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Read Zach Tate's Texas Music Profiles monthly in Galveston's Islander Magazine
Story and Photos by Zach Tate
May 2013 - Rhonda Roberts - The Islander Magazine
“I think a good song is like a good recipe and must be carefully crafted with love.”
- Rhonda Roberts
Hollywood legend, Steve Martin has certainly influenced many comedians in his 40 plus years in show business but perhaps not as many ukulele players. It was a scene from the 1979 hit comedy, The Jerk, starring Martin and Bernadette Peters that would forever change the life of singer, songwriter and ukulele player, Rhonda Roberts.
In the film, Martin and Peters stroll along a moonlit beach singing the classic American duet, “Tonight You Belong To Me”. Martin gently strums the ukulele
“Music is the language of the heart.”
- Vicente Castaneda
Tourists at Hotel Presidente in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1969 might have been surprised, as they sat at the bar sipping Mezcal, to hear a rock & roll band playing covers of Little Richard, Jethro Tull and Uriah Heep. Perhaps not what they expected; rock music’s long arms reaching down into the artistic ambitions of Mexico’s youth. They may have, however, witnessed the beginning of the life-long music career of Vicente Castaneda (then playing bass) that would stretch from Mexico to Philadelphia to Houston, from Rock & Roll to Ranchera to his current, and unique, brand of soulful Latin acoustic music.
Today, Castaneda’s music, sung mostly in Spanish, and performed solo with a nylon-stringed classical acoustic guitar is a blend of Flamenco and Cuban rhythms reminiscent of The Gypsy Kings and The Buena Vista Social Club.
Vicente Castaneda was born in Mexico City, the third of fourteen children to parents Salvador and Lolita Castaneda. As a young boy, impressed by his uncles, Pioquinto, Eleazar and Trini Castaneda, and their ability to build guitars and violins, Vicente became interested in playing music. While the women of the family made corn tortillas for parties and picnics, Castaneda would marvel at his older relatives who sang and played guitar, violin and accordian.
The violin was Castaneda’s first choice of instrument to learn. “I wanted to play the violin, as did my friend, Guillermo, but soon I discovered, after about 6 months of trying, that the instrument was not for me. While my friend was improving, I was not, so I started to learn to play the guitar.”
For his first gigs in Oaxaca, Castaneda played the bass, although he admits that most gigs were more like rehearsals and he watched the guitar player to know what notes to play during the songs. With encouragement from his band mates Castaneda began to sing and play guitar. Performing traditional Mexican folk, as well as popular rock songs, including many by the Beatles, Castaneda became known briefly as “El Beatle”.
In 1987, after many years playing cover songs in hotels and bars throughout Mexico, Castaneda was growing restless and, like many artists, began questioning his artistic worth. “I had to ask myself; am I a musician or a clown?”
To answer this question Castaneda ventured to the San Felipe Del Agua Mountain, where he lived alone for over a year. “This is where I really started to write my own music. I was trying to be open… listening to the river and the trees… to my heart, to discover who I am.”
His conclusions lead him to a year playing in psychiatric hospitals and prisons. “In that moment of inspiration in the mountains I was feeling healthy in my body and mind and I thought I needed to give something back that life had given me.”
Castaneda’s journey as a musician lead him to Cancun where he was once again playing in hotels, albeit with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for performing. In 1998, a friend introduced Vicente to a vacationing woman from Pennsylvania named, Kyna Rosenberger. “My life changed forever when I met Kyna,” says Vicente, with a smile. Within a few years the two were married and moved to Philadelphia where they had their first son, Elias.
For years Castaneda performed at Philadelphia’s historic Reading Terminal Market solo and with guitarist, Richard Druedling. Castaneda also played with famed Cuban multi-instrumentalist and composer, Felix “Pupi” Legarreta.
In 2012 the family moved to Clear Lake, Texas, where their second son, Tomas, was born. “Houston is great. The people are very friendly, you have the water, and it’s warm!
Vicente Castaneda’s music today is a far cry from his Jethro Tull and Beatles cover days but he is reluctant to narrow it down to one genre. “My music is folk with a little jazz, influence of blues and light flamenco.”
Castaneda’s music is not only a blend of styles but also the musical answer to a lifetime of influence and appreciation of music and people from around the world. A passionate performer with commanding stage presence lead by deep baritone vocals and intense, emotionally rhythmic guitar playing, Castaneda delivers. His Spanish language lyrics need not be understood by everyone, as in the words of Castaneda himself, “Music is the language of the heart.”
Vicente Castaneda also teaches guitar and is looking for playing opportunities in Galveston and beyond. See him live at Moreno’s on Nasa Road One in Clear Lake every Friday in June and occasionally at The Coffee Oasis in Seabrook.
Contact Vicente Castaneda, get concert dates and hear his music through Reverb Nation at: www.ReverbNation.com/VicenteCastaneda
See the video interview with Vicente Castaneda and watch a live solo acoustic performance CLICK HERE
June 2013 - Vicente Castaneda - The Islander Magazine
“The real gift of music comes from the heavens.”
