Royce Porter, Sweetwater

Major thank you to Little Danny of the greatly missed Office Naps who sent this disc on to me just this week... muchly appreciated!


ROYCE PORTER - Yes I Do (Look 1001)

Located an hour west of Abilene and just beyond the foothills of the Edwards Plateau Sweetwater is probably most noteworthy as the site of the infamous Rattlesnake Roundup held each spring as well as its growing importance in the production of wind power. Personally I've always enjoyed the town's red brick paved streets and laid back 'good ol' days' feel. La familia Westex has actually put it on our list of summer vacation "to do's". Don't know that I'd necessarily want to live there, but it's certainly an a-ok place to spend an afternoon.

The number of artists to have come out of Sweetwater is slim. It might or might not include Starday hillbilly Buddy Shaw ("Don't Sweep That Dirt On Me", "No More"... both high on the Westex want list). But the short list definitely includes the prolific Elmer Ray Doggett and Royce Porter.

While Porter is a busy man these days, reaping the rewards and fruits of songwriting in Music City he certainly had to dig some pretty deep trenches to get there. His story originally appeared in a Goldmine article from 1983 by Adriaan Sturm titled "Rockabilly Turned Nashville Songwriter" and Strum retold the story on the Redita release Rockabilly Meeting. The Goldmine article included the following quote, which also appeared in Vol. 11 of Bear Family's That'll Flat... Git It! series:

"Rock n' roll didn't start happening for most white people, especially in Texas, until Elvis broke loose." -Royce Porter

Like so many other kids Royce Porter tuned in to the Louisiana Hayride Saturday after Saturday to get an earful of Elvis. In June of 1955 Elvis played his first and only gig in the town of Sweetwater and I have little doubt that Royce and his buddy Ray were both there, mesmerized by the greasy headed kid from Memphis. And not too long after graduating high school, inspired by the success of the new star Louisiana Hayride the pair of Sweetwater boys lit out for the Houston area where they quickly got caught up with the infamous Bennie Hess. Doggett cut a couple of singles for Bennie's new rock n' roll label Spade, debuting in 1956 with the rocker "Go Go Heart". Royce followed a few months later with the moody hiccupin' shuffler "A Woman Can Make You Blue" on Spade 1931. It was while touring Texas radio stations and promoting their own Spade releases that they met Mr. Pappy Dailey of Starday records.

Porter was placed in a Fort Worth studio in mid-'57. History just reports the back-up as being Slim Willet's right hand man Dean Beard on piano and a local group, renamed the Kounts, performing back up vocals. Dailey took publishing on both "Yes I Do" (written by Doggett) and "Our Perfect Romance" and had the songs placed on a new Mercury label tie-in called Look. "Yes I Do" is busy bopper that has a lot to look at, if you dig. There's so much going that ol' Dean Beard is almost nowhere to be found until halfway through the break. But who was that guitarist?

Though panned in Billboard the disc did develop into some type of minor hit. The Kounts became a de facto Jordanaires and they and Porter got around just a bit off the 45's short success. It was enough to get Porter placed on Mercury proper for his next release. And then he was back with Dailey on the D label for one last release, "Lookin'". For whatever reason, Dailey released the single while Royce Porter was navy'd up with Uncle Sam meaning the effort stood little chance at success.

After serving out his tour Royce returned to Sweetwater to preach for a few years but by the mid-60s he was at again. While he didn't find a hit for himself on either Houston based FED records or as part of the Tear Drop label duo The Brothers-In-Law (produced by Ray Doggett) he did find his groove as songwriter.

Since the 70s Royce Porter has racked up a nice string of hits for himself. Most famous of the bunch is the huge 80s classic "Ocean Front Property", on which Porter carries a third of the songwriting. Thirty-three percent of a George Strait tune is a nice chunka change.

More info about Royce Porter, as well pictures, can be found on Marijn Raaijmakers' excellent Black Cat Rockabilly website HERE.