| |
A Country Legend
Gene Watsonby
Bob Bowman | |
Someone
once asked country singing legend Ray Price to name his favorite singers.
Price
paused a minute and finally said, “I have too many to name, but Gene Watson would
be right at the top.”
But Watson--who was born in Palestine
and raised in Paris--is such a low-keyed
individual that he considers singing “just something I like to do,” like working
on cars in his shop.
Watson had a string of country hits in the l970s and
1980s, including “Love in the Hot Afternoon,” “Farewell Party” and “Fourteen Carat
Mind.”
Watson’s
affinity for cars is no accident. For a time in his youth, his family lived in
an old school bus his father had converted into a home he could relocate to where
the work was.
“Everybody is into mobile homes these days,” said Watson.
“I lived in one way back then, but it was yellow.”
Cars were his passion
while he was growing up. He drew cars in school and saved his money to buy car
magazines.
Music was something Watson says he didn’t think about; it was
just natural.
He sang at his church and with his family, all of whom were
musically inclined. The family always gathered around the radio to listen to the
Grand Ol’ Opry.
Watson’s father also played the guitar. And, from field
workers, Watson learned some blues songs to go with the gospel and country.
Watson
had no intentions of becoming a country star, but was “perfectly satisfied playing
in clubs on weekends and working on cars during the week.”
But in 1974
his single, “Bad Water” was modestly successful. He followed it with “Love in
the Hot Afternoon,” which made him a star whether he liked it or not. The hits
kept coming in the 1980s.
Watson was good with the sad songs, and acquired
a reputation for projecting a song as if it were a story narrative. |
Other singers like
Don Williams and Brad Paisley also focused on the slow songs of Watson’s style.
Today, Watson is a grandfather and lives quietly as an anti-star with his wife
in northeast Houston. He reappeared
in 2007 with “In a Perfect World,” his best album in nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, as country music undergoes more changes, Watson’s head is under the
hood of a truck. He didn’t care a long time ago, so he’s indifferent to what happens
today.
Gene Watson will be appearing Friday night, October 16, at East
Texas’ Lovelady Gym--a country venue that
somehow fits his laid-back style.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
October 4, 2009 Column
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
Copyright
Bob Bowman
See Lovelady
Gym | Lovelady |
Crockett | Crockett
Hotels | |
|
