dollars a year to spending nothing on production. I only had to pay for the musicians. It’s all been a learning process for me for the last three years. I have learned how to be a good studio engineer. That is really something for me because I am a musician, an artistic person. I am not a technical person. I could never be an electrical engineer.

AM:  Was learning this technical side as hard as you thought it would be?

LM:  I used to think it was complicated, but the more I sat down and learned it, it wasn’t as hard as I originally thought. I’m more talented and smarter than I thought I was. I’ve taught myself just about everything I’ve learned how to do in life. I taught myself how to play piano and guitar. I even taught myself how to sing. Back in the old days I was told by a good friend that I wasn’t a singer. Back when I was in college, I was in a trio in Canyon, Texas. They are good friends of mine to this day. They were all state choir back in high school. They were tenors and I was a comedian. I was considered the Bill Cosby of West Texas.

AM:  That’s the hardest job in the world.

LM:  It is the hardest but it was easy for me because all I had to do was listen to the old Bill Cosby records and I did impersonations of him. That was good enough for me and the audience. Of course, today I wouldn’t touch anything by Bill Cosby. It was fun back then. We had a music comedy show and we would travel to schools and churches and do shows. I was writing songs way back as far as 1970 and the guys were doing my songs in the shows. One day I told them I wanted to sing. I saw these guys getting all the glory. I played bass in the background. I would see all the girls loving the singers and I wanted some of that. Those guys told me I was a good songwriter, a good bass player and a good comedian but I was not a singer. It was two against one, so I said, OK. Fast forward five years and those guys recorded a country gospel album and then I did an album called ‘Shine Your Love’ and guess which album got all the airplay. The album that I produced, wrote, and sang on. Today it’s a collector’s item.  

AM:  It’s wrong to tell people they can’t sing. It’s simply a different style.

LM:  It is wrong. A lot of it has to do with desire and your heart. If you have the heart for something and a desire for something, you can do it. I had to teach myself how to sing. It was the same thing when I recorded the ‘Real Love’ album back in 2015. I didn’t think I was good enough to sing some of the songs I had written so I didn’t sing half the songs I wrote. I picked my favorite singers from Dallas and I asked them to sing because I felt they could do it better than me.

AM:  Much like Quincy Jones.

LM: Yes, then my good friend, Fulton Turnage, who is a great singer and my saxophone player, sang on the album. I took him with me to Russia in 2016 where we did a duet together and it was a smash hit. This was my first time in Russia. Everywhere we went, the people loved our show. He sang some of my songs. The next year when I was returning to Russia, he couldn’t go. I had to learn how to sing the songs that he sang because they had to be sung and the audience loved it. I’ve had to learn how to adapt and be what I had to be in order to get the music across.

AM:  You have your own unique way with a song, and you have a niche all to yourself. You should be celebrated for it.

LM:  I’ve heard people say that. My record label in Nashville told me they wanted me on their roster because there is nobody who can do what you do. It’s cool to have that distinction.

AM:  I like you working with other artists also.

LM:  When I was last in Italy I teamed up with a young Rap/Hip Hop artist out of Milan. He is coming out with a single and I am featured on it. That will be a mix of smooth jazz and rap. His name is Sclaise and he’s very talented. I’m looking forward to this release.

AM:  Is it in Italian?

LM:  The rap is Italian, but my vocals are in English. We did a music video in a city north of Milan called Arona. It’s a beautiful resort city. It’s a worldwide release so hopefully we will get some airplay in the United States as well.

AM:  Lee, your songs always seem to be and stay at the top of the charts even though you don’t play live shows very much.

LM:  That is so interesting. I’ve been an artist on ReverbNation since 2014. Throughout the whole time, my music has always been at the top of the charts in the genre of R&B/Soul and Smooth Jazz. Right now, ‘Rainbow In My Heart’ is the number one song in Dallas/Fort Worth and it’s been that way for months. I know people are listening to my music. It’s really come as a surprise. I never thought that week after week, month after month and year after year, my songs would stay so popular. Maybe because they sound more commercial.

AM:  You have a good commercial ear.

LM:  Many years ago, I as offered a job in Nashville to be a staff writer for Bobby Goldsboro Music. This was back in the 1980s. They guy that offered me the job used to be in a band I was in back in California and he wrote commercials. He wrote lots of famous jingles and commercials.

AM:  Obviously, you didn’t accept that job.

LM:  At the time I couldn’t make it work. I would have had to move to Nashville, so I never took the job.