- Joe Sample
Resonance is something jazz legend, Joe Sample, is familiar with. As a jazz, funk, soul and pop composer, arranger, piano player and producer, Sample has been making music that has resonated around the world since the 1950’s. Most notably as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders (later known as The Crusaders) but also through an equally impressive solo career, releasing almost an album a year since the 1980’s.
Growing up in Houston’s 5th Ward in the 1940’s yielded another form of resonance that is still with Sample today. While listening to the family radio one day, a very young Joe Sample heard a blatantly racist political campaign ad that spoke against African Americans. The brutally hurtful moment was immediately etched in Sample’s mind and set him on a life-long path to reflect on, understand and release the pain of those haunting words through music and education, along with a ferocious fight against the suppression of history. It’s in his continued desire, at 74 years of age, to express his passions, and tell the world what’s on his mind that Joe Sample comes to Galveston’s Grand Opera House on September 28th.
It was eight years ago when Sample first performed at a benefit for St. Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Houston’s Third Ward. The benefit was organized by Sample and was, in Sample’s words, more like a “jam session”. It was a jam session, held in the cafeteria of the church, that attracted over 700 people and raised more than $16,000 to buy playground equipment for the school.
After doing the benefit for St. Mary’s, Sample says he was approached by four other black churches and schools. “They said, ‘Well if you did a concert for St. Mary’s, when are you going to do one for us?’” Sample laughs when reflecting on having to tell them he simply couldn’t do five concerts a year. “I said, ‘Why don’t we just try to organize one major concert a year?’” In 2011 the benefit, for three different black Catholic Schools, held at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston, raised more than $60,000.
Although Sample was unable to hold the benefit in 2012 he is back in 2013 on September 28th with the original members of the Jazz Crusaders, featuring Sample on piano and keyboards, Wayne Henderson on trombone, saxophonist Wilton Felder and flutist Hubert Laws. In addition, the show will feature the Joe Sample Jazz Orchestra with help from Texas Southern University. “We are using alumni as well as students from Texas Southern.”
The chosen work to be performed during the TSU portion of the show is titled, Children Of The Sun and was composed in 1995 after Sample visited the island of St. Croix where he had an epiphany. “For the first time in my life I felt what a slave must have felt. When I got to the top of St. Croix (Mount Eagle) I did a 360. I knew that the site where I was standing was where the slaves had processed sugar cane. I realized there was no underground railroad on those islands. Those people were doomed to be slaves for their entire lives. When I got back to Los Angeles (where Sample lived at the time), I kept wondering what spiritual values could a slave have? What drive could a slave have? There were a lot of suicides… Melodies began to flow out of me.”
The work has been performed only two times before in Houston but will be part of the Opera House program. Sample is also bringing in Houston blues legend, Jewel Brown. Like Sample, Brown is in her 70’s and still performing. “We worked the Ebony, the Club Matinee (once known as the Cotton Club of the South), the Tropicana, Whispering Pines, in Houston in the mid-fifties. She’s one of the last of a living kind. Someone who can really sing the blues. After we’re done with all the music of the big band and the familiar work of The Crusaders we’re going to take it back to the 5th Ward. I want the audience to know exactly what the 5th Ward sounded like in the mid-nineteen-fifties!”
On choosing the Galveston Opera House, Sample responds warmly, “I like the way I feel when I’m on that stage at The Galveston Opera House! I love the way the Opera House looks. I’m sure that during the beginnings of blues and jazz it was surroundings like these that helped to produce some of the moods of blues and jazz.”
The way he feels is something that has always driven Sample’s music. And he demands “feeling”, more than anything, from the people he plays with. “I’m a feeling-man. I’m from Southeast Texas. You can become a proficient technical musician with a lot of hard work. If you were not born with a groove factor, I don’t think you’ll ever get it. You can’t buy that, you can’t train for that. The real gift of music comes from the heavens, given to you when you were born.”
Joe Sample admits to being comfortable with his ‘legend’ status, proving himself worthy, selling millions of albums with The Jazz Crusaders, The Crusaders and as a solo artist. Few musicians have endured the span of time or covered the broad range of styles. Sample is a respected studio musician, composer, and producer for everyone from Miles Davis and Quincy Jones to Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and B.B. King. Sample may be best known for co-writing (with Will Jennings) the 1978 Top 40 pop single, Street Life, featuring singer Randy Crawford. On recent European tour with Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, Marcus Miller and Steve Gadd, Sample demanded the group be billed as “legends”. “Writers would ask me, ‘Why are you calling yourselves legends?’ And I would tell them, ‘It gets right to the point - because we are!’”
Don’t miss Joe Sample at The Grand 1894 Opera House, September 28th, in Galveston. To see the video interview, and a live performance of Street Life, CLICK HERE
August 2013 - Joe Sample - The Islander Magazine
"Music is emotional survival for me."
- Galen Medlenka
Survival is a word often reserved dire situations. Galen Medlenka knows a thing or two about survival. For anyone, a diagnosis of throat cancer would certainly be devastating, but for a singer and songwriter, all the more so. Survival, and singing again, is a battle Galen Medlenka fought, and won.
