Never Heard Of Him, Eh?

by Blair Lovern

Randy Brown’s life is probably busier than it’s ever been – but he asked for it and dang-it, he loves it.

At age 33 this is the first time he’s pursued music seriously: He’s a Wells Fargo man by day. “I guess you could say I’m hustling car loans,” he says. And a country music singer by night.

“It’s so much fun. I wake up every morning going, ‘Wow, look at how much fun we’re having,’ On the other hand it’s a lot of work, and it’s not easy. But I’m meeting so many nice people and it’s probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I’m staying very, very busy.”

Brown has always loved music, he’s played guitar since he was 12 or 13 years old. But he never took it this seriously. Parents Tommy and Sue Brown always stressed getting a real job and making sure their son didn’t turn into a musical bum, wandering the streets, landing in jail for robbing a liquor store in a stolen pick-up. Well, they technically didn't say that but they had parental concerns.

(Editorial note: I sat with Tommy and Sue Brown at Randy’s birthday blowout at Pearl’s not long ago and let me be the first to say they are fantastic people. Heck, anyone who has a park named after them is fine by me. Tommy Brown, former mayor of North Richland Hills told me how Randy the kid would hog the second floor of their two-story home playing music; how he loved all of Randy’s songs but kind of cringed when he does “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)”; how they're happy for him in general. It was indeed a good time with the folks at Pearl’s.)

“I went to Texas A&M and played down there for a few years at some clubs every now and then," Brown says. "Looking back, it’s kind of funny how it all worked out. I never took it seriously, playing music for a living. I always thought I needed to graduate college, find a job and make a living and provide for my wife.

“I’ve always been around some really great musicians but really wasn’t taking it seriously. Playing music for me was just something to do.”

But that something-to-do bug wouldn’t go away. Finally some of the folks Brown was hanging out with, such as notable pedal steel man Gary Carpenter, had enough of Brown sitting on the sidelines.

“We’re pretty much sick of you not taking this music thing seriously,” Brown said he was told.

Music friends took Brown to Patriot Recording Studio, started by Chris Booher, a piano and fiddle player who had earned a Grammy while with Asleep at the Wheel for three years.

“I’m a big Texas music fan,” Brown says. “I grew up on Bob Wills Western swing stuff – just a huge Bob Wills fan. So we go over to Chris Booher’s studio in Burleson and someone pointed to a little desk and there on it was the Grammy that Chris won for Asleep at the Wheel’s Ride With Bob. And I said, ‘That’s just a dirty thing to do.’ I mean, that’s just the kind of music I wanted to be a part of. So we eventually set up a time to record and got busy.”

Brown’s first CD, Never Heard Of Him was recorded in the summer of 2005 and is full of the music Brown grew up loving. He wrote six of the 12 songs, with the rest being classics such as “Ida Red”, “Sidewalks of Chicago” or “Good Year for the Roses.”

“I’m trying to write songs a lot more than I ever have before,” Brown says. “But it’s tough, it’s not something I’m used to doing yet. But I love songwriters, the songwriting, I love the passion and emotion in a song and I’m all about that. I’m just a huge fan of music, singing or writing or playing or whatever. I just want to get up there and do it.”

Brown’s wife, Melissa, is his business manager, web guru, promotion department – ah, heck, she’s “just the boss,” he says. In fact, thinking about everything she does, Brown at first just said, "Aw, maaaaan," like he had a big fat chocolate cake sitting in front of him like at the birthday show at Pearl's - it's great but it's kind of overwhelming for one person.

“She handles it all. I think she’s a little worn out with it right now. But she handles everything: Promotion, documentation, everything on the Internet, all the emails, my website, the MySpace page, CDs, merchandise. She’ll bring me in to ask about what goes on my website, she says tell me what you want to say here and boom, it goes right up there. I don’t always know where I’m going to be playing a show, so I just pull up the website to find out myself. She’s been just great.”

The Browns live just outside of Fort Worth in Aledo. Ever since the release of Never Heard of Him last year, both have basically devoted their Thursday-Sunday nights to music. Randy can be seen regularly around Fort Worth, but is starting to stretch beyond the city limits.

This weekend he’ll play the Brazos River Music Festival instead of just being the emcee, as he was last year. (Although he’s got that job this year, too.)

“What makes me more excited about this festival than anything else is that we’re doing it for a good cause,” Brown says. (The event raises money for the Boys & Girls Club of Hood County.) “This is their number one fundraiser for the year, this is the big one. It’s a lot of fun if you’ve ever been. You just bring your own lawn chair, you can grab a turkey leg, drink some beer, what a great day it is.”

All told, it’s been one heck of a ride the past few months, going from music fan to music participant, which means some special moments.

“The best music in the world is in Fort Worth, Texas. There is such great music here, I mean it’s wonderful. The guys I’ve met are so amazing – someone like Dale Watson, I mean guys like that to me are my heroes. I think I have every Dale Watson CD except the new one and most of those Dale Watson CDs I’d buy them the day they come out. The next you know I’m introducing him on stage, and then later I’m backstage talking to him.

“I told somebody the other day you don’t know how many times in my life I’ve paid $5 to see Tommy Alverson. I’d buy his CDs all the time. Now, I’ll be driving down the road at like 3 o’clock in the afternoon and he’ll just call me and say, ‘Hey, Randy, what’s goin’ on?’. I’m just tickled to death with how it’s been so far.

“Sometimes it gets tiring for a while. But one day I hope I can do music full time – that’s the dream. You meet all these great people and then you end up liking them personally and start playing with them. I had no idea it would be this cool.”