Randy Palmer, Amarillo

RANDY PALMER- Fighter By Nature (Roro 1011)

Texas has a reputation for turning out country infused singer songwriters... Townes Van Zandt, Butch Hancock, and the like. There was a period of time when those ssw's were heavily influenced by one John Denver as well. Randy Palmer, a definite lesser known in the annals of Texas singer/song writer-dom, was a bit more Denver, than country.

According to Randy he was in high school in Amarillo at the time he recorded Fighter By Nature. But very little of Fighter By Nature bears the influence of West Texas. The thoughts, ideas, and creativity on this release have the feel of peaks and pine, which don't exist naturally in the Panhandle area. Down our direction we like to play in the Sierra Blanca. Texans from up north of Lubbock tend to favor the Rockies. Though lo-fi in fidelity, Fighter By Nature makes up for it with a Rocky like grandeur. The album really does feel big, almost bigger than it could be. Not every idea on the album really comes across. But for a high school senior's debut album this is a fairly strong showing.

Roger Hale's Roro Records existed but just a short time, racking up additional releases by Don Guess and Don Walser. Releases on the Hereford-based label show the publishing company to be Whiteface, the name a small settlement just west of Lubbock.

Randy focused on his songwriting after high school, which took him to Nashville where he released one more album (a translated Japanese blogger's review of this album which was titled Calling Me Home can be found here HERE). He's still around working on his songs, and teaching folks how to do the same for themselves.