AM:  Are you going to keep releasing songs on the MC1 Nashville label?

LM:  Yes, although I may decide to release a single independently. I’ve got a song called ‘Won’t You Be My Girl’ and I finally have it sounding the way I want it to sound.

AM:  You also write Gospel songs, don’t you?

LM:  Yes, I have a gospel song I wrote about 25 years ago about a lady I was dating at the time, and she had a little dog that was 13 years old and when the dog passed, it tore her up. That was her child. The family dog is like a baby. Since I was not a pet owner, I was surprised by how devastating it was for her, so I decided to write a song inspired by a dog who died. The title of the song is ‘He Will Take Care Of You’.  It’s a song designed to comfort.

AM:  So many people need comforting all the time.

LM:  You don’t need to have lost a pet to be able to relate to the song. It’s about somebody caring for you enough that no matter what happens you will be taken care of. I hope I can release it on MC1 Nashville’s gospel label.

AM:  Gospel music is your roots.

LM:  That is my roots. I started playing piano in my dad’s church when I was nine years old. My dad was a Baptist minister. There was nobody to play piano and my dad told me I had to learn so I could play.

AM:  When did you start playing jazz?

LM:  I started playing jazz chords when I was 17. One of my favorite bands back then was the band, Chicago. I love those kind of chords so I started playing that jazzy type of stuff. Then by the time I was 18 I started writing the songs that would be on the ‘Shine Your Love’ album.

AM:  Do you have any goals left at this time?

LM:  I just want to be where I’m wanted the most. I had been busy in Russia and Ukraine from 2015 to 2019. Of course, when Russia invaded Ukraine, I had to cancel everything. I almost moved to Moscow. I had moved out of my apartment, and I had considered relocating to Moscow because when I was there I would get calls every day from all over the Russian federation to come perform. I was also getting calls from Italy. The Italian people love me, so I might relocate to Rome or Milan. All I want to do is work. I want to be in front of audiences and perform my music. That’s my passion.

To learn more about Lee Mays visit his ReverbNation page

 

Ryan Glenn Makes The Most Out Of Every Moment

 

Ryan Glenn photographed at Second Rodeo Brewing in the historic Stockyards in Fort Worth,TX

“Distinctive and authentic, Glenn keeps things fresh while proving age is no barrier when it comes to maintaining a traditional sound.” Helen Jones - Americana UK

 

North Texas singer-songwriter Ryan Glenn's unique style and sound has been compared to a wide range of music icons, spanning from Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and even Bob Dylan. One thing is for certain, his live show is an experience that is anything but typical. Blending the best of Rockabilly, Texas Blues and Country, Ryan Glenn & The Honky Tonk Heat offers a variety of musical styles presented with energy and precision. The band's original approach to classic music has landed them on stages all over Texas from Gruene Hall to the State Fair of Texas, where audiences are surprised to learn that this accomplished entertainer is merely 21 years old.  

Ryan Glenn's first full length album Faraway Rose

Ryan and his band released their first LP "Faraway Rose" in April of 2021, produced by Dallas music icon John Pedigo and featuring guest appearances by Joshua Ray Walker, Ken Bethea (Old 97's), Jaret Reddick (Bowling for Soup), Kevin Geil (Two Tons of Steel) and others. Currently the band is in production on their second album, this time with producer Tim Lightyear at the helm, scheduled to be released in 2023. 

I met with Ryan before his performance at Second Rodeo Brewing in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards where he told me what was going on in his world.

Alan Mercer:  Ryan, when did you start playing music?

Ryan Glenn:  I started playing music when I was around 15 years old.

AM:  And you were already recording by the age of 17?

RG:  Yes sir, I released my first record in 2019 when I was 17 years old.

AM:  That isn’t the easiest thing to do. Can you give me a little background on how it all happened?

RG:  I’ve always been into music, and I’ve always loved music. I feel very grateful and lucky and privileged to be born in a family of musicians. My grandmother has been a musician since the 1970s when she was real young. My mom and my stepdad have both been musicians since they were real young, so I’ve been submerged in this culture and environment my whole life.

AM:  You have total support and that makes a big difference.

RG:  Yes sir, I am very blessed.

AM:  When you recorded your first EP, did you have someone backing that project?

RG:  I was in high school so my parents helped me with it. I was working for it and saved up money in a savings account. We just used the home studio of my bass player at the time. It was 4 songs that I wrote and a cover of the Queen song, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’.

