|
Published: August 21, 2008 02:33 pm
Life in song
No longer performing, Waurika’s Mayes wants lyrics to tell his story
Jeff Kaley
Waurika News-Democrat
WAURIKA —
“Nobody said (life) was going to be easy. At least, nobody said it to me.”
———
Larry Mayes can relate to the observation by Dan Galloway’s character in the 1983 movie ‘The Big Chill.’
Waurika resident Mayes isn’t looking for any sympathy. “Everybody has troubles,” he said. But Mayes has seen the hard side of the life journey and he knows the road can be rocky.
Thanks to music, however, Mayes has survived and is still trying to move forward.
Born in 1954, in an ambulance that was en route to Geronimo, Mayes is the youngest in a family of 10 children. A seventh son, he watched his parents, Jink and Edna, toil to provide the family with basic necessities and keep it together.
“They were both hard-workin’ people,” Mayes recalled. “My mother came across the Red River from Texas and her family settled up near Rush Springs. She had 10 kids, so she worked all day and all night to take care of us.
“My father was a farmer and he worked on ranches, and he worked cleanin’ clothes at Fort Chaffee. Then we ended up in Mansfield, Arkansas, because he went to work in a casket factory at Fort Smith. He worked there until he was 72.”
The Mayes family didn’t have much. It was a hard-scrabble way to grow up. But at an early age, Larry Mayes discovered a magical source that became his outlet as a child, and it’s helped him deal with life’s bends and twists ever since.
“I wrote my first song when I was 6, and I started playin’ guitar when I was 9, when one of my brothers gave me a 1950 Les Paul Gibson,” he revealed. “I’ve loved music ever since, and I’ve been playin’ a long time.
“I had a band in junior high and high school, and I used to listen to lots of country and Southern Rock, and I listened to James Taylor and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.
“Later on, I played in clubs around Ft. Smith and Lawton and Duncan and Wichita Falls for years.”
As Mayes moved into adulthood, music became the one constant as he came to understand the concept that life’s not always easy.
Now 54, he’s dealt with traumas large and small, and his health has been problematic, at best.
Twice married and the father of two boys, Mayes was staggered in 2003, when Matthew Mayes, the oldest son, was shot and killed in a senseless incident that remains somewhat a mystery.
Larry Mayes spent years moving from job to job; some good, some just enough to put food on the table. And health has been an issue for most of the 27 years he’s lived in southern Oklahoma.
“I had a good job at General Tool, but I hurt my back 1981, and I I’ve been on disability ever since,” he said.
In 2007, Mayes suffered the second of two heart attacks, and a few years ago, an answer was found that explained why Mayes has dealt with mood swings most of his adult life.
“I got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,” he said. “I don’t mind talkin’ about, because it’s just somethin’ I’ve got. And I’m OK as long as I’m taking my medication.”
The disorder, which stems from a chemical imbalance, was the main reason Mayes stopped playing live music just before the dawn of the 21st century.
“The last time I played in a club was in ’99, at the Branding Iron Club in Wichita Falls,” he said. “I got to where I couldn’t take bein’ on stage; it was like things would close in around me.”
Still intent on continuing to pursue music, in 2000 Mayes found a different way. He went back to Arkansas and hooked up with the band Gray Ghost. They went into the studio at Fat Rabbit Records in Van Buren and cut an album called “Written Down in Black & White.”
The CD featured Mayes on vocals and guitar, Gray Ghost members Jenks Smith and Scott Sartin, and Tom Ware and George Hugen, who produced the album.
With limited distribution, “Written Down in Black & White” didn’t sell well, but it received some air play on regional radio. The CD reveals that Larry Mayes can write a good song. His melodies roam from traditional country to Southern rock, and his lyrics are heartfelt and reflect a lot of traditional country themes, including broken relationships.
In a tune called “Time is a Healer,” Mayes sings:
“The fog is lifting slowly in the foothills of the Ozarks,
and the rivers are flowing softly today.
Time is barely creeping,
and the trees are gently swaying,
and I wish that I could see you some way.
“They say time is a healer,
but my heart is still breaking,
and I feel that life will end that way.
So I guess I’ll keep on trying
to live life to its fullest,
with these feelings of pain and dismay.”
Amongst the grief and broken hearts, Mayes also shows a sense of humor. “Wally World” is a country/rock fun song, in which Mayes bemoans the cash flow that a well known discount chain has siphoned from his wallet.
“Well she’s headed to Wally World again.
She’s gonna spend all the money she can spend.
She’s got her check and mine too.
Lord I don’t know what I’m gonna do,
She’s headed to Wally World again.
“Well it seems to me that I can never win.
She does this time and time again.
Lord, she’s given me the blues,
but I know what she’s gonna do,
she’ll be headed for Wally World again.”
Eight years after it was co-written with John Cunningham and recorded by Mayes and Gray Ghost, “Wally World” continues to get some local air play, as does the song “P.O.W.”
Among the 10 tunes are three songs — “The Great I Am,” “When the Water Rushes In” and “Light Shines” — that reveal Mayes’ deep faith.
Mayes writes:
“The Lord is almighty
and I’m saved by grace;
and it’s all because you
are the great I Am.
“There’s a time and place for everything,
the Lord is always the same.
and it’s all because you
are the great I Am.
“Oh, Lord, let me tell you
how much I love you,
and I humble myself before you
and I know your love is true.”
It’s easy to imagine any number of gospel groups or Christian bands turning Mayes’ spiritual songs into popular tunes. Same with several other songs on “Written Down In Black & White.”
And that’s where Mayes is on the musical journey. He wants to market songs from “Written Down I Black & White” and as well as a collection of new songs to music companies or active performers.
What he’d like to find is someone savvy in the promotion end of the business.
“I can’t perform anymore, my voice is shot and I have trouble bein’ around crowds,” Mayes said. “But I’d like to sell some of the old songs, and I’ve written some new songs I’d like to sell. I don’t really know how to go about that end of the business, so I need somebody to help do the leg work.
“I want to get back to pursuing the music again.”
Larry Mayes just wants his music to be heard.
|
|
|
Photos
|
|
|
Print this story
E-mail this story