It was 2008 when Medlenka, bass player and co-lead singer for Houston’s Navigators band, was given the terrible news that he had cancer but also that treatment for the type of cancer he had could possibly leave him unable to speak. After 31 radiation treatments it looked as though he was in the clear and, with some intense rehabilitation (due to heavy scarring from the radiation) might sing again. Things were looking good until 2012, when the cancer returned, bringing with it an even grimmer outlook for Medlenka’s future. “My doctor said I’d be lucky if I didn’t lose my voice. But here’s the main kicker: when you have the type of cancer I had, and it comes back with a vengeance and only 20% of the people live.”
Fortunately for Medlenka, a new robotic procedure had just been approved that would not require the type of invasive surgery normally reserved for treating throat cancer (after all radiation efforts had been exhausted). Despite a few minor complications during and after surgery, Medlenka is back singing, center stage with the Navigators and more recently, performing his own material solo. There are few noticeable effects from the experience that threatened to rob Medlenka of his voice and life. The major exception being within his songwriting, which he says has taken a somewhat more introspective turn. “I have a song called Take Me As I Am and I’m Alive. Songs about people that I love and people that I care about. It’s love, it’s hurt, it’s pain… these are the triggers that create the music. Music is emotional survival for me.”
Medlenka’s recently released single (and video on YouTube) titled Keep Me Walkin’ is a story of emotional and physical survival. Although the video largely depicts a wounded soldier returning from war, the metaphor is clear, as is the universal theme inspired by Medlenka’s own recent struggle to persevere through heartache and pain.
Galen Medlenka was born and raised in Houston and names his first guitar teacher, and friend in junior high school, Billy Gibbons, as one of his strongest influences. Medlenka’s relationship with the ZZ Top guitarist is still finding it’s way into his music. As the title suggests, Billy Ridin’ Shotgun (recently heard on KPFT’s The Blues Hound program) was inspired by a late-night drive to Galveston with Gibbons. Galveston native and superb guitar talent, Hamilton Loomis guests on the track. Despite auspicious musical beginnings in Houston it wasn’t until Medlenka moved to Austin in the early 70’s that his musical life began to blossom. “It was an amazing time in Austin. You had Willie and Waylon and the whole outlaw country thing. I hooked up with some incredible people. BW Stevenson and Ray Wiley Hubbard. I went on the road (playing bass) with Eddie Rabbit and Johnny Paycheck. I was always writing songs but never playing them for people.”
In 1980, Medlenka moved back to Houston where he met his wife, Carla, and began what would become a 25 years and-still-going marriage. Medlenka continued playing music, including a 6-month house-band gig at the Flagship Hotel in Galveston in the mid-80’s with a band called The Hitz. At times, however, he focused more on creating “a comfortable lifestyle and raising a family” and opened Clear Lake Auto World in League City in 1990.
Medlenka says his recent brush with death was a motivating force in his current musical direction. “I told myself that if I got over this cancer thing I was going to start putting my music out there and not worry so much about whether it’s good enough or not. Just do it. That was my promise to myself. That’s how I want to ride off into the sunset… playing my music.”
Galen Medlenka can be seen and heard performing his music and telling his stories at open mics and singer-songwriter showcases from Galveston to Houston. The Navigators, a highly entertaining Top 40 dance band can also be found in the area regularly. See www.TheNavigators.biz for a complete schedule. The Navigators are Medlenka, Randy Hughes, Curtis Spencer, Donald Bonner, and Curtis Beinhorn.
July 2013 - Galen medlenka - The Islander Magazine
November 2013 - Have Mercy - The Islander Magazine
If the Rolling Stones had a defining inspiration it might have been Muddy Waters. Keith Richards and company named their band after his song, “Rollin’ Stone” and performed with him several times. Houston blues band, Have Mercy, have taken their musical inspiration, a man by the name of John Stone (uncle to three of the four official members), one step further and made him their band “mascot”.
In addition to adopting one of Stone’s favorite personal expressions, “Have mercy,” (apparently used in a variety of ways including his telephone sign-off) as their name, the band also put his face on the cover of their first CD, on T-shirts, and on their bass drum head. As Stone recalls, “I heard it when I was a kid. A lot of the old blues guys used it. In Gospel music too, which I love… that’s the beginning of the blues… You hear about all the blues guys – the church is where they started. ‘Lord have mercy on my soul’, ‘Have mercy’, I just picked it up and started using it as an everyday phrase.”
The unconventional assortment of contributors to the Have Mercy band and CD of the same name (almost entirely family, born in several different decades) are John Stone, lyricist on several tracks, Stone’s nephew, Matt Rembert, on guitar and vocals, Matt’s two sons, Weston (drums and vocals) and Colton (bass and guitar), veteran Houston keyboardist, Randy Wall (not related), and John Stone’s son, Jordan Stone, vocalist, guitarist and writer on the lonesome-road ballad, “Woke Up In December”. One of Houston’s finest blues guitar players, The Mighty Orq, also makes a guest appearance on one song.
John Stone has been a connoisseur of the Houston blues scene for decades. From his teenage years in the 1960’s hanging out with Billy Gibbons (from ZZ Top) and Lightnin’ Hopkins, to owning a bar in Seabrook, Texas in the early 2000’s called “Sturgis By The Bay” and booking some of his favorite locals, like Tony Vega and The Mighty Orq, Stone has always been a proud fan and supporter of local, independent musicians. Not to mention a big influence on his family.
