Local Talent Making Names In Music Scene

For lovers of great music such as myself, I have looked far and wide to satiate my lust for truly enjoyable sounds to blast through my stereo speakers and MP3 earbuds. Great Britain has given me The Beatles, The Animals, Sting and Seal. Australians like The BeeGees and Men At Work, Africans like Jonathan Butler and Hugh Masakela, and the powerful sounds of Ireland's U2 and Wales' Tom Jones have been entertaining me musically for many decades. And my prodigious record collection boasts singers and bands from all over America. But today I need look no further than my own home town and neighboring cities to find ample musical talent. I have collected a few new CD's to add to all those outstanding sounds from years gone by that were recorded by men who either grew up in West Columbia, Texas, or have sturdy family roots in my hometown. Zack Walther And The Cronkites are difficult to categorize when listening to their new CD entitled "Ambition," their debut Sustain Records release. Vocalist and band leader Walther, who grew up and went to school in West Columbia, labels The Cronkites music as "New Braunfels rock." It could be called progressive Texas country, hard rocking jams or what was once referred to in my younger days as "pop." But whatever you want to call it, the sounds eminating from your speakers when you play the CD "Ambition" are wonderful. I have to give it to my fellow West Columbian, the guy has a very soulful voice. The band's website describes their sound as "the next evolution of the sounds from the Lone Star State created by a new generation that's taking the stage with some serious moxie, grounded in the best roots yet also right up to date for these times." Well put. I have really enjoyed listening to "Ambition" since purchasing it earlier this summer on a trip my wife and I made to New Braunfels and the adjoining community of Greune. I bought the CD simply because Zack is from West Columbia and, admittedly I did not have high expectations when I inserted it into my truck's CD player. Boy, was I ever blown away by just how good this new group is. From the opening number "Georgia Cane" to the closer "Pull The Pin," the 10 songs on "Ambition" are without one single throw-away tune. They are all good, from the tender prayer for redemption "Just Say When," to the rocker "Money Tree" and great songs I really enjoyed like "Without One Sound" and "Down Easy." "We were touring pretty heavily beforehand and especially now with the record, doing all these in-stores and fronts, and Hastings and Best Buys," Walther told a reporter for The Brazosport Facts recently during a stop back home. "It's sort of surreal and foreign just because we've never done that sort of thing." "I'm very proud to be from Brazoria County and I love coming back and seeing the place and seeing my hometown," Walther, who now resides in New Braunfels, told The Facts reporter.

Zack, who grew up in the Gayle Estates subdivision near West Columbia, joined the school choir in the sixth grade at Charlie Brown Intermediate School. He played in local bands when he was a student at West Columbia High School and majored in Southwest Texas State's prestigioius Sound Recording Technology program when he attended the San Marcos college. He graduated from the university that is now known as Texas State with a degree in Geography, which Walther says is "fitting for a road dog in the making."

He started a dancehall band with some friends from high school called Sanger West, and fronted the band Roger Wilco prior to putting Zack Walther And The Cronkites together. Zack recorded three albums with Roger Wilco and toured throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

The former West Columbian says "As I get older, I'm writing songs that are more personal and heartfelt and about love and loss and meaningful stuff."

Zack Walther And The Cronkites have played The Armadillo Ballroom outside of Brazoria's city limits several times in recent history (August 14th was their most recent stop at the Armadillo) and have been the featured band at Greune Hall near New Braunfels on Wednesday nights since last year. Check their website at http://zwcmusic.com/ to see where Zack and his band are playing in the coming months, to read up on a little history of the band, order CD's and obtain a free download of their new single "Georgia Cane" off of the "Ambition" CD. There is also a new video for the song "Money Tree" at Zack's website, and another video for "So Easy" from "The Blue Light Live" CD available for viewing.