AM:  It’s unlikely that a person my age would be able to relate to a 17-year-old musicians songs, and yet I was totally blown away by your music and I realized it had nothing to do with age. How did you blend the rockabilly sound of yesteryear with a modern contemporary sound of today?

RG:  I think what it is, is I just listen to so much music. I have so many different heroes and influences. I have my big heroes in the Rockabilly field like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran, who I love. Then I also have heroes like Aerosmith and Queen and heroes in the Punk field like The Clash. ‘London Calling’ is one of my favorite albums ever. I love Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. I also love newer music. Billie Eilish has some great music. I grew up listening to 90s Alt-Rock too.

AM:  I hear the Punk and Alt-Rock influences and I hope they never leave you.

RG:  No sir, they won’t.

AM:  When did you record your first full length album?

RG:  We recorded it in 2020. We hit the studio a few weeks after I graduated from High School. I graduated during the pandemic. Everyone else was getting ready for college and I went into the studio to make a record.

AM:  That sounds so cool. How did it make you feel to be making a record as opposed to going to school?

RG:  Actually, in a way it did feel like going to school. I fell in love with the studio, and it led me to an internship at Audio Dallas under Paul Osborne and later on becoming a full-time assistant engineer for local producer Tim Lightyear. It was like getting my education in many ways, and besides all that it just felt natural. My friends who wanted to be nurses went to nursing school, my friends who wanted to be business majors went to a business school, and I wanted to be a musician, so I made a record. I honestly haven’t spent that much time out of the studio since!

AM:  What kind of reaction do you get from people when they hear your recordings?

RG:  I like to think it’s pretty positive. I’ve been featured by different news sources a few times. I was on NPRs 20 Under 20 when I was still a teenager. I’ve been played on some of the local radio stations. I feel like I get a positive reaction but there is a lot of not knowing how to classify me as an artist. I think that’s the biggest thing. People are struggling to figure out what kind of music I am making. For a while that really bugged me because I want people to know what they are listening to. Then I realized that when Elvis was making music nobody knew how to classify him either.

AM:  Not knowing how to classify you means you’re good.

RG:  I appreciate that.

AM:  You are an innovator and moving forward.

RG:  Thank you. When I realized that not everyone is able to describe what my music is, I realized that it meant I was able to make any kind of music I wanted. I can make what feels natural.

AM:  I would say your music best fits in the Americana genre. Do you agree and if so why or why not?     

RG:  That’s typically how we tend to brand ourselves just because of the wide range of “Americana” artists there are. Many of my friends in the business that classify themselves as Americana, really fit more into categories of rockabilly, Texas blues, or Western swing. It’s a really eclectic genre and covers a lot of ground.

AM:  Your song ‘Piper’ is mind blowing! It’s the perfect song to open the album.

RG:  We knew when we were tracking it that it would be the best song to start off with. Even now, in 2023, we still open all of our shows with that song. It’s a fun song and we have a lot of fun performing it. It gets you hyped up. It works on the band as well. It might be a slow night, or I might be tired from doing a whole string of shows but when we play that song, we are in it.

AM:  I want to talk about your cover of ‘All Of Me’. I’ve never heard it done by anyone the way you do it. Who came up with that arrangement?

RG:  That was me. I love doing songs by the people who influence me but I don’t like doing it the way they did it.

AM:  Who was the influence for it?

RG:  Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

AM:  Are you familiar with Jazz music?

RG:  I love jazz music. I have jazz players in my band. My steel guitar player and my fiddle player and my drummer all have jazz and classical backgrounds.

AM:  Is there any Western Swing in your repertoire?

RG:  I love that stuff. I’m a big Bob Wills fan and Two Tons of Steel is one of my favorite bands in the world. Kevin Geil from that band has been a mentor to me.

AM:  Have you got your third album recorded yet?

RG:  We’re working on it right now. 2 of the 5 songs from the EP are finished.

AM:  You are smart to do an EP again. People aren’t listening to albums as much right now.

RG:  No, with social media, people’s intake of content is so limited. People can’t digest big albums like they used to be able to.

AM:  When do we, the public get to hear the new music?

RG:  We want to have the first single out in a few months. We want it out very soon.

AM:  Are there any plans to tour outside the Dallas/Fort Worth area?

RG:  For sure. We went down to Houston last month and we are going to be in Marfa for Spring break. We are going to be going down south more. 

AM:  Do you have time for a personal life?

RG:  No, I spend all of my time practicing or playing shows and I also work in a studio. I spend a lot of time in the studio.

