oreo cookie blues/you've got a friend

Help me

You've Got A Friend

zoom q3 demo

written and sung by RDG.  
been sung at more than a few weddings

Till We're Thru Being Old

Purple Heart

Baby Jesus is Born Original Demo

written with Randy Handley and Cam King...

Two Lane Time Machine

Mr. Moon

written with Norris Mealer and Mark Allison

Long Way From Texas

Anyway

RONNY DEAN GARRETT 
was born and raised in Texas, and as he likes to put it, 
all of Texas! As far as bio, well, the usual. Family members played, sang in 
church, sang in talent shows, sang in the back rooms of truck stops (filling 
stations back in my day), joined bands, learned the trade the only right way. 
Gigs! Moved to Milwaukee, had a great time and played with some awsome cats. 
Moved to Nashville and learned to speak a little Nashvillian, but apparently 
not enough!! But, all in all, it was and is a good thing. Writes songs and sings 
them. 

Around 1989 we moved to Nashville and commenced 
the long journey. The landlord of the house we rented was a cool guy and when he 
found out why I moved to Nashville, he mentioned that our neighbor was a 
musician. That's all he said. a couple weeks went by and I was wiring up the 
muffler on my truck when a guy walked up and said, Hey, I'm your neighbor, 
thought I'd say hi. I crawled out from under my truck and shook hands with 
Townes Van Zandt. Long story short, he ended up recording quite a bit in my 
studio. He liked it because it was comfortable, I got a killer sound, (he really 
liked the vocal sound), and I just treated him like any one else. There were 
quite a few ahem........interesting times in dealing with Townes, but hey, those will 
go to my grave. One cool story tho. Around xmas time, that first year, me and a friend 
were in my studio listening to songs and drinking some early xmas 
cheer when the phone rang. It was Townes, and he wanted me to come over and meet 
some people. It was Guy and Susan Clark. I had already met Susan cause she had 
recorded some demos with me and Guy wanted to check out my studio. So, we all 
went over and listened to songs and finished the rest of my whitskee and had a 
big old time. Several years later, after Townes passed, Jeanene called me and 
said they were using several of the songs he had recorded in my studio on a new 
project. She asked if I wanted to be mentioned and I said to give my studio a 
plug. The album is called " A Far Cry From Dead". In the reviews written about 
it, I'm the neighbors studio mentioned. Only in Nashville!!!! I hadn't been in 
Nashville very long when I met Casey Kelly, (among many great songs, he wrote 
Cowboy Rides Away). He was sort of overseeing a writers show and after a couple 
of encounters, he asked if I wanted to do a showcase of about 5 songs. I jumped 
at the chance and we set the date and he told me there would be a couple other 
writers but I would go last. As I'm walking into the club that night, I hear 
someone singing "She Thinks I Still Care"I'm thinking, I thought this was a 
writers show? what the hell? I get in and look up and you got it, Dickey 
Lee!!!! I'm thinking, damn, I've screwed up the dates or something. Casey says, 
nope, you're up next. I said, Casey, man, I don't have any cuts or nothing. He 
says, no, but you will. ahhh good ole Casey. Thanks for believing man 

. . . around 1997 
Greg Koch had come down to Nashville and thoroughly rocked a song my friend Cam King wrote 
called 'Home is Where My Harley Is". 
I had traveled to Milwaukee and sang some songs on Greg's latest 
CD. That winter, I was in Milwaukee to participate in Greg's CD release gig and 
Jeff Favre (Brett's brother) was in the audience. One thing led to another and 
next thing you know, Greg's trio and me were being flown to San Diego to play 
the Packer Backers party for the 98 Super Bowl. Well, as you can imagine, a 
good time was had by all. Anyways, while we 
were there, Greg and I were playing the Harley tune for various ears, and a germ 
of an idea began to form. When Greg got back to Milwaukee, he got it to a friend 
who got it to someone who finally got it to a certain Mr. Davidson 
himself! Time went by, and as the 95th Harley reunion started taking form, it 
was decided that the song should be featured in some local commercials in 
Milwaukee. Miller Beer and Harley-Davidson. I'm in my studio one day here in 
Nashville, when i get a call from a guy who has a ticket waiting for me at the 
airport to fly me to Milwaukee to be in a commercial. When Greg and I got to 
the location (an old motel), the director came up to me and said "so you're the 
Harley man. I recognized him and i said, so you're one of the cab drivers in 
Taxi-cab Confessions (HBO). He laughed, and said, "well, also the director". 
That's right, I was in a commercial directed by Todd Phillips. Of course, way 
before Old School and Hangover!!!! Well, even though, the commercials were 
supposed to be local, ours went national. I was watching the Bulls playing one 
night on tv, and bam!, there it was!. Oh yeah, as a result, we got to open for 
the Doobies at the Harley fest. Way cool! 

Well, as everyone knows, a lot of cool things 
happen in the fair city of Amarillo. Back in the 80's, the Sheraton on I-40 was 
a good gig for local bands. I had played there with a couple of top 40 acts. 
The last band I was in that played there was a roots-rock trio. 
Among the stuff we were doing was about half a dozen 
Carl Perkins songs. Got there one night and the place was jumping. Packed! 
Western Merchandisers was having its yearly partay and the hotels were full. 
Well, we played the first set and I went to the bar, and a guy started asking me 
about my bass and being very complimentary about our song choice. He said he was 
a bass player and his name was Greg Perkins! I said, "your brother wouldn't 
happen to play drums, would he"? He laughed and said, "yeah, he'll be here in a 
minute". So, the rest of the night, we kept talking during breaks, and before 
they left, they told me to hang around after the gig and see what happens. Wink, 
wink! Sure enuff, everyone was gone except me and the bartender, and Carl 
Perkins and sons walked in. I walked up and shook hands and Carl invited me 
to breakfast  with them. One of the coolest things ever. One of the original Sun Gods!!


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