The new CD "Ambition" was produced by fellow musician and songwriter Mark Addison. The Cronkites are comprised of vocalist and guitarist Walther, bassist David Pettit, drummer Chris Compton and guitarist and keyboardist Luke Leverett. Walther cowrote "Just Say When" and "Money Tree" off of the new CD with Leverett, whose work on a range of guitars and keyboards "brings a kaleidoscope of colors to the recording," the band's website reveals. Bassist Pettit, who hails from the Texas Panhandle, "melds his country roots with later time playing blues-rock to add even more to the group's sound," the website history of the band states.

"We have the ability here to have a softer acoustic power and then go balls to the wall and leave it out on stage every single night," Leverett said.

"Mountain Laurel Bloom" is a song on the new CD that takes listeners for a spiritually-blessed and folk-inflected tour of the Texas Hill Country. And Walther "sings it all with a classic vocal strength and finesse full of feelings that hit anyone with a heartbeat and ear for timeless music right where they live and love music," the Cronkites' website claims.

Reece Cadenhead first made an impact on me when he and his father Kevin Cadenhead sang at the wedding of Steven Horak and Reece's cousin, Ashley Kapalski, at the Catholic church in Lake Jackson. The qualities his singing voice possess are on a par with "American Idol" champions and those young men who sell millions of records worldwide. This kid is just that good. About a month ago I heard the Cadenheads, father and son, sing once again at the funeral for my childhood friend Charles "Boogie" Kapalski's mother at the Catholic church in West Columbia. Boogie's mother was Reece's great-grandmother. In between his two performances at the two local Catholic churches, my wife and son and I were entertained by Reece and Kevin Cadenhead at Dido's seafood restaurant on the San Bernard River near Brazoria. A large gathering of Reece's family and friends filled Dido's restaurant that night to celebrate the release of this Angleton High School graduate's first CD, "Sleepwalk Back To Texas."

Reece recently returned to College Station to begin his sophomore year at Texas A&M. He is majoring in mechanical engineering at A&M and is a member of the Texas A&M Singing Cadets. But he just might have to put that career as a mechanical engineer on the back burner if his musical career takes off like it should. The young man from Angleton, whose parents are graduates of the high school in West Columbia, began singing in the choir at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Brazoria. As a member of the Angleton High School choir his senior year Reece received top honors in the state solo contest.

Give "Sleepwalk Back To Texas" a listen. Gup promises each of you who purchase this young man's CD will be glad that you did. It is amazingly good. Vocals and production on the CD were recorded at R/R Studio in Lake Jackson, Texas, under the direction of Jason Rooks. But this compilation of 10 original country songs were written and recorded primarily in Nashville, and the quality of the sound is evidence that some seriously talented musicians were involved in the production of "Sleepwalk Back To Texas." My favorite songs on Reece's CD are "As Good As Goodbye," "Ain't Gonna Take It," "Operating On A Broken Heart," "Something Real" and the title song "Sleepwalk Back To Texas."

Earlier this summer my family and I were treated on several occasions to the listening pleasure of hearing Bill Middleton and his band perform on Friday nights at Scott's Barbecue in downtown West Columbia. It was a double treat. I got to wolf down some of the best barbecued ribs and fried shrimp ever put before me at Scott Leopold's barbecue joint and hear the wonderful guitar pickin' and singing of my fellow West Columbian who everybody called Billy Bob when he was a kid growing up in my hometown. Bill is a 1973 graduate of Columbia High School who returned to his hometown after "working his way to the top of the bottom" of the music biz playing guitar and singing all over Texas. He says he relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, to begin a new career "at the bottom of the top." That switch to the country music mecca in Nashville led to Billy Bob landing a prestigious position playing guitar on the Grand Ole Opry with several Opry stars. He worked with Porter Wagoner, Stonewall Jackson and Jean Shepherd at the Opry, just to mention a few. After 13 years (1986-1999) in The Grand Ole Opry family, my childhood friend came back home to West Columbia. And we in the West Columbia area are all the better for it. Hearing this man sing and play that electric guitar is definitely memorable. The boy's good! Blunt and to the point. His live shows are spiced with blues, rock and pop, but mostly his versions of the best country music has to offer.