AM:  Your live shows are gaining a reputation as superb. Do you do your own booking?

RG:  I do my own booking. I wear a lot of different hats. I’m blessed to have the family I’m in. My parents have been booking bands their whole life. My dad actually plays in my band with me. He’s my bass player. I never feel like I’m doing it by myself. I wear a lot of hats but so does everyone else in my family. I always have support and I always have people on my side. I know not everyone has that so I count my blessings.

AM:  Your family is clearly an important part of your life and career. Can you believe how blessed you really are?

RG: No sir I really can’t, and because of that I used to find myself taking it for granted a lot. I don’t think I’m ever going to fully understand the sacrifices my family makes for me until I have one of my own. I’ve grown up a lot, and I recognize it more lately than ever before. I try to make the most out of every opportunity with them, so many people don’t have the privilege of a family, much less one who serves as a support system. I try to make the most out of every moment and try to pay the blessings God gives me forward every chance I get.

To learn more about Ryan Glenn and see where he is performing visit his website https://ryanglennband.com/

 

Jody Miller "Wayfaring Stranger--The Final Recordings"

 

Written by Jennifer Anne McMullen

 

 

After the trying events of 2020, Jody relished the opportunity to return to Brady, Texas, that October to record some songs that really meant something to her. This collection, produced by Justin Trevino, was birthed by those sessions.

Jody's love for good storytelling and strong melodies around which she could wrap her richly expressive voice first drew her to folk music in the 1960's, so it is only fitting that she finally recorded "Wayfaring Stranger," a spiritual song she'd been singing since her early folk days.

On "Blessed Are the Believers," written by her good friend Bonnie Shannon, Jody teams up with an artist she'd long admired, the ACM Award winning Tony Booth. Jody was thrilled to find that she and Tony shared a common faith in Christ.

Jody's love for Gospel, Country and Storytelling are melded into her moving version of "Tramp on the Street," which she recalled first hearing as a recording by the Maddox Brothers and Rose. Next up, the song "I Can't Even Walk Without You Holding My Hand" seems a deeply moving metaphor for Jody's life's journey. Her daughter, singer/songwriter Robin Brooks, describes it as "a very touching performance by Mom."

Jody's delivery demonstrates a certain beauty, dignity, and humility that can only be communicated with the wisdom and experience gained by the passing of time. To lighten the mood, a spirited single track "Your Exes," recorded in March 2017 at Heart of Texas, is included, as well as the 55th Anniversary version of Jody's Grammy Award winning hit "Queen of the House" (a special request from Heart of Texas Records President Tracy Pitcox), which was originally released in 1965. Once again, Jody nails it.

Although Jody has since gone to rest in the Lord since she approved the final mixes in September 2022, she was delighted that the project was finally coming to fruition. Jody loved these special recordings, and I believe you will, too.

Jody Miller & her daughter Robin Brooks

Finally, on a personal note, I want to say what a pleasure and honor it has been to call sweet Jody Miller (or dear Myrna Joy Brooks, as friends and family knew her back home in Blanchard, Oklahoma) my dear friend. Our families grew to know and love each other, and she was a precious mentor and confidante to me. Her life and career, both worth exploring, are so full that I do not have the space to cover them here, but I salute Jody, and I shall never forget her...until we meet again in the presence of the Lord.

Jody Miller & Jennifer Anne McMullen

This CD is very special as it presents in a Scrapbook form and it includes Jody's "farewell" letter to her many listeners. I think you already know this, but it is worth repeating. There is a direct link to ordering the CD at jodymillermusic.com, or folks may go look for it via Heart of Texas Records at hillbillyhits.com.

Ri Wolf Is Living Right

 

Photo by Alan Mercer

2021 proved to be a chance for resurgence in Rī Wolf’s music career. After spending the last 14 years as a collegiate track and field coach in Texas and almost 9 years away from music, Rī Wolf is bursting back into the music scene with a Grass Roots Americana sound reminiscent of a West Texas Troubadour making his way back home. 

Rī is returning with a sound that’s rooted in great songwriting, unforgettable melodies and rugged authenticity. With an acoustic guitar driven mix of country, soul, blues, and rock, Rī brings these elements together for a unique, but familiar sound laced with stories true and familiar to those who call Texas and the Great Plains home.

Photo by Alan Mercer

Alan Mercer:  Ri, I heard you used to be a coach of some kind. What can you tell me about that?