Although he does not play an instrument, Stone writes lyrics and poetry, and one day gave a few pages to his aspiring guitar player nephew, Matt, to put to music. Two sets of lyrics made the Have Mercy CD, including the killer lead track, a slow-blues number titled, “Takin’ Lightnin’ Home”. The lyrics were inspired by a true story about an evening at a Houston juke joint Stone spent with blues legend, Lightnin’ Hopkins. Matt Rembert turns in a stunning lead vocal performance in his smooth and laid-back, front-porch-strumming manner that is complimented perfectly by some equally lemonade-cool slide guitar work from The Mighty Orq.
Weston Rembert, the band’s drummer and occasional lead vocalist, is also the youngest member of the three-generation deep ensemble. At 13, he sounds like a younger Janis Joplin. What’s surprising is not that Rembert’s voice is high but that he can deliver a blues vocal performance every bit as believe able as someone 3 or 4 times his age. Have Mercy’s 2nd track, “100 Blues” is a showcase song for Weston’s talent.
Speaking about the band’s name, he also seems to know a thing or two about marketing. “We were called the Flying Doritos for a while but I didn’t think anyone would take us seriously. Especially with a kid in the band.”
Have Mercy is not typical in their composition, their approach to the blues, song selection or professional evolution. They haven’t played many gigs, written many songs, and admittedly, sometimes wonder if they “knowing what they’re doing”.
As Matt Rembert humbly confesses, “We really don’t consider ourselves musicians… I just wanted, like so many people that play, to get on a stage, record a song or two – just see what happens. We really look to Randy (Wall) to guide us.”
Wall has recorded and performed live with many great Texas artists like John Evans, Guitar Shorty and Calvin Owens (BB King’s band director for years) but clearly doesn’t see fame or commercial success as his only source of inspiration. “I see the natural talent in these guys. What you’re hearing is real.”
In today’s age of technology (and open mic nights), it’s possible for just about anyone to record a CD or find a venue to test the performance waters. And many do, though very few, especially when it comes to recording, are able to deliver a listenable product. While the Have Mercy CD is not the work of a polished band with commercial label backing, they have produced a CD nicely laced with some great hooks, groovy rhythms, clever writing and a number of brave and soulful vocal performances - not to mention some good production value from Houston engineer and producer, Rock Romano at Red Shack Studios.
Like the good smells coming from a church basement Sunday brunch Have Mercy are showing signs of great things to come. Pulling from blues, gospel, R&B and soul the contributors to the Have Mercy project should give anyone who hears them ‘reason to believe’!
Get the Have Mercy CD at www.cdbaby.com/cd/havemercy1
See a live video performance CLICK HERE!
Have Mercy (L-R): Weston Rembert, Randy Wall, John Stone, Matt Rembert
John Stone Matt Rembert
Weston Rembert Randy Wall
December 2013 - Chris J Hardy - The Islander Magazine
For some singers, finding one’s “voice”, the voice that is uniquely their own and the key to delivering a confident and riveting live performance, is a lifelong process. Clear Lake area singer-songwriter, Chris J. Hardy, has found his after just 3 years on the job. Formerly a non-singing guitar player in a metal band (Erase The Virus) Hardy has made a dramatic shift to country music. Pulling from the classic sounds of the Hank Williams Sr. era of country music to the more modern style known as Red Dirt, it’s safe to say Hardy has not only found his voice but embraced it, and is willing to belt it out from any juke joint, street corner or dance hall that will have him.
“I wasn’t confident in my vocal abilities at the time I was in the band. I was always writing songs and thinking I’d find a singer one day, because I knew the band I was in… they weren’t going to do these types of songs. One day I just thought I should try and sing them myself, and just started showing up at open mics. Mostly where no one knew who I was. In that experimentation you try falsetto notes, your best rock growl, best country twang… It was an epiphanous moment when I found country music as an outlet for my songs.”
Growing up in the Clear Lake area Hardy’s grandfather provided some early musical inspiration by way of frequently listening to 1950’s rock & roll. Though not a family of musicians, Hardy says music was always on in the car or on his very own Fisher-Price turntable when he was very young (he still listens to vinyl records).
In 2011 he released his first full-length solo CD called, “Wine Stains”. Aside from the lone acoustic guitar strumming, the songs bare little resemblance to the Chris J. Hardy sound of today. With a cool, understated vocal tone and reverb heavy production similar to an “unplugged” grunge act, Hardy could have easily continued down this road with success. His writing and delivery on “Wine Stains” is promising but he admits he was somewhat timid in his performance.
“That album at that stage… I was experimenting. I needed to find out who I was. I was learning. Later, I realized I was on the right track when I started leaning more into country… my voice was getting stronger and louder. There’s a softness on ‘Wine Stains’ that works… but now that I’ve found the sound I have now, I’m wanting to take that forward.”
Hardy says he will have a band behind him at some point in the future but for now is comfortable working out his songs solo. He performs regularly at bars and cafes, in songwriter showcases, at open mics, (he hosts a few himself) and has been a featured artist at The Beach Hut, Crow’s and Brew’s Brothers in Galveston among other venues.
