ROCKABILLY ROCKET: A HIGH-OCTANE ONE-MAN BAND
By Michael McCarty
(The following article originally appeared in “The Rock Island Argus” and “Moline Dispatch” December 21, 2007. This article has been updated….)
Paul Waters, the Rockabilly Rocket will launch off before the April Showers hit when he plays the The Valley Inn on April 5, Saturday night, from 9-midnight. The address is 24575 - Valley Drive (Hwy. 67) Pleasant Valley, IA 52767 (563) 332-9558.
Fueled by rock ‘n’ roll from the fifties, this one-man band is pure high octane fun. Mr. Waters grew up in the same town as Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas. Waters was inspired to learn guitar and to begin singing after seeing the 1978 movie, “The Buddy Holly Story” starring Gary Busey. (*Busey won an Academy Award nomination for his portrait of the bespectacled Holly.)
Waters formed his own group and became popular in his home area as a Holly impersonator. More than two decades and several bands later, he’s playing solo - one guitar, one vocal and one hell of a good time. He chatted with us about his music and his muse.
Michael McCarty: You’ve performed with a band and now you’re performing solo. Which do you prefer, and why?
Paul Waters: I have been playing with bands off and on now for over 20 years. Lately, I have been kicking around the idea of forming a band. I talked to bass player recently.
(Note: Since this interview, the Rockabilly Rocket now features Larry Solberg on “big bass,” an awesome stand-up bass player).
I thought about playing gigs like the Buddy Holly Tribute in Clear Lake, Iowa (at the Surf Ballroom, where Buddy Holly performed his last concert on February 3, 1959.) If I want to do that again, I would certainly want to have a band, unless I play the Surf Lounge, that is the only place a one-man show would work.
I had a lot of ups and downs with bands … There always seemed, to be an element of conflict - personality conflict, conflict of ambition, conflict of interest.
Ray Congrove, who has been my best friend now for over 25 years … gave me the idea of doing this solo … I was against the idea initially, which was back in the mid-‘90s (after the Paul Waters Band broke up). Ray said, “This is the type of music you could pull off; with that, you don’t need a band.”
McCarty: You opened up for The Crickets (Buddy Holly’s band), Chubby Checker, The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, Mojo Nixon, Sonny Curtis, The Drifters, Leon Russell, Marshall Crenshaw, Edgar Winter and Bobby Vee - to name just a few. Who did you like playing for the most?
Waters: The Crickets were always very accepting of me and friendly. What was so cool about those guys is, every time I see them, they mention meeting me in Lubbock, Texas at the Lubbock Civic Center at a Waylon Jennings (who also played with Buddy Holly) press conference. I was about fifteen, and my mother and I crashed the event. I opened up for The Crickets a couple of times: once at The Col (in Davenport, Iowa) in 1988 and once in Clear Lake. That was the last time I played there, which was in 1993. We had some good times.
I had a business card that The Crickets gave me when I played at the Lubbock Speedway in 1980 with The Crickets’ logo on it. The Crickets had made it not too long after Buddy’s death, probably in 1960. Written on the back was Louise Allison’s number (Crickets drummer) Jerry Allison’s mother. I had the card with me when I played The Col and I had Jerry sign it and Joe B. Mauldin (Crickets bassist) sign it.
McCarty: Last question, what does ‘50s music and rockabilly music have that modern music doesn’t have?
Waters: Rockabilly is the alternative music of the whole ‘50s scene. It was really outside of ‘50s R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. There were some terrific rockabilly records that chart-wise didn’t go anywhere. This musical torch has been passed from generation to generation and is still popular.
Rockabilly has stuck around because there is an essential honesty and energy to the music. There is a raw truthfulness and emotion to it.