Ri Wolf:  I was. I got into music in my early twenties. I was working with Cary Pierce of Jackopierce. He produced one of my records. I was going around the country performing at colleges, but ultimately at that time, it wasn’t paying the bills.

AM:  A reality for many musicians.

RW:  I had always had an interest in athletics. I had been an athlete my whole life and I thought maybe the next step for me was to pursue a career in coaching. I decided to finish my degree and I got a job offer at Texas A&M University as a graduate assistant. I went out there and finished up my masters and soon after I was hired as a head coach of the division 2 track & field program. This is when I’m 28 years old. At that point I was still playing music sporadically. It was more of a hobby than anything, so I went full force into coaching.

AM:  How long did you coach?

RW: Almost fifteen years.

AM:  All this time keeping music as a hobby?

RW:  Actually, I let it go completely. I stopped writing and stopped playing. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to do anything half-assed.

AM:  OK, you want to give all to whatever you are doing.

RW:  Yes, I felt like I would be pulling away from my career, which I was doing really well at. We won a national title at West Texas A&M while I was there. Every once in awhile I would pull my guitar out and play some songs that I liked, but I wasn’t writing, and I had no intention of getting back into performing.

AM:  Before you decided to drop out of music had you been writing?

RW:  Yes, I was writing a lot.

AM:  Are any of those songs part of your repertoire today?

RW:  Only one and I’m looking to bring that song back on a live album I’m going to record here pretty soon.

AM:  So what happened to get you focused on music again?

RW:  Personally, I was getting burned out on the way the politics of college athletics was working. To be honest I really didn’t like the way coaches were being treated. I felt like at the collegiate level we were becoming the middlemen. It was all about saving face with student athletes, who have been given a lot of power. That’s great for them, but the whole discipline aspect of it and coaching to develop young men and women, for me it was much harder. My hands were tied, and I felt like we weren’t getting a lot of help.

AM:  I’m sure you weren’t getting much help.

RW:  I was coming to the end of my contract with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley down in South Texas near Mexico. We were five miles from the border. I was in my fourth year there and covid hit. The whole university shut down. So, we found ourselves at home wondering what to do and wondering what was going to happen. Because of covid I started dabbling in playing some of the Blues stuff that influenced me so long ago. I would post videos of my playing the guitar. I wasn’t writing or singing, just playing.

AM:  What convinced you to start singing again?

RW:  I did an interview with a sports podcast, and they knew my history with playing music, so they asked me about it. They asked me to play a song on the show. I hadn’t performed in years. One of my big influences was Bob Marley. He is a master of melody.

AM:  So are you.

RW:  He has been my staple for how the message doesn’t get across if the melody doesn’t stick. The melody can carry your message. That’s the avenue to say here is how we connect. Anyway, I decided to play ‘Redemption Song’ on this podcast. I have video of it since it was live on air, so I looked back on it and watched it and thought to myself, “Man, I need to do this again.” That was a turning point for my life. I just started diving in. I was at home and not doing a lot so I started playing the guitar six to eight hours a day. My wife would leave and go to the gym and run some errands and when she returned home, I would still be in the same spot playing. I felt like I had a newfound voice and a renewed sense of what I wanted to say and do. I was feeling this gritty, bluesy, folky, country stuff that I had grown up with, start to come out of me.

AM:  I love that.

RW:  A few months after that interview, my wife came in and I was writing, I had started to write again, and she said she thought I needed to do this and give it a shot.

AM:  Did that give you a boost of confidence?

RW: Oh, tremendously, it’s always a risk. This business is tough. The thing is, I know who I am. I knew what this meant for me. It’s something that I believed in. Her giving me the nod let me say let’s go for it. South Texas didn’t shut down as much as the whole country did during covid, so I found myself a little gig on South Padre Island once every other Friday. There were tourists coming in every weekend, and I really started to sharpen up. I was working out some of the new songs I was writing. I started getting some popularity out there and developed a bit of a following and some excitement.

AM:  Why did you decide to move to West Texas?

RW:  We wanted to be closer to family, but also so I could pursue this career in music. I fell in love with West Texas. I love the solitude out there. I grew up in central Oklahoma.

AM:  For being sparsely populated, the area sure does produce a lot of talented people.

RW:  It’s not easy to live under the harsh conditions out there, but the people are resilient.  It’s a great place to be.

AM:  When did you start releasing songs?

