|
|
Jeff Strahan
Strahan
is a native of Lamesa, Texas (close to Lubbock) where hard core Country crashed
into raw Rock & Roll every weekend on the area’s dance floors.
On Friday night at the local National Guard, there might be a Tejano band
playing Mexican music, a Fiddle band playing Texas Swing, or a local Outlaw like
Joe Ely on stage. The
big acts that came to town were groups like ZZ Top and Ted Nugent or Floyd
Cramer and Chet Atkins.
Bluesmen, like Albert Collins and Buggs Henderson, were regulars on the
bar scene in Lubbock.
Strahan idolized them all.
There was a wide variety of music with great musicians in every band and
one common thread; they all rocked!
Strahan scrutinized these musicians and watched them every chance he got,
even if it meant watching through the window, because he was too young to get in
the dancehall. All
he wanted to do was emulate them.
Inspired by all the live music of the Panhandle area, Strahan started a
band at age 12. They
played around Texas during the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Strahan eventually left Lubbock for bigger musical pastures in Austin.
During the 1980’s he played in countless bands covering genres from
straight country to heavy metal from Austin to San Diego.
When he wrote his own music, however, Strahan’s musical foundation and
those sounds he heard as a kid in the Red Dirt region of Texas all blended
together to form what you now hear, “Red Dirt Music.”
Frustrated with the state of the music industry and the popularity of
“boy bands” in the late 80’s, Strahan put his music career on “part
time” status and returned to college.
His goal was to find a career where he could make enough money to pay for
his own recordings and promote his material independent from the major label
“machine.” He
decided to become a lawyer, work hard to build his own studio, and then return
to music when the time was right.
He was a successful trial lawyer in Texas for ten years and his plan to
once again pursue a music career came to fruition in 2000.
His timing was actually perfect with the advent of “Independent”
music labels and Internet/Satellite Radio.
|
|
