J. GALE AND THE GAMES- A Million Nothings b/w Suds (Eyeball Records 1007)
Passing through Big Spring, Texas on Interstate 20 one would be hard pressed to imagine it as a music city. In the early 50s Big Spring's Ace of Clubs was home to a young and unknown Lefty Frizzell. The Hoyle & Ben Nix clan used the city and their Stampede dance hall as a hub for their western swing outfit, the West Texas Cowboys. While DJ'ing at Big Spring station KHEM Hank Harral (stomped HERE by the host of Pueblo City Limits, Lisa Wheeler) ran 20 someodd releases on his Caprock label. And from the late 50s up through 1968 Ben Hall was recording all sorts of sounds at his High Fidelity House studio. As Ben was moving out, J. Gale Kilgore was just about to get started.
Born and raised in Big Spring J. Gale Kilgore's first taste of the stage came at a high school talent show in 1957 singing "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", while beating out the tempo out on the backside of a flattop guitar. Influenced by country music- his elder brother was actually a bouncer at the Ace of Clubs during Lefty's tenure there- and the exploding sounds of r&B stylists like Fats Domino J wanted to sing. On bus rides to area football games, he would entertain his teammates with the sounds of the day. For many a kid of that era, those little events would have all come together creating an opportunity for a life in music.
But J. Gale graduated in '58 and headed down the street to Howard Country Junior College, finishing up two years later. Then it was off to Houston for more school and a degree in optometry, marriage, and a stretch in Vietnam, where he earned a bronze star. It was while overseas that J finally learned to play guitar, a talent he put to use at the local VA hospital after his return in 1968.
After opening up his practice J. also got down to getting more serious about music. Writing his first two songs in 1970, "Suds" and "A Million Nothings", he and the Games- Easy Ezell on lead guitar, drummer Mickey Harshman, and Joe Johnson on bass- headed west to a Midland studio to record the first of what would be a handful of releases on J's own Eyeball Records.
After an introductory call to guzzle- if I may swipe a phrase- the Games barrel in with a bass driven ode to bottled courage and liquid excess. The fratty style belies the 1970 recording date... if anything "Suds" is more of a surfy, 'dawn of the English invasion' sound than it is a contemporary to Three Dog Night or Carpenters.
On the flip of "Suds" was J. second composition, "A Million Nothings", a marriage of 60s honky tonk and a garagey thud. It's a fitting mood for a such a desperate song. Actually... "Million Nothings" isn't desperate... it's way past that.Though he continued with releases on Eyeball through the 70s, J. and his band also branched out into television with his own weekly show on Midland's KMID-TV. Here's a clip of J. singing along to "I Sure Do Miss You Tonight" (released on Eyeball 1011), arguably the best record Charlie Pride never cut.
J. soldiers on today. He still has a full time optometry practice in Big Spring. His Youtube channel (HERE) gives him an audience far beyond that of regional radio stations and through the Eyeball Records website he offers up songwriter demo help as well as his own recorded works. J's got a spot over at cdbaby as well.