RW:  I started releasing songs in 2021. I was just recording in my bathroom. I had a crappy little mic. I didn’t really know where to go because it was the middle of covid. I couldn’t find a studio that fit what I wanted to do so I decided to do it myself. I’d been around enough producers to know how it works and the engineering aspect of it. I started putting songs out on my own and got into a music community on Twitter. I came across some great artists and I thought why don’t we collab on some songs.

AM:  You do have some nice collaborations.

RW:  Yeah, I would send them a demo and say let’s do this. They would do the work in the studio wherever they were at, and I would do my work at home. In a round about way, we put together this project from distances apart. I found all these new avenues to get music out.

AM:  What made you experiment with different musical genres?

RW:  I did that on purpose because I know where I come from. I grew up listening to a lot of Soul music and add to that a lot of Blues and old time Country and Bluegrass music. That comes from my grandparents. I was pushing myself into different spots.

AM:  It all sounds natural, never contrived.

RW:  No, it all felt true. I just wanted to see what stuck.

AM:  Which genres have stuck?

RW:  I would say it’s Americana, but I bring a little bit of a different twist to it. I feel like a lot of my Soul and Blues background pushes into the stuff I do. Although it’s labeled Americana and a lot of my writing is geared that way, I always find Soul and Blues rolling into what I’m doing.

AM:  I love your cover of the Bill Withers classic ‘Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone’.

RW:  I recorded that one live in my family room.

AM:  It’s the same as your video.

RW:  Yes, I just took the audio from the video and mastered it. I thought it was raw and it’s what I did during covid just to get it out there.

AM:  You probably aren’t real big on doing covers since you write such good music.

RW:  No, you are exactly right. I’m glad you noticed that. A lot of people who don’t know my music only want to hear covers. They don’t understand the extensive background and how hard I’ve worked at writing my own songs. When they do sit down and listen and hear my stories they start to understand.

AM:  You also covered the old chestnut, ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and you do a great job with that one too.

RW:  I’ve always been a Frank Sinatra fan. Willie Nelson kind of came from that background. There’s just something about Frank Sinatra and his voice and demeanor that I’ve always admired. When I play live, I like to do cover songs as tributes to artists that I’ve pulled a lot from. I just started messing around with it and I realized I really love that song. My daughter was singing it with me as well. I felt like if I could sing the song my way, I would do it justice.

AM: Those covers let me know you could interpret other songwriters’ music.

RW:  I did a jazz collaboration with a great piano player out of New York titled ‘Cinnamon Morning’. Her name is Charu Suri.

AM:  I love that song. It’s so beautiful.

RW:  I wrote the song with her in mind. I had this soulful music, and it is about when I spent some time in Albuquerque. I knew she would be perfect for this song. It’s not really the genre I’m known for, but I thought we could make something special.

AM:  I hope you continue to record some unexpected gems because they really shine.

RW:  That’s the beauty of being an independent artist. People ask me if I want to be signed to a label, but to be honest with you, I really like making my own music. I like having the control. I’m producing everything.

AM:  I know you have a new album out now. ‘Randall County Reverb’ just came out. Do you have plans for recording anything else right now?

RW:  I want to do a live acoustic album. I’m going to take some of my old songs and record them live acoustically. I also have quite a few new songs that I’m going to put together. I want to keep it real simple. It’s something I’ve never done, but I think it would give folks a different perspective about the stuff I do.

AM:  You are in an enviable position as an artist.

RW:  I’m a true believer that life imitates art. Art is a direct reflection of how you live. The focus is never about what music I’m going to put out, it’s about the way I’m going to live. The question is, am I living right?

Graphic art by Alan Mercer

To learn more about Ri Wolf visit his web site https://www.riwolfmusic.com/

 

Will Carter Has A Passion For Storytelling

 

Photo taken at the Downtown Cowtown Isis Theater in Fort Worth by Alan Mercer

 

Will Carter is a country singer and songwriter from Katy, Texas whose talent and commitment have earned him over a dozen singles on the Texas music charts. Three of these songs have crossed successfully over to Nashville’s Music Row Chart, extending his fanbase nationwide. For the last three consecutive years, Carter has been nominated Male Vocalist of the Year and awarded Songwriter of the Year at the Texas Country Music Association Awards.

Texas born and bred, Will Carter was raised on his family’s farm with a day-and- night work regimen. It’s where he learned to respect hard work and traditional values. This environment provided Will a gateway to country music.

