Photos courtesy of Bruce Adams, Exposure DPI
Patrick James has been there, and done that. He’s ridden the long hours in a bus, traveling across the empty highways of Texas and beyond. Hard core bands, acoustic singer/songwriter setups, straightahead rock music – James has played it all. He’s been in and out of the business of music for years, but since the age of 10, he’s never been out of music itself. James has lived in Tyler off-and-on since childhood. “I got my first guitar when I was 10 years old,” said James. “I used to go to Camp Silver Paddle on Lake Tyler in the late �70s … There was this girl who used to bring her guitar at lunch time and her name was Melissa. And Melissa would sit and play her songs and I was just ... I said, ‘I gotta do that. That’s what I need to do.’ So my parents got me a guitar for Christmas, one of these little cheapo, red things, and I literally played it until my fingers bled. That was cool for a while. My mom had her aspirations of me being some classical guitarist – of course it wasn’t a classical guitar.” However, being so young James’ interests changed as kids’ passions tend to do. He became more interested in building forts and throwing the football outside. However James was always a fan. And during the garage band boom of the �80s, James took the axe back up again. “I got an electric guitar when I was 15, and started playing in garage bands,” said James. “The cool thing to do was to play stuff like Judas Priest and Scorpions and Rush, ya know, ACDC and all that kind of business.” That led to the formation of James’ first band: Spastic Fury, which James describes as: “Green Day-ish, melodic, but without a lot of screaming/growling.” The band gigged all the time: “We played every weekend. We met chicks. There were mosh pits.” Then came college, at the University of Southern Alabama in Mobile, which sort of put Spastic Fury on the back burner, though they did continue playing a bit when everyone could get back together. After his family moved back to Tyler, James came along too, effectively putting an end to the ‘fury.’ But in its place came the humorously titled – and quite successful – Did Lee Squat. “From 1991 until 1996 we were an alternative showcase, all
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original,” remembered James. “We did South by Southwest in Austin. we played Trees, the Curtain Club, the Stone Pony and all kinds of places in Dallas. We played some places in Austin and Houston and of course in Tyler. We opened up for Motley Crue at the Oil Palace and even did our own show at the Oil Palace ... That was my 15 minutes of fame to try and make it in the music deal.” Then, as is all too often the story, the band broke up. James is amicable about the split and intimated he carries he share of the blame for things not working out: “As things go, I don’t want to say I don’t play well with others, but … well ... I don’t play well with others.” Did Lee Squat disbanded, and James just floated around a bit, still playing. The next project was a band called Sand Dollar, with whom James took up in 1996. “This was more of a ‘let’s make a cd, play some shows and try to do some stuff in Dallas and in Houston’ type of thing. I thought, ‘I’m tired of playing these all-originals to nobody who cares; let’s just come back and play some rock covers and throw in some originals and play Sharky’s and Rick’s. [We had] packed houses. It was like, ‘come on guys, you want to drive two hours and make zero dollars? And nobody will be there?’ No, this is a much better gig.” But, after a few of the members moved away, Sand Dollar was no more. Again, James took a bit of a break from the music scene. He started his own business, did some work in graphic arts and continued on with a career outside performing was in his own words, “just sick of the ‘band thing.’” Though, James never got sick of the “music thing.” It wasn’t until he took things in a completely new direction that the urge to take the stage again returned. Throughout all his time in bands, from a young age, through sold-out professional shows, James never sang. “I never even sang backup. There were no good harmonies – no nothing. And as much as I wanted to try, they’d turn my mic off,” James said with a laugh. “I just wasn’t any good.” With no band and no gig, James sold off most of his electric gear and bought a decent acoustic guitar and, as he said, “headed out to the B S C E N E M A G.COM