By Mark Kneubuhl
Special to LIVE!
September 9, 2007

Texas country star Drew Kennedy was a no-show at Blaine’s several weeks ago. I was there to cover the show. But there was a local band unpacking their guitars to fill in. I decided to hang around. Maybe I should cover this, I thought.

It turned out to be an eye-opening night (see story): Everything we expected from Kennedy we got from Darren Morrison, who drove across town from his home right here in San Angelo at the last minute to perform. Being a ‘local boy’ seemed to heighten the already appreciative crowd response. Sitting down for the interview was equally as fun: We met his band, a bunch of great guys and stir-it up local musicians. We learned that this wasn’t your average Texas country cover band. They played many originals making Darren Morrison the real-deal singer/songwriter just like all those traveling acts from the I-35 corridor.

The next day we posted the article on our on-line edition (here at sanangelolive.com) and, to our surprise, noticed that the Morrison article was getting as many hits as Billy Joe Shaver, Wade Bowen or Adam Hood.

A few weeks later, local singer/songwriter Bob Simpson decided to record a live CD on the porch of the Texas Coffee Company (and listen to his podcast interview here). We couldn’t miss that. We went down and got wired-up on ‘Texas Italian blend’ and listened to our delight. The next morning we wrote him up and ‘Bingo’… Bob’s article was getting as many hits as Eli Young, The Small Stars and Roger Creager.

We have learned that local musicians have coagulated as a group where otherwise they were scattered and unorganized. Since around the turn of the millennium a musical renaissance was steadily gaining momentum here in San Angelo, where local singer/songwriters are beginning to see more clearly just who they are and where they are going. And they are gaining audiences

Singer/songwriter Terry Mills is the perfect example of this “coming-out” in that she has been writing one liners for 30 years and then suddenly, seven months ago, finished her first song, “The Robin Song”.

“I was going home one day and I drove through and scattered a huge flock of robins. When I got home the song just popped out. That gave me the momentum I needed… kind of like breaking out,” said Mills.

Since her first song, Mills has finished a half dozen others, substantiating what her peers knew she always had… something special.

Local music legend T. Gosney Thornton said that Mills has a real talent for putting words together. “I could feel the torches burning and the goose bumps rising,” he said about her song, “Defenseless.”

That’s quite a complement coming from a man who’s opened for Willie Nelson, the Doors and dozens of other top national acts. Thornton’s a band, who’s unique form of music called cow-jazz, won the admiration of Billboard Magazine in 1977. They were picked as one of the top five bands in the Pacific Northwest.

Thornton also praised Darren Morrison as a talented musician with a full voice and some fun, well-written songs.

Morrison’s latest CD, self-titled, is a pleasant mix of all things Morrison. “What’ll I Do,” was admittedly written with Willie Nelson in mind and if you close your eyes, you can even see the braids and the headband.

“Pretending I Don’t Mind”, another single earmarked by Thornton, is a duet sung with wife, Codi Zane that will give even the toughest of cowboys a severe case of chicken skin. Morrison says it’s one of his favorite songs, with his wife’s “angelic soprano juxtaposed and his out-of-tune, out-of-time, vocals.

Given a trailer-tote’n RV and perhaps a discount gas card, Darren and his band would no doubt do well on the road.

But what’s happening in San Angelo is as far from the circuit as can be and developing into something that is uniquely our own. The genre in unarguably Americana and the venue is anywhere that is smaller, simpler, less formal or just plain different than those one would expect in other cities:

The Chicken Farm

The Chicken Farm was purchased and founded in 1971 by Roger Allen, Bill Rich and Richard Ramirez. (The same Richard Ramirez who attended Central High School with T Gosney, and has played in his band for the best part of 30 years.) The intent of the farm was to raise artists instead of eggs; a haven for the lonely Texas artists to live and work.

More recently the Farm has been promoting jam sessions and hosting musical performances for both local and visiting artists. Roger and his old friend, country/Celtic musician Don Gabbert realized the need for local musicians to have a venue to get together and share ideas.

Held on the first Saturday of every month, the open invitational has been appropriately dubbed, “The Chicken Pickers” and it wasn’t long before dozens of lonely guitarists gathered monthly at this newest musical Mecca in search of a jamming partner.

With that success, Gabbert and Allen started the “Second Thursday,” the same laid-back venue but with more “formal” performances by one or two featured artists. Gabbert himself, who has five CDs under his bagpipes, played with well-known regional musician, Ed Stabbler in the third, ‘Second Thursday’. (Ed lives in Mertzon, which in these parts is considered local.)

Last month, singer/songwriters Greg Smith and Buddy Pettigrew preformed at the Chicken Farm. Pettigrew is a quasi-local because he chooses to live in San Angelo has employment with a regional psychiatric hospital, and then was forced to look for work elsewhere when that hospital closed down.

Smith owns (among other things) a music store on the edge of town, called Sounds of Praise, which reflects his dedication to Christian music and plays what he calls ‘unplugged acoustic- adult contemporary’ with a country accent.

Smith’s first CD, entitled Damascus Road Trip is due out soon with some national interest and letters of intent from two separate labels.

San Angelo Folk Series

The Folk Series is more about nationally known visiting artists. Where it relates to the San Angelo scene is in its founder, Daniel Makins who is an accomplished singer/songwriter himself. And testament to San Angelo’s deep appreciation for music, this folk series is fast gaining a reputation among national Americana artists as a great place to play and be heard.

Makins started the event after the successful launch of his 3rd CD, (self titled) in 2004, realizing the need for a large-scale house concert type event. “It is a great opportunity for the audience to see nationally known artists that would otherwise pass San Angelo by,” said Makins.