Carter’s love and passion for storytelling infuses his songwriting with compelling narratives. An even more intimate relationship with music developed when Carter was a teenager. When his father became severely ill, Carter created a playlist of his father’s favorite songs to share with his dad, providing both with renewed comfort and joy. Carter sold the same playlist on CD to help raise money for his family which, in turn, landed him on the Debra Duncan television show when he was just 13. These songs were played for his father every day until he passed. The peace, comfort, and inspiration made possible thru heartfelt lyrics and simple melody continue to guide Carter’s songwriting, consistently landing Top 20 singles on the Texas charts. 

Carter has been actively touring with his band, performing over 150 shows a year. Will Carter’s high-energy performances offer a country music tour de force that appeals to music fans of all ages. He currently boasts over 17,000 social media followers, has opened for Cody Johnson, Randy Rogers, Bart Crow, Jack Ingram, Larry Gatlin, Saints Eleven, Josh Ward, Cody Canada and others, and has been featured on podcasts such as The Troubadour, The Sports Guys, and Scenes Live. His catalogue of music can be heard on radio stations nationally with particularly heavy airplay in Texas and surrounding states. Be sure to catch the next Will Carter show when it comes to town!

Photo taken at the Downtown Cowtown Isis Theater in Fort Worth by Alan Mercer

Alan Mercer:  Will, you have had such great success the last couple of years. Why do you think this is happening for you?

Will Carter:  I’ve been writing a long time and I’ve had the pleasure of writing with some fantastic songwriters. Clay Mills and I wrote ‘Started With A Whiskey’ together. He’s had hits with tons of great artists like Diamond Rio and Darius Rucker. Shane Stevens is a very close friend of mine and also one of my favorite writers. He had his first hit with Lady A called ‘American Honey’. He has enjoyed a lot of success. We started writing together and we click real well so we write together a lot.

AM:  So, you credit your songwriting partners?

WC:  Also, I didn’t grow up like a lot of my peers. I grew up on a self-sustaining farm in a very small town. We were a very poor family. I milked goats every morning and gathered eggs and had a three-acre garden. My dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was very young and as part of that, we had to get all of the alcohol out of the house. You would be amazed by everything that has alcohol in it. We made our own soaps and toothpaste. It was crazy. I grew up almost Amish. We still have the property but I don’t live out there anymore. We do go out there a couple times a month to shoot skeet or ride dirt bikes.

AM:  Don’t you live in Katy, Texas now?

WC:  Yes, We moved to Katy, and I graduated from Katy high school and then I went to Texas A&M. I have my own construction company now. I live a very different life than I did back then. I would say I have a ton of different perspectives.

AM:  It’s a broader perspective.

WC:  Sure, as a writer you write what you know. The more things you’ve seen just gives you that much more material.

AM:  Do you write a lot of the melodies?

WC:  I do write the melodies and I co-write the lyrics.

AM:  When I hear your melodies it’s an instantaneous like.

WC:  I like hearing that. When I was growing up, we used to say that my dad was country, and my mom was country club. My mother was born in Pasadena, Texas, but her father was in sales, so they moved around a lot. They moved to Ohio and California and then back to Texas. My dad had only been here, and he was always so country. I grew up listening to every Chris LeDoux album with my dad. My dad didn’t care for Chris LeDoux’s double live album because he said it had too much guitar. He liked the more traditional stripped-down style. My mom was more into rock & roll. We had a little bronco four-wheel drive that we used on the farm. My mom took it to town one day and when she came back, my dad and I get in the car and the radio was blasting Aerosmith. I like both styles of music.

AM:  You can hear that in your albums.

WC:  If you look at the three albums that I have put out, you will hear everything from very traditional, almost Johnny Cash style music like ‘Laredo’ and ‘Wishful Drinking’ and then you’ve got your more contemporary nineties-two thousand kind of country like ‘Undeniable’ and ‘House of Cards’ and then we have ‘Siesta, Fiesta, Tequila, Repeat’.

AM:  I love that song!

WC:  It’s crazy but the best feedback I get about that song is from kids. They can’t sit still when they hear it. Some people hate that song but then they like the other styles. I have something in there for everybody. I’m not married to any one style or genre. I grew up listening to a diverse selection of music.

AM:  I like the fact that much of your music is upbeat and fun. It’s good time music.

WC:  I grew up listening to Garth Brooks because of his high energy live show. I was picked up by a dancehall band called the Emotions, that have been around since the late 1970’s. I got hired on as one of their lead singers right out of high school. We had wireless mics; ear monitors and guitar pickups and we were all over bar and the dance floor getting the crowd engaged. I learned how to put on a high energy, interactive live show. If you go to see a concert you are going there to be entertained and you want to have fun. I place a lot of focus on that.