Hardy is a natural fit for the storytelling, word-bending nature of country music and although he touches on many familiar themes he’s innovative enough lyrically keep his listener’s attention. Relying on a strong vocal performance and a single guitar, Hardy isn’t hiding behind a wall of production to make his point musically – reminding listeners that sometimes the best songs are the simple ones.
Inspiration often comes from life’s hard knocks and Hardy claims songwriting is a cathartic experience for him. “We all have our demons to fight. I had a bad week recently and I deliberately attacked what was bothering me in a couple of songs. I got it out and felt a million times better. I think people appreciate when I’m honest about my shortcomings. I think people connect with ‘fault’… but with hope… because I try to put redemption into my songs. It’s not all just tear in my beer.”
Along with redemption and hope Hardy is also a strong believer in Karma, he believes you get what you give and recently set up a charity benefiting the Galveston and Houston Food Banks called, “Will Play For Food”. With compilation CD’s and live performances by many of Houston and Galveston’s best talent the charity and its many events have proven successful in helping raise awareness in the region. (Check out Will Play For Food on Facebook).
You don’t have to be a fan of country music to appreciate Chris J. Hardy. His honest, down to earth songs, dynamic and unique vocal delivery, will have you thinking about the best, worst and most important things in life.
For Chris J. Hardy music, concert listings, and videos visit www.ReverbNation/ChrisJHardy
See a live video performance CLICK HERE!
Chris J Hardy
January 2014 - Jewel Brown - The Islander Magazine
There are many jewels in the treasure chest of American jazz music: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, among them. Yet there are only a handful of female vocalists who could claim to have worked with these and so many other influential jazz music pioneers. Jewel Brown (speaking of jewels) is on that short list of vocalists, and one of very few still performing. Brown recently performed at Galveston’s Opera House with another legend, Joe Sample. “Jewel Brown is one of the greatest blues singers around,” said Sample, earlier this year.
Like most entertainers Brown appreciates a compliment but has never been one for categorizing her abilities into one genre of music. Performing as a lead vocalist in Louis Armstrong’s band from 1961 to 1968 she leaned toward jazz on a nightly basis but always maintained a more ‘bread and butter’ approach to her occupation. Blues, jazz, R&B, pop were all part of the job as far as Jewel Brown was concerned. “When I grew up, if you had a gig, you did whatever was necessary for the gig. We didn’t limit ourselves. We did it all. Even if it was a country and western gig, we did country and western songs. It just didn’t matter. As long as we were having a gig, trying to make a buck.”
Born in 1937, Brown grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and claims her strong bond with her mother and father and God, was and still is, her guiding force in life. Watching her parents struggle to raise six children (Jewel, the youngest) Brown prayed to one day help her parents financially. Her prayers were answered at age 9 when she began winning $25 a week in a local talent contest. “All I wanted to do was make some money… Everything that I’ve ever done I knew had to be a gift from the Father and you’re supposed to use it as needed. And that’s all I ever thought I was doing.”
It was with her parent’s blessing and professional help that Brown officially began her singing career at 12 years of age, working at Galveston’s Manhattan Club (with Bobby Blue Bland) and the Casablanca Club in Dickenson, Texas in the late 1940’s. Brown established herself as a vibrant and sassy vocalist throughout the 1950’s primarily in Houston with her brother Ted’s group, as well as with Henry Hayes and Elmore Nixon. Gigs in Los Angeles at The Club Pigalle and in Dallas at Jack Ruby’s nightclubs, lead to the opportunity to perform in Louis Armstrong’s band. Along the way, Brown also met, and eventually married, Atlantic Records songwriter, Eddie Curtis. The couple had one child in 1955, Edward, but divorced in 1956.
Brown made many great recordings with Armstrong, though much of Louis Armstrong’s most popular work does not include Jewel Brown sung numbers. Armstrong is best known for his ‘cross over’ songs (generally referring to artists who appealed to both black and white audiences) like “What A Wonderful World” and “Hello Dolly!” - the latter, kicking the Beatles off the #1 spot on the charts in 1964. Jewel Brown’s vocal performances, by all accounts, were memorable and Armstrong closed the first and second half of his shows with songs sung by Brown. Brown appears in two films with Armstrong as well, “Louis Armstrong and The All Stars” and “Solo”.
After Armstrong’s death in 1971 Brown began working the Nevada circuit, headlining at Harrah’s in Las Vegas and palling around with Sarah Vaughan and the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. Just as Brown’s glamorous life and solo career was building momentum, her mother became ill and, and despite being able to afford to have someone look after her, Brown felt she needed to return to Houston. “My mom and dad were people that loved their children. And they loved each other. That’s how I was able to be out there until I was able to take care of myself… This is why there is nothing I didn’t want to do for her (mother) - until the day she died. Whatever it was, I tried to do it. And I did the same for my dad.”
Just as Brown had entered into show business to help her parents she once again went to work to find a way to be of service to them, though this time remaining close to home. In 1972 she opened a beauty salon (Sir Brown’s Hair Palace) with her brother, Alphonse.
