Bobby Ray Spears Bio
Being born in Fort Worth, Texas was a blessing to Bobby Ray, because Fort Worth and the surrounding area has always been a haven for country music.
Bobby Ray remembers that as a very young boy, listening to Ernest Tubb on a daily radio program in Fort Worth. Ernest had a radio program that was broadcast live several times each week and since his parents were up early getting ready for work they always had the radio tuned in to ‘The Ernest Tubb Show’. Bobby Ray was also up every time the show was on until he knew almost every song that Ernest sang.
Then one day Ernest announced that he was making a personal appearance at a local super market (grocery store) that was about a mile from where Bobby’s family lived. This was like a piece of heaven had just fallen down to earth. Not having a car, Bobby Ray’s mother (after many tears and much pouting) agreed to take Bobby to see his idol.
The show was in the parking lot of this super market and most people would stand and listen a while before going on about their business of grocery shopping, that is everyone except Bobby Ray, who was still standing there looking up as if in a trance long after the picking and singing was done.
Ernest was greeting people and shaking hands with everyone until the last person had left, the last person except Bobby Ray, who was still standing there in a trance, spell bound by being in the presence of his idol.
When Ernest stopped and patted Bobby Ray on the head and said “ hello, how are you doing young man ? “ or words to that effect, the die was cast, Bobby Ray knew, then and there that country music would be a part of his life from that point on, and as fate would have it, it truly has been
.
In his early teens, Bobby Ray and three friends, formed a “Hillbilly Band” and preformed, such as it was, any place that would let them. They would ride the Trailways bus, from Fort Worth to Dallas, Texas where they would appear semi-regularly on the Big “D” Jamboree on Saturday nights. This gave him an opportunity to appear on the same stage with some of the biggest stars in country music like Johnny Horton, Sonny James, Ferlin Husky, Joe Paul Nichols, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins to name a few, and this experience did not go to waste.
What he learned in the art of performing and pleasing an audience he put to great use a little later, when he became a regular performer on the “Cowtown Hoedown” a country music variety show that was held in the old Majestic Theater in down town Fort Worth, Texas, where again he had the chance to perform and learn with even more of the greatest country music stars ever. Learning at each step of the way, Bobby Ray learned some of the fine arts of entertainment from some of the very best.
When in high school, Bobby and a couple of friends formed another band and performed at school functions and parties, and was the guest several times on the Pat Boone Show, Pat Boone was attending college in the area and had a weekly variety show on WBAP-Television Channel 5 and would showcase local talent from time to time.
Later Bobby Ray and the band, made a deal with a small local radio station, where they bought 30 minutes of time each Saturday at noon, they sold advertising spots to local merchants for whatever they could get, five or ten dollars a spot. The station wrote the commercials and furnished the announcer for thirty dollars and they got to keep the difference (which most of the time, amounted to very little, as Bobby recalls).
Bobby Ray preformed at shows and clubs throughout his younger years and later traveled over Texas and surrounding states opening shows for several Grand Ole Opry stars.
Bobby Ray, Terry Beene, and the band would travel to these shows in a top of the line Bluebird bus with a big “The Bobby Ray Show” sign in the windows, and this would amaze the stars they were opening for, they would go back to Nashville and tell everyone “I don’t know how they do it, this band that is opening shows for us down in Texas is traveling around in a Big Bluebird bus that is nicer than anything that we have”
The truth is that the bus belonged to their good friend Royce Sanders, he had the signs for the windows made and simply enjoyed driving the bus to all of these shows and pretended to be just their bus driver. While all the while he owned the bus and the Nashville stars never knew the difference.
Bobby lived in Houston for a short time and it was during this time, his good friend Terry Beene started “ The Terry Awards “ an award show that recognized and honored club musicians (The Terry Award Show has been very successful and is still held in Fort Worth each year). This was an award show that is intended to honor local club musicians for their work, they work hard every night of the year, playing the hit songs, that make the stars, and receive very little recognition. After returning to Fort Worth, Bobby, MC’ed the Terry Award Show for several years. Bobby Ray and Terry Beene remain good friends and still work together on several projects.
One of the latest project Bobby Ray and Terry have worked on is Bobby’s latest album. Bobby has recorded in Nashville several times and thinks this album is the best he has ever done. The name of the album is “I’ve Made A Lot Of Friends Along The Way “. Bobby Ray wrote all twelve songs for the album and this is truly his story. The friends he has made and kept proves it.
Bobby Ray Spears
bobbyrayspears@yahoo.com
www.bobbyrayspears.com
www.joysmusicworld.com/Artists/BobbyRaySpears.html |