Bill Middleton has released two CD's that are both worth giving a listen to. His CD "The Crossroad" is primarily inspirational Christian music, many of the selections written by Bill himself. His other CD is country which is a musical genre Bill truly excels in. I highly recommend anyone who loves music to experience Bill Middleton, both on his CD's and when he and his band are performing live in the West Columbia area.

Kirby Gupton, the son of my father's youngest brother S.D. Gupton, has been a part of the Austin music scene since the 1960s when he was a student at the University of Texas. While cousin Kirby stresses to me that he is not peddling his CD's, it is my personal opinion that his recorded music is worthy of a listen. To put it bluntly, I love Kirby's sound. His musicianship is definitely first rate. He excels on the guitar and saxophone himself, and Kirby has employed some very talented Austin musicians to accompany him on the two CD's he recorded earlier this decade.

Kirby Gupton is "pure country" on the majority of the tunes he has recorded, with a little soul ("Brand New Me") and old-time rock and roll ("I'm A Fool To Care") thrown in as well. His vocal strengths are in his ability to mimic country greats like Ray Price, Waylon Jennings and another impressive sound that I'm unable to pinpoint who it reminds me the most of. Hey, now it comes to me after all. He sounds just like Kirby Gupton! And there's nothing wrong with that when a native West Columbian who may be a little vertically challenged in height possesses such "kick ass," powerful pipes.

My cousin, a 1963 graduate of Columbia High School, mailed me copies of his CD's (both co-produced by Kirby and Fred Scott) in the summers of 2003 and 2005. Other family members who received the same CD's are as lucky as I consider myself. Lucky to have such a talented, gifted musician in our family tree, as well as for enjoying the pleasure of listening to the variety of songs Kirby has selected to record. The 2003 CD features Kirby's versions of three Waylon Jennings tunes ("Just To Satisfy You," "Walk Out Of My Mind" and "You'll Look For Me"), a couple of Merle Haggard songs ("If I'd Left It Up To You" and "The Bottle Let Me Down"), and first rate versions of Willie Nelson's "It's Not Supposed To Be That Way," Jessie Colter's "Storms Never Last" and Billy Joe Shaver's "Old Five And Dimers."

Highlights of the 2005 CD Kirby Gupton recorded at FRS Studio in Austin are the great Tom Jans penned song "Loving Arms" that was previously recorded by Elvis Presley, Dobie Gray and Jans himself and done equally as well by my cousin Kirby, and a couple Gordon Lightfoot songs ("Same Old Lover Man" and "Somewhere USA"). Kirby's cover of Willie Nelson's "I Never Cared For You" and Merle Haggard's "Our Paths May Never Cross" are worth the price of the 2005 CD alone. He really does a bang-up, superb job with Willie, Waylon and Merle's songs.

Cousin Kirby insists that he does not sell his CD's. So those of us who have received the two CD's from Kirby are the beneficiaries of this longtime Austin resident's gift and musical talent. Kirby told me that he would gladly burn copies of his CD's from his master tapes if any friends or family members request them. Email me at tracyg@embarqmail.com or drop me a line at P.O. Box 361 in West Columbia, Texas, 77486, and I will forward your requests for the Kirby Gupton CD's to my cousin in Austin.

To purchase Reece Cadenhead's CD "Sleepwalk Back To Texas," go to his website at http://www.reececadenhead.com/ and do so. I got my copy of the new Zack Walther And The Cronkites CD "Ambition" at the record store in Greune. But you can purchase it, as well as other CD's of the New Braunfels band, on the internet at http://www.zwcmusic.com/. Bill Middleton's CD's can be purchased at his guitar shop at 1118 North Brooks Street in Brazoria, Texas, or on the internet at http://www.billsguitarshop.com/. I hope each of you enjoys the excellent music these West Columbia area recording artists have put on CD's as much as I have.