Brown’s career never reached the level of notoriety she received while working with Louis Armstrong but she continued to play gigs and record with many respected jazz and blues artists like Houston’s own, Arnett Cobb and Milton Hopkins. Brown still lives in Houston’s Third Ward, in the same house she helped her parents buy over 60 years ago, and performs the occasional gig. In 2011 she was flown to Moscow to sing at Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s birthday party (apparently Putin’s two favorite singers are Tina Turner and Jewel Brown)
Jewel Brown is currently on the Dialtone record label out of Austin and recently released a CD with Milton Hopkins (2012). Visit www.DialtoneRecords.com to hear samples and buy.
To see the video interview with Jewel Brown and a dynamic performance from 1963 (with Louis Armstrong) http://youtu.be/MegutC1rUok
March 2014 - Sherita Perez - The Islander Magazine
When Texas City born singer-songwriter, Sherita Perez, was a little girl her mother and grandmother frequently sang the popular tune, “You Are My Sunshine” around the house. No doubt Perez, with her bright eyes, warm smile, and Norah Jones meets Edie Brickell (remember her from the 80’s?) voice, absorbed much of that sunshine. Somewhere along the way, however, she wanted to be more than “sunny” – she wanted respect (now throw in a little Sandra Bernhard sass). Respect as a woman, a songwriter, a musician, and a frontwoman. Perez’s on stage persona demands respect and is a confident mix of sexy, sweet and feminine with flashes of street-wise masculine toughness. “A lot of women (singers) don’t understand it’s important to be a good musician. I decided a long time ago that I don’t want to be just some silly little girl. I want to be a respected musician that can not only do everything a girl does but also compete with men. Even when I was young I’d see a guy with a guitar and think ‘I want to be that guy’ - not as in be a man, but I want to play the guitar like that. When I step on stage the other acts that are male fronted bands get nervous because they know I have something that they don’t have plus something they do have. That’s important to me because I want to be respected”
Perez’s desire for respect may have inspired her most popular, if not most controversial, song to date. A bluesy anthem for the too-scared-to-love contingent of the male population called, “Run (Motherfu**er Run)”. Although Perez insists she only uses curse words when they help drum home a point more effectively she doesn’t deny an early childhood restriction on cursing possibly playing a part in her more recently acquired verbal freedom. “When I was a child I wasn’t allowed to curse, and my grandmother was so sharp I didn’t even think curse words. I was raised very Christian. When I was a teenager I started picking it up to blend in.” Perez also sites living in New York City for many years as an influence on her vocabulary. “You had to - just to survive,” she says. As for her song, “Run” she claims that the song wouldn’t be far from a Dr. Seuss poem if it weren’t for the curse words. “Curse words have a certain energy to them, especially when you’re on stage and your trying to say something like what I’m saying in this song. Without the curse words people wouldn’t enjoy it as much. No matter how beautiful another song is, or how pretty I sing, or how poetic it is... People want to buy that song from me on the spot.” Although Perez is yet to record a full album of her work, she’s been featured many times on KPFT as an in-studio guest and been seen on many Galveston stages (The Beach Hut, Captain Jack’s, Float Bar) doing her charismatic live show either solo with an acoustic guitar, or with any number of collaborators like bassist extraordinaire, Cisco Ruiz.
Perez first started singing at 14 years of age on stage with local songwriter, Benny Brasket. Currently she’s working on various projects with some of the regions best musicians including, Rhonda Roberts aka “The Ukulele Cutie” (featured in the Islander in 2012) on a project called “Little Spear”. Perez and Roberts will soon be traveling to Austin to work with Grammy-nominated producer, Chris “Frenchie” Smith at The Bubble Recording Studio. Perez thoroughly enjoys the collaborative songwriting process and is also teaming up with Paul Craig, and Matt Ligrani and James Herrington from Houston band, InAltum, for a project titled, “Fear The Poet”. Though Perez says the songs with “Fear the Poet” are an eclectic mix of styles most were inspired by a personal experience. “I try to pick up on an emotion I’m having. Someone will play something or I’ll play something on the guitar and what started as a whisper of a melody becomes words and they just come out. A lot of times I’ll take out my cell phone and record. What starts as nonsense is, when I go back and listen, sometimes an interesting song.”
Sherita Perez is driven by a sense of destiny these days, along with her take-no-prisoners attitude, and will be competing with “Fear the Poet” in the Hard Rock Café’s upcoming band competition. Look for Sherita Perez live this summer in Galveston and on YouTube, Facebook and ReverbNation (reverbNation.com/SheritaPerez)
Photography: Zach Tate, Hair: Bryanna Halligan, Makeup: Mercedes B. Flores, Personal Styling: Oscar Bispe, Omar Lisandro
April 2014 - Roark Smith - The Islander Magazine
The sad irony of classic rock songs of the 60’s and 70’s, like Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” is while the music itself was created from anti-establishment, freak-flag waving rebellion and celebration, many of those great songs have come to represent nothing more than statistical data in the corporate radio scheme to make more cash. The message, the art, and the cultural value of songs, old and new, are a distant second to generating a profit. Along with bottom-line driven playlists have come policies that forbid DJs from playing, and saying, what they want, leaving a big hole in the fabric of radio culture that once defined generations and opened channels for cultural change and enrichment.