AM:  I think it’s obvious for anyone who has been to one of your shows.

WC:  Tom Jackson is arguably the most famous live show producer in the world and we flew his team down three times to work with us one on one for forty hours a week, taking the songs and stripping them down to understand what song fits in to what place in the set and how to get the most out of it. What we are doing on stage is not an accident. We have a lot of thought, time and practice to get there.

AM:  Yet it looks like you are just casually having a great time.

WC:  He has a book called ‘All Roads Lead To The Stage’ and the theory behind it is to create moments. You want to take the audience on a journey by bringing them way up and then bringing them down. You create a moment when you bring the lights down and sit on a stool and sing a ballad. People remember that. It’s not so much scripted or choreographed as it is giving you the parameters while allowing you to the freedom to let the audience kind of guide you a little bit. You have a homebase, but you are allowed some flexibility to be spontaneous in the moment.  No two shows are the same, even though the general outline has been premeditated.

AM:  What made you decide to dedicate a song to the first responders?

WC:  The song is called ‘What About Love’. Back in March 2020 when all the craziness was going down with covid. My wife is a doctor, and she was in the thick of it. She said we would come out of this but there would be all this hate and division and she was right. People either went real far right or real far left and we see all this bickering and hate. At the end of the day, it’s ok to think differently and feel differently, but it’s not OK to be unkind to one another. The purpose behind the song is to remind everybody to choose love over hate and be kind to each other regardless of what your personal thoughts and beliefs are. It’s also a thank you to the heroes that sacrifice so much so the rest of us can enjoy the freedom and liberties that we do.

AM:  You have lots of good quality videos. Is that something you enjoy making?

WC:  Videos are an absolute blast. I like to write in a way that leaves the song open to interpretation. I want the listener to be able to make it their own and relate to it in their own way. However different we may all be, we are also very similar at the core. I like to make videos that show my take on the song because it can be interpreted differently.

AM:  Do you have a favorite video?

WC:  The current single, ‘Had It All Wrong’ is my favorite to date because it was my chance to somewhat capture the unique way I grew up. To be able to capture that and tell my story as well as have my band and some friends in it, all filmed on the property where I grew up. It’s special and personal to me.

AM:  How much time are you able to put into your construction business?

WC:  Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 and then music is Monday through Friday 6 to 10 and on weekends all day.

AM:  That’s a lot. Do you enjoy working this much?

WC:  Absolutely! I lost my father when I was 13. I was the oldest of four. My mom had only ever been a mom. She had 4 kids, with one being autistic, so she had her hands full and no work experience. We were very poor. I’m the one in charge and I have to provide for everybody.

AM:  Does your family help you now?

WC:  My mom works for my company and my sister works for both jobs, like I do. She handles all the marketing and social media. I’m very blessed to have a very strong team so I don’t have to be in the weeds all the time. It’s the same with my music. I have a fully staffed label. I have management and booking, I have social media teams, radio promoters and publicists.

AM:  Looks like everything is going good for you. What are your goals for 2023? Is there a new album coming?

WC:  The first two albums I put out; I did like everybody else. You write the songs and go into the studio, you hire a producer and they use session musicians to build the tracks and then your live band goes and performs them. I’m also blessed that the guys in my band are all studio musicians as well. When you come to see my show live, I want it to sound like the record, so we are halfway through recording the new album and we are going to finish it in February and March. And release it this Summer. This will be the first full length album with “the band” going into the studio the old school way and press record and do what we do on stage live. That all kind of started with the song ‘Wrong Side Of Town’ that I’ve been playing for nine years. I’ve had it produced several times because when people hear it live, they ask for it. Everybody asks for that song, and I’ve tried to have it produced but it just wasn’t right. It wasn’t what we do in a show. So, I thought, let’s just bring the band into the studio and do it the way we do. That’s the song everybody likes and asks for. So, we did and I absolutely love the way the track sounded. I knew that going forward this is what we were doing. The guys are unbelievably talented, and I knew I would be happier. I love every track we have recorded. I’m super excited because when you go to a show you will be seeing the exact same guys who recorded the album playing live.

To learn more about Will Carter visit his web site https://www.willcarterofficial.com/

Thursday Throwback Blog-Gary P. Nunn

 

I talked with Texas Music Legend, Gary P. Nunn back in April 2017. You can read the blog at this link

http://amprofile.blogspot.com/2017/04/gary-p-nunn.html

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.