Zack Walther of West Columbia is finding success in the music business. The Columbia High School graduate, shown jamming on stage above, is the lead singer for Zack Walther And The Cronkites, a band based in New Braunfels.

Angleton High School graduate Reece Cadenhead has recorded an excellent first CD entitled "Sleepwalk Back To Texas" recorded and produced by Jason Rooks. Reece is currently attending college at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Nationally known country music artist Trace Adkins, pictured above with West Columbia native Bill Middleton, spent hours signing autographs and talking to his fans at the grand opening of Bill's Guitar Shop in Brazoria.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

In response to Hank Jr.'s catchy tune that has become as closely associated with NFL football on TV as anything in recent years, yes, definitely, I am ready for some football! Tonight the National Football League kicks off the 2009 pro season with the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers, hosting my second favorite NFL team, the Tennessee Titans on NBC-TV. It has been what seems like a very, very long time since the Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl in early '09.

The NFL ain't what it used to be, at least as far as this longtime pro football fan sees it. I still watch the pro games on TV every chance I get, because I am truly a big football fan, but there just isn't that same ol' zeal for following the NFL from week to week like I once was addicted to. But, despite saying that, I still find myself getting a little hyped up when a new football season arrives each and every year. Unfortunately I will not be able to view tonight's NFL season opener on TV due to my work schedule. But that same rotating shift schedule that I have been a slave to for the past 20 years, working a set of daylights followed by a set of nights and then back to another set of daylights, provides me the opportunity to be off this coming weekend when there will be a full slate of football games (high school on Friday night, college games on Saturday, followed by the opening Sunday of the '09 NFL season) for me to enjoy.

I have already attended my first high school football game for '09. After missing my hometown team's season opener when an electric lightning display and rainstorm shortened the Roughnecks game against their intracounty rival, the Brazosport Exporters, because I was spending the night at the area petroleum refinery working the night shift, I had the luxury of being off this past Friday night. My Roughnecks, despite losing 36-22 to the St. Pius Panthers at Griggs Field in West Columbia, played exciting football and entertained the home crowd for the second consecutive Friday night. Columbia was leading Brazosport 17-14 when the season opener at Griggs Field was called off by the referees and coaches with about six minutes remaining in the third quarter due to a threat of lightning striking too close to the West Columbia football field. And this past Friday the thunder and lightning the Roughnecks were unable to deal with came in the human form of St. Pius's strong-armed, quick and elusive quarterback who led a Panthers' offensive attack that moved the ball up and down the field much too easily. If my hometown high school football team has any plans of competing for a playoff spot in their AAA district this season, adjustments will have to be made in their defensive strategy and improvements realized in the offensive scheme before such hopes can be turned into an actual postseason berth.

The Sweeny Bulldogs, who produced current Oakland Raiders wide receiver Johnnie Lee Higgins Jr. (pictured above), appear to be the cream of the crop in West Columbia's district in 2009. The Dogs will host the same Brazosport team this Friday night that the Roughnecks opened the year against two weeks ago. Both of those teams are 1-0 after the Bulldogs stomped Van Vleck in the season opener and the Shippers dominated Port Lavaca Calhoun last Friday night at Hopper Field in Freeport, a week after having their opener with the Roughnecks erased from the record books due to the lightning storm. Columbia travels to Alvin tomorrow night to line up against Manvel at the stadium the new high school in Manvel shares with the Yellowjackets of Alvin. I will be at one of those two high school games, depending on the weather Friday night. If it rains I will more than likely attend the Sweeny-Brazosport showdown about 10 miles from my home. Clear skies will find me and my wife taking the longer route to Alvin.