Enter Houston/Galveston DJ, Roark Austin Smith (known simply as “Roark” on KPFT 90.1 in Houston, 89.5 in Galveston), one of the few disc jockeys on broadcast radio who still care enough about the message, the art, and the cultural value of the music to take a stand against spinning songs strictly for the purpose of making money.
Roark, Texas Music Awards “DJ of the Year” 2011 and 2012 (just after the Islander went to print, the Texas Music Awards announced Roark DJ of The Year for 2013) grew up in Houston listening to Rice University’s KTRU favoring punk rock. One day while in high school Roark heard a fast driving song by what he thought was an unknown punk band. After peddling his bike to the Rice radio station to ask the DJ what he had played, Roark unknowingly discovered a new world of music. The song was Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” and so began Roark’s passion for classic rock.
Working as a waiter after graduating high school and unsure of his future, Roark was frequently told his deep voice was perfect for radio. A chance meeting with a DJ from regional station KACC (Alvin Community College’s 89.7 FM station) helped guide Roark to the school where he soon began reading the news on-air, and eventually taking classes.
After graduating, magna cum laude, from ACC in 1995, and spending time DJ’ing on KACC (well known for playing a lot of local music), hosting a classic rock show called, “Uncastrated Classic Rock”, Roark was hired by then Houston classic rock station, KKRW 93.7 FM, known more commonly as “The Arrow”. Although Roark became a popular on-air personality working the midnight to 5 a.m. shift he was forbidden from making choices of his own when it came to song selection; he was handed a list and told what to play. “After a year working at The Arrow I went to the program director and asked him if I could play 3 songs an hour, on a Sunday night between 10pm and midnight, from band’s they already played like Steve Miller, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin. Songs they weren’t playing but were really good ones from those artists. He said, ‘no we pick the tunes around here. You sell the station, talk about the web page and the morning show…’ I told him I have to call it quits.”
Not long after Roark said goodbye to corporate American radio he was hired by KPFT and immediately given his classic rock fix hosting “Vintage Vinyl”, a brief 3-song segment during his mid-day shift. Roark played a variety of music styles from the state of Texas, ever increasing his knowledge and passion for the Texas sound. Changes at KPFT, however, in the coming year would see Roark out of a job once again and reluctantly heading back to The Arrow. Though Roark loved radio and wanted to participate at some level his patience was once again tested. Despite hosting a show that featured live recordings of classic rock artists called, “Saturday Night Live”, he was still forbidden to choose the songs he wanted to play and again quit the station, this time for good.
With nowhere to go to spread his classic rock DJ wings, Roark hung up his microphone and left the broadcasting industry altogether for 5 years. Fortunately, more changes at KPFT opened up an opportunity and, with his reputation for not compromising his integrity, Roark was hired back and given complete freedom to play the music of his choice.
Roark’s enthusiasm for the power of music is contagious and comes through on his program, “Wide Open Spaces” (10am – 1pm, Monday – Friday) and in his song selections. He frequently features live in-studio performances by artists from Houston and Galveston (Galveston’s Hamilton Loomis, Sam Navarro and Kevin Anthony have all been on Roark’s show) as well as many passing through town. His show includes classic rock songs (but not the stuff heard on the corporate owned stations) along with blues, Americana, country, alternative rock and music by many local and regional musicians. “I get calls all the time where people say they were in a real bad place and the music I played uplifted them and they forgot about all their worries. That’s the biggest compliment I can get. What an opportunity to make people feel great! By playing the same songs over and over again, corporate radio is just not taking that opportunity to hit people in the heart. There are so many great tunes of that era that are just forgotten. I think radio and music has power and for it not to be utilized is sad. Houston is too cool of a town not to have cool radio!”
Roark is a rarity in the world of broadcast radio these days. A throwback to rock’s glory years when DJ’s ruled the airwaves with their personalities and choices of music. A documentary scheduled for release this spring by Toronto filmmaker, Roger King, titled, “I Am What I Play” follows the careers of 4 such pioneering 1970’s DJ’s from New York, Boston, Seattle and Toronto and drums home just how important radio was and still is. As King explains, “The most compelling radio is when stations let those personalities do what they want, within the framework of the station format. The other strength of radio besides the personalities is the fact that it can be so local. The station can and should be part of the community it serves and that would most certainly mean giving a platform for discovering local music.”
The issue of profit-driven, corporate control of rock &roll has been taken on by many artists over the years, perhaps most notably by Tom Petty in his song, “The Last DJ” (once banned by Clear Channel, owner of many radio stations across the U.S., for being “anti-radio”). Petty writes:
Well you can't turn him into a company man
You can't turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don't understand anymore
Well the top brass don't like him talking so much
And he won't play what they say to play
And he don't want to change what don't need to change
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey...
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Listen to Roark’s “Wide Open Spaces” on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston and 89.5 in Galveston, M-F 10am-1pm. On-line at KPFT.org
Texas Music Awards DJ of The Year, Roark Smith, (KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston, 89.5 in Galveston) plays the locals - and whatever else he wants!
"I Am What I Play" is a feature length documentary about the heyday of rock radio due out this spring. Follow the filmmaker's blog...
“I’m hotter now than I ever was!”
