Homeward Bound Opens For Clay Walker At Playfair
The trail to the top of the country music world can start almost anywhere, and Homeward Bound hopes that includes Mead.
The band takes another step Saturday, opening for Clay Walker at Playfair Race Course.
Homeward Bound is made up of members of Mead’s Clouse clan - Chris, vocals/guitar; Jennifer, vocals/ mandolin, and Chad, fiddler/ songwriter are joined by mom and dad Clouse, Frank and Pam, on bass and keyboards, respectively.
Chris and Chad are both two-time Washington State Fiddle Champs and Chris placed fifth in the national championships. Jennifer won titles in her age group before switching to mandolin.
The only non-Clouse is drummer Brian Rochelle.
Saturday’s headliner, Clay Walker, came from a place better-known than Spokane for producing country music stars: Beaumont, Texas.
Many years ago, Beaumont gave the world George Jones. More recently, three of country music’s “hat acts” have come from there: Mark Chestnutt, Tracy Byrd and Walker.
“Beaumont is a gold mine for talent,” Walker says. “I’ll guarantee you, every label in Nashville could go down there and camp out for a couple of months and find at least four or five entertainers.”
Some people have even started talking about the “Beaumont Sound,” but that’s not really applicable, Walker says.
“Tracy’s really got that Westernswing sound; he’s influenced by Bob Wills and then George Strait. Chestnutt’s big influence is George Jones.
“Me, I’m a lot more influenced by Haggard than by anyone else. I like those powerful ballads and twosteppin’ music. I love swing, too, but it’s probably that competition thing again. I couldn’t do it as well as Byrd, so I had to do something else.”
Whatever it was, it worked: In 1993, his debut LP, “Clay Walker,” went platinum (one million units sold), helped by the success of four hit singles.
The first, “What’s It To You,” went right to No. 1 and was replaced in short order in the top spot by “Live Until I Die.” “Where Do I Fit In The Picture” fell just short of the top spot but “Dreamin’ With My Eyes Open” landed him back in the top position.
And Walker doesn’t seem to have been slowed by the sophomore slump: His second record, “If I Could Make A Living,” is largely considered an even stronger record than his first, and its first hit single, “This Man and This Woman” is his biggest chart single yet.
His current single, “My Heart Will Know,” has yet to prove itself.
There’s a sense of destiny about Walker’s career - in his own mind, at any rate. He turned professional at 16 and by 17 had taken control of his future, acting as his own manager, agent, music director and acountant.
xxxx Location and time: Playfair Race Course, Saturday, 7 p.m. Tickets: $20 ($22 the day of the show)