Keeping me interested in what happens in pro football from year to year are great players like LaDainian Tomlinson of the Chargers, Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson of the Vikings, Andre Johnson and Mario Williams of my Houston Texans, and my wife Peggy's favorite NFL players, the Manning brothers (pictured above). Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts will be playing under a new head coach following the retirement of their longtime mentor Tony Dungy, while younger brother Eli Manning and the New York Giants return for another season with hopes of fending off the annual challenge for division supremacy from the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, who will feature Michael Vick as Donovan McNabb's key backup in '09. So the coming pro season should be just as interesting, with many tight division races throughout the year, as the battles being fought in college and high school stadiums across the nation from week to week. Man am I ever ready for it!

The college football season is already underway, with most college teams preparing for the second week of their 2009 seasons this weekend. My intentions are to attend at least one home game this season of my college alma mater, the Sam Houston State Bearkats, and hopefully make it to one or two games Texas A&M and the University of Houston play in 2009.

September 26th is circled in bright red marker on my personal calendar in my home office. That is the day former Columbia Roughnecks standout Jared Flannel and his Texas Tech Red Raiders travel to Houston to take on my son Brian's Cougars at Robertson Stadium. I have one son (Bret) going to college at Texas A&M so I have to pull for his Aggies every chance I get; and another son (Brian) attending classes at the University of Houston so I will proudly wear my Cougars red when following the Cougs. But the ol' home cooking theory puts me in Jared Flannel's corner and rooting for the Red Raiders whenever Texas Tech is not going head to head with my kids' Cougars and Aggies. And my Dad's little brother, Hank Gupton, graduated from Baylor University so I always cheer for the Baylor Bears when I get the chance. Cousin Dolores Gupton is an SMU grad and her younger sister Peggy Lou and her husband Kenneth Boone both graduated from TCU.

But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, ol' Tracy Bob just simply loves FOOTBALL!!! High school, college, pro, whatever, I love to watch football games . . . in person, on my new high definition color TV or (when lucky) on my cousins Jack and Angie's or Hank and Lynette's big screen sets in Cove or Anahuac. Even if it's at the corner bar or listening on my truck radio, if there is a football game being played somewhere nearby there is a good bet I will be tuned in or sitting my fat ass on my worn out Columbia Roughnecks cushion and watching.

My son Kirk is coaching youth football this season. So on the Saturdays that I am not working I will be in the stands, cheering on Koy and Koby Richardson (my future grandsons following Kirk's November wedding to their mother Tanya) when these little 9 and 10 year olds get down and dirty in the trenches for the Tri-City Cougars. So, hell yea, I'm ready for some football. Bring it on!

Former TCU Horned Frogs running back LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers is among my favorite current NFL players. Those pro players with Texas roots remain atop my personal list of "must see" gridiron heroes when I watch NFL games on TV.

Tough Times Fail To Dampen Nation's Generosity

As a child growing up in West Columbia my favorite entertainment venue was the Capitol Theater downtown. And my favorite movies from my earliest visits to the "picture show," as we always called it back then, starred "The Big Three" in my book: John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis. Anytime a new film one of those 1960s Hollywood Heroes put out was being shown at the Capitol Theater, it was a good bet that my tiny ass was going to be sitting in the dark watching it . . . popcorn, pickle, Milk Duds and ice cold Coca-Cola in hand.

I caught about an hour or so of the 44th annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon this past Labor Day, and was watching the early hours of the 21 and a half hour broadcast on Houston's Channel 2 Sunday night when the show suddenly went off the air. I was disgusted to discover that the local NBC affiliate that had aired Jerry Lewis's telethon in its entirety in years past was not going to do so in 2009. Bill Balleza of Channel 2 informed the viewers, including yours truly, that KPRC-TV would be picking the telethon back up at 8 a.m. on Monday morning. I switched through the other gazillion channels on my DirecTV satellite dish to see if the MDA telethon was airing throughout the night on a different channel, but it was nowhere to be found.