- Milton Hopkins
Houston guitarist, Milton Hopkins, is a gentleman, a professional and a good son. A model of taste and style that goes beyond the silk lining of any one of his trademark suits. “My mother wanted me to do something worthwhile in life. And she said it just like that, ‘I don’t care what you do, just do something worthwhile,’” said the 81 year old, Hopkins.
The second oldest of 9 children, Milton Hopkins grew up in Houston’s Trinity Garden and by 11 years of age had set out to fulfill his mother’s wishes. With a lawnmower attached to the back of his bicycle, the young Hopkins began working fixing flowerbeds and doing general yard maintenance. In the early 1940s, while eyeing an acoustic Stella guitar hanging on a wall on the back porch (given by a friend to Hopkins’ father, who never played it) Hopkins began to take an interest in music. Being the obedient son he was, young Milton didn’t dare touch his parent’s things, and the instrument remained a dormant fixture on the wall for years. Elementary school proved unhelpful to Hopkins’ guitar fascination as well. He had arrived late to class the day the teacher was assigning instruments and was forced to take up the tuba - a dilapidated one at that. Despite doing reasonably well with the tuba, Hopkins was spending many evenings on a neighbor’s front porch closely watching the guitar player from a local gospel quartet practice. Soonafter working up the courage to ask to play the Stella, Hopkins knew he found something he loved, though he was still very unsure what to do with it. “It only had three strings on it when I finally got it in my hands. But I didn’t know what I was doing anyway, never mind how to get three more strings on it.”
After courting the Stella for a few years, Hopkins moved to a Sears Silvertone f-hold guitar and learned some guitar basics from friend and Houston-born legend, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. Inspired by the likes of T-Bone Walker and Houston’s Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Hopkins honed his skills and in 1949, took the stage for the first time at Jackson’s Drive-In in Houston. The evening went well for Hopkins but not so for the owner of the club who went to jail for staying open past midnight and serving liquor to minors. Hopkins was under 21 and was told to go home and never return. The band passed the club on their school bus the next morning and shared a laugh. Hopkins continued to take notes from Gatemouth Brown and began to create his onstage image and sound. “Gatemouth Brown really got me because he was playing another style, plus he had on a bright blue suit called a ‘Zoot suit’. I had to have one of those suits. And I thought maybe if I had one of those suits it might help me get on with this thing!” laughs, Hopkins.
Although his early influences were blues players (including, though later in life, his cousin, blues legend, Sam ‘Lightnin’ Hopkins), Milton Hopkins admits he’s not a blues purist and prides himself on his ability to play many styles of music. An ability that has planted him firmly on stage with some of the world’s biggest music stars like Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, Lou Rawls, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder as well as a permanent spot in B.B. King’s band throughout the 1970’s.
Despite years of touring and recognition as a guitar player with one of the best backing groups in the country, The Upsetters (1958-1964, originally formed by Little Richard - Jimi Hendrix was in the band for a short period of time) Hopkins always relied on steadier work to help him keep a solid foundation financially and emotionally. “If I was going to be somewhere for any length of time, I got a day job. Playing music never was ‘a living’. At it’s best - it was still difficult. Hotels, food, maintaining a life on the road and a life at home is expensive.”
Like many Houston musicians, Galveston represents a significant part of Hopkins’ performance history. His first Galveston gig was in 1951 when the island was still living up to it’s tongue-in-cheek reputation for being a “free state” (free from certain laws of the state and nation). Gambling clubs and brothels helped fuel a vibrant entertainment-driven economy that was abruptly stunted in 1957 when officials cracked down on illegal activities. “It changed a lot when they ‘cleaned up the mess’”, says Hopkins with a smile. “We didn’t play down there as often after that.”
While Milton Hopkins never became as famous as some of the people he played behind, he hasn’t lost his musical mojo and is still a student of the guitar, looking for opportunities, playing gigs and making records. “Being a star is not something you can plan. People today try to plan that and that’s what does them in. It’s still about being in the right place at the right time. A lot of young people today think they can just start at the top. You have to work at what you do.”
Hopkins has lived in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco but now resides back in his hometown of Houston. He has traveled the world playing his guitar and, as his mother would say, ‘done something worthwhile’, yet is still driven to be the best he can be at his craft. “I never considered my self to be a lead guitarist until recently. I think I’m hotter now than I ever was!”
Milton Hopkins new CD is titled, “Live At Danton’s” and was recorded in 2012 at Danton’s Seafood House on Montrose Ave in Houston. A solid recording of 10 blues classics (and one Cajun medley) performed by Hopkins and his band, the Hit City Blues Band featuring, Annette Metoyer on vocals, Chris Daniels on drums and vocals, Quentin Calva on bass and vocals, Mike Stone on organ, keys and vocals, and Robert Calva on guitar. Also released in 2012 was Hopkins collaboration CD with legendary Houston vocalist Jewel Brown. CDs are available at www.cdbaby.com and on Amazon.
Milton Hopkins appears every 1st and 3rd Sunday at Danton’s Blues Brunch in Houston www.dantonsseafood.com 713-807-8883
May 2014 - Milton Hopkins - The Islander Magazine
Milton Hopkins
