Joe Bob… A Little History

My friends here at KIXS 108 and Townsquare Media Victoria seem to think you may be interested in my past experiences in the 'music business', so, with that in mind, I'm going to tell a few 'stories I assumed no one cares about' in the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy the nostalgia. If you don't enjoy them, that's okay, too. I haven't shared much of my musical history with you because I can't imagine you would be interested and I will do my best not to bore you. My parents were both musicians. My Dad was a fiddler and a singer. My Mom was a piano player and singer. They both played multiple instruments, but those were their instruments of choice. They met while playing in a band together in and around central Texas... "G. B. Burris and the Fox Four Seven". It was named that because, on any given night, there may be four band members and there may be seven. The 'Fox' part is from Bill Fox, a radio personality from Abilene, Texas who 'fronted' the band on occasion. By the way, the guitar player in the band was a guy named Gene Dunn. He is Ronnie Dunn's father (from Brooks and Dunn) I actually grew up in West Texas with Ronnie. I have pictures of us hanging out together as little kids, but that's another story for another blog. "G. B. Burris and the Fox Four Seven" were on the "Louisiana Hayride" several times in the late 40s and early 50s, as was Elvis Presley. The first time they appeared on the "Hayride", country music legend and former local resident, the late Horace Logan was the emcee. He brought them onstage by saying "I don't know if these people can play a lick, but they sure look good", referring to the fact that they all dressed like country music stars of the day.

Needless to say, I was fortunate to grow up around a lot of great music and great musicians. More on that later. Thanks for listening.