Visualize if you would, an old LP with the center hole being my studio in Abilene, Texas the outer edge of the vinyl about two hundred miles out. Within that area came more hit songs and celebrities of the late 50’s and early 60’s than any one spot on earth. See if you recognize some of these names.

WEST - Odessa, TX - Joe Melson (Blue Angel), Joe “Red” Hayes (“Satisfied Mind”), Larry Gatlin (“All The Gold”), Larry Henley (“Is It Still Over”), Roy Orbison, (“Oh Pretty Woman”) Dan Seals (Seals & Croft) “Everything That Glitters”), Guy Clark (“She’s Crazy For Leaving”), Lefty Frizzell, (“That’s The Way Love Goes”).
SOUTH – Brownwood/vicinity - Ray Hilderbrand (“Hey Paula”), Dave Kirby (“Is Anybody Going To San Antone”), San Angelo – Ernest Tubb, (“Soldier’s Last Letter”).

NORTH – Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Keith McCormack (“Sugar Shack”), Mac Davis, Jimmy Dean, Jerry Allison (“Peggy Sue”), Buddy Knox (“Party Doll”), Bob Wills (“San Antonio Rose”), Sonny Curtis (“I Fought The Law”), Norman Petty (“Wheels”), Charlie Phillips/Odis Echols (“Sugartime”), Johnny Hathcock (“Wake Up Irene”), Ray Winkler, (“Welcome To My World”), Delbert McClinton (“Two More Bottles Of Wine”), Terry Stafford (“Amarillo By Morning”), Woodie Guthrie, (“This Land Is Your Land”), Dean Beard, (“Rakin and Scraping”).

In Abilene ten miles around me – Mason Williams (“Classical Gas”), Darrell Crofts/James Seals (“We May Never Pass This Way Again”) Mafijohn Wilkin (“Waterloo”), Slim Willet (“Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”) and Lee Roy Parnell (“Hearts Desire”).


There were fifty known artist/writers, if indeed that is all of them, in a very small area and hits were common. Imagine this in such a small area and era of our time – some were one-time hits, others kept on writing and recording past the seventies. This has never happened again as far as I know, it probably will not? Why so much talent in a scrubby' western part of Texas? There really wasn't much out there but sand dunes and ail "pump jacks." Perhaps that was the reason? Or, Mac Davis may have said it better, "Happiness Is Lubbock Texas In My Rearview Mirror."


      This is what it looked like in his mirror.