Last month, the San Angelo Folk Series held its 6th event at Fort Concho, featuring nationally renowned singer/songwriter, Pierce Pettis (see story) and Daniel Makins, marking the launch of his latest CD, Peanut Butter… and other things I know.

Live Radio Broadcast from the Cactus Hotel KCSA 95.7

Cynthia Buckingham has enough of a national following to earn her a stage name in Cynthia Jordan. She is most well known for her hit single “Jose Cuervo is a Good Friend of Mine.” Jordan is a writer, composer, speaker, talk show host and in general, an accomplished ‘musicologist.’

Last year Jordan, in conjunction with the San Angelo Songwriter’s Association, spearheaded the popular musical event, “Live from the Cactus Hotel,” a live concert featuring several local artists and broadcast on KCSA-FM.

Bob Simpson started off last year’s show singing the song “Good As Gold,” a favorite by many of his peers including T. Gosney Thornton.

Simpson is presently working on his album, The Wheel, with the help of former Nashville studio engineers Gary Laney and Rob Schutes. The album should be out in time for the holidays.

Terry Mills played several songs including “Sunshine Boy,” a tune she explained was “written about a relationship that never got off the ground… and that’s all I have to say about that!” She also preformed, “Man Behind the Curtain,” a tune referred to as “the song” by her peers.

Larry Ward, whose name always appears in the same sentence as “that golden voice” works as a counselor when not writing songs and also preformed a few of his well crafted originals.

"Larry has songwriter written all over him. He is quiet, supportive, and honest. He has a song, "Second Hand Man" that is one of the most viable (from a publishing standpoint) songs I have heard from the local scene,” Daniel Makins told LIVE!

During the broadcast, Simpson also played a tune he wrote entitled, “Tamara Jones,” not to be confused with Tamara Rosini-Laney. Laney and her husband Gary, who worked for the Nashville recording scene for years, now have a jewelry booth at the Chicken Farm. Tamara also works at the Silo Restaurant. She writes lyrics about that all-time favorite Americana topic called love. And she does so with all her heart and soul and a booming, no-mic-needed voice.

San Angelo’s kind of Americana

The musical genre, ‘Americana’ is considered unorganized and a varying form of American folk by experts. It has also been called Classic American Music with styles running the gamut between bluegrass and the blues or alternative country and gospel. Americana music is as diverse as that which created it… America itself.

Just about as far away from the ‘old country’ as one could imagine, Celtic traditions and music are as much alive in San Angelo as they are in Chicago, where there are more Irish than there are in Dublin. Don Gabbert is the Celtic connection in San Angelo.

Tejas Go Bragh is the title of his 1st CD but represents the foundation of all of his music. The title is a mixture of the Spanish word for Texas (Tejas) and the Irish Go Bragh (Forever).

Gabbert, who is as much a full-time singer/songwriter as anyone, might well be considered the starting point of that doctor’s office magazine-game, ‘connect the dots’… and after doing so, the message spells MUSIC. Gabbert however, being a humble man, likes to pass on the credit.

“When Cyndy came to town she really energized the local music scene,” he said.

Jordan, as if passing the credit back, told LIVE! about her first days in San Angelo in 2005, going out to the Chicken Farm for the first time and watching Don perform. “I was totally excited and energized by his show,” she said.

Another group that plays Celtic music is Prestwood, a duet consisting of a classical flutist Jerrilyn Prestiano and a country guitarist named Randy Blackwood. The duet promotes themselves as playing music from Bach to the Beatles, but more accurately their music resides in a place where Saint Patty meets Lord Presley.

“Jerrilyn showed up one day at the chicken pickers circle and she was real nervous as the only non-guitarist. Everybody said, “Oh boy, a flute! So we all started dreaming up stuff that had flute parts so she could play. Then later she brought her partner Randy along. On that day, and I knew we had our feature artist for the next Second Thursday,” Gabbert told LIVE!

And lots of others…

Along with Gabbert and Jordan, David Alexander is also given a lot of credit from many local artists as giving the local music scene a real boost.

Alexander has been called the "patriarchal sage" of San Angelo's songwriting community. With a thoughtful and sincere demeanor, his writing has a genuine voice that is becoming more and more a rare thing.

Buckshot Bradley (see story) is another promising full band (like Darren Morrison), with a CD entitled Pumpjack on its way. Group founder, Clete Carillo says he’s got enough material for three CDs.

Brushfire is Texas country and blues all wrapped into one. They feature two highly talented lead guitarists, Aaron Nelson and Gary Morris. Rounding out the front line are Bobby Guerrero on the bass and harmonica and Mike Francis in the back on the drums. Aaron usually sings lead vocals with everyone else backing him up, creating great full sounding harmony.

Kate Sanderson and Justin Cole are two more local composers with many covers bands that also write and perform their own originals: Bands like Favors for Favors, Ghost Movie Rockers, Clearwater, BUGOTA and Fryza Lyza all have their own material.

Trying to write a comprehensive piece about local musicians, one might begin to pull his hair out as they keep crawling out of the woodwork… “They’re everywhere, they’re everywhere…”

Highway to somewhere…

San Angelo is the largest city in Texas without an interstate freeway. It also has an abundance of talented singer/songwriters who write and perform a kind of country-folk/Americana that is unique to this area. It’s almost like an unexplainable cluster-event.

Most of these musicians know each other (some intimately), but without the mud slinging found in larger more competitive arenas. “It’s a relationship of mutual respect and admiration,” Terry Mills said.

Such a concentration of talent, one might say, “it’s the water,” but that couldn’t be the reason… we don’t drink the water around here. No, it’s something else that makes our local musicians dig deep into their ethos, in an attempt to put pen to paper. It’s almost like they’re all searching for something that we don’t have. Maybe they’re all looking for that interstate?