Despite the cutting back of the annual fundraiser's TV air time in the Houston market, Jerry Lewis still proudly announced at the 2009 telethon's conclusion Monday evening that nearly $60.5 million was raised across the nation to continue funding worldwide research to find treatments and cures for muscular dystrophy and related diseases. Lewis said the total was down from last year's record $65 million but added it was an amazing accomplishment considering the state of the nation's economy.

I shed my usual tears sitting in front of my TV set, as numerous feature stories and guests appearing from both the Houston studio and with Jerry Lewis and his many cohosts in Las Vegas touched the softest parts of my heart. Little Abbey Umali, the MDA's current National Goodwill Ambassador, is pictured in her wheelchair with Jerry in the photo above. She and many other people of all ages--but primarily the children afflicted with this horrible disease--who have to live with Muscular Dystrophy are the reasons so many of us dig deep into our pockets to help Lewis and the MDA hopefully one day bring an end to the crippling of so many humans. To think that Jerry Lewis started his annual telethons 44 years ago is really mind boggling, and when you add to the equation the many health issues the telethon's host has had to endure himself in recent years it becomes even more stunning that the octogenarian comedian is able to live out the old entertainment world motto: "The show must go on!"

Lewis, who told the Las Vegas crowd Sunday night that he will be 84 in March of 2010, had to do the telethon for the first time since 1973 without his sidekick Ed McMahon. Johnny Carson's longtime announcer and best bud, who had served as Jerry Lewis's MDA telethon announcer for 35 years, died in June. I made a point to tune in to this year's telethon this past Sunday night to see my childhood comedic hero for what possibly could be the last time.

Jerry disclosed several years ago that he is dying from Pulmonary Fibrosis, a disease that suffocates its victims by scarring the lungs. The disease is irreversible, untreatable, and invariably fatal, according to wire reports I read during the week leading up to this year's Labor Day telethon. Most patients suffering from PF die within three years of diagnosis, the wire reports indicate, which is why thousands of PF sufferers tuned in Sunday night looking to Lewis for clues to his survival for so many years with the disease.

Jerry Lewis has spoken many times publicly about his disease but has not yet spoken out on behalf of the cause that has stricken him so personally. Pulmonary Fibrosis claimed the lives of actor/singer Robert Goulet and Odetta in recent years, as well as being the primary cause of the death of my favorite actor of all time, Marlon Brando, who died several years ago at the age of 80. Pumonary Fibrosis claims the lives of approximately 128,000 Americans annually.

Lewis has suffered two heart attacks--a serious one in 1982 that led to Jerry being forced to kick his cigarette habit and a minor heart attack in 2006--and has been forced to deal with prostate cancer, diabetes and extreme back pain. But he has never missed hosting his annual Labor Day telethon over the past 44 years.

Born Joseph Levitch in Newark, New Jersey, on March 16, 1926, the comedian who took the stage name Jerry Lewis and later vaulted to stardom on stage, TV and films when he teamed up with Dean Martin in the 1940s remains today an entertainment industry icon. Among the many comedies he starred in (usually writing, producing and directing his films as well) that I loved so much as a child were "The Nutty Professor," "Cinderfella," "The Patsy," "Don't Raise The Bridge, Lower The River" and "The Big Mouth." I never missed a Jerry Lewis movie at The Capitol Theater when I was a kid. So many of my childhood movie heroes have gone to that great big screening room in the sky, so Jerry's importance is amplified in my viewpoint even more because he is one of the few Hollywood stars from the 1960s still working.

I was thrilled to learn late last year that Jerry was going to be honored at the 2009 Oscars telecast. Who could possibly be more deserving. Forty-four years of hosting his annual telethon to raise much needed funding in the fight to defeat Muscular Dystrophy, combined with seven decades of entertaining the world with his slapstick antics and, as the French and T. Gup truly believe, his comedic genius, earned him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the February 22, 2009, presentation of the Oscars in Los Angeles.

Jerry Lewis received an honorary Oscar at the February 22, 2009, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' telecast. The "King of Comedy" was the most recent recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in honor of his more than 40 years raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.