Gene Kelton
Encyclopedia
Gene Kelton was an American
guitarist
, harmonica
player and singer-songwriter
, based in Houston, Texas
. He played Americana
, blues-rock
, Southern rock
and rockabilly
music.
, United States
, his mother sang gospel music
on the radio. She divorced his ne'er-do-well father when he was six. Afterward they lived with his grandfather, a cotton plantation share cropper. On weekends he listened to down-home blues in a dirt-floored juke joint. His step father, Bob Allbritton, who played rock and roll
guitar then in a manner, as it can be said that Conway Twitty, sang country songs, exposed Kelton to all types of music. His mother bought him a Sears Silvertone guitar at the age of ten, and they moved to Texas where he formed his first band, The Moven Shadows. Following a serious motorcycle accident, he played with several cover bands until "giving up" music after his first marriage. It took years of moving through various jobs, getting back into music after a divorce, and trying for a few years to get together a band, going through what he called "the worst of the worst" musicians, before he finally formed The Gene Kelton Band with bass player A. J. Fee and drummer Russel Shelby, around the time of a national blues revival sparked by Stevie Ray Vaughan
. Kelton has been a full-time musician since 1983, when he began playing for tips in bars after losing his DJ job while newlywed in his second marriage and, in desperate straits, trying to support his unemployed bride and two sons from his previous marriage. While publishing Texas Blues magazine in the early 1990s, he lost everything but the rights to his songs in his second divorce. The band went through another name, The Love Buzzards, before fans called them "die hards" for playing long sessions in the hot sun suggesting their final revision. Finally, a demo tape played on KPFT helped Kelton raise enough money to release his first album. Another musician saying, "Gene you play a really mean guitar," led to his nickname and the title of the group's second album.
Band).
In December 1999, he released his first blues CD (Jambone Records), Most Requested
. The album was quickly picked up by several Houston Radio stations, occupying the #1 call-in request on some of these stations. In addition to radio coverage, which garnered him mainly local attention, his popularity spread online through such sites as mp3.com
where various songs from Most Requested remained at the top 10 for two years. Kelton's making his music available for download on the internet has resulted in a listener base spanning the globe with over 150 radio stations around the world carrying his music and an average of over 150,000 hits per month on his website. In 2003, he released his second blues CD Mean Guitar
. In 2007, Kelton released Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis
, a tribute to the Elvis Presley
, recorded in Sun Studios.
, with lyrics that taken literally are perfectly benign. Such songs include: "The Avon Man", "Let Me Pump Your Gas", and "Two Thangs". Others are a little more overt in their sexuality, such as "The Texas City Dyke", "My Blow Up Lover", and, his most well-known tune, "My Baby Don't Wear No Panties", which Kelton began improvising to the tune of "Mean Mistreater" in 1988 when, after a drunken girl jumped up on a bar table, ripped off her shirt and began dancing, a guy yelled out, "That ain't nothing, my baby don't wear no panties." Eventually it evolved into the current audience participation version with fans shouting, "How do you know?" after each chorus. Discovering how audiences respond to songs with sexual innuendos, Kelton really caught their attention by beginning "The Texas City Dyke", "She's got tattoos on her titties." Gradually he developed this into his song by using all the jokes he had heard about this landmark fishing dyke.
Some of his songs have a more pained or melancholy feeling to them. Examples are the nostalgic songs "Cruisin' Texas Avenue" and "Leaving Paradise". Another common theme in several of his songs is the power of the blues. Songs like "Sweet Mother Blues" and "If Everybody Loved The Blues", extol blues music as having remarkable properties, like being able to end war and having "almighty healin' powers".
Many of his songs use alliteration
in their lyrics. Some alliterative lines include "Sweetest song we ever sang was in each others arms" and "Sowed my seeds in search of truth". His songs also contain lots of image
ry.
Self-described as a performing "black leather blues and redneck rock 'n roll," Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards have been called by ReverbNation "one of the top Biker Rally and Blues Festival headliner acts."
in Crosby, Texas
, two days before he was due to perform on New Years Eve at Rowdy Buck's in Crosby, Texas
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
player and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, based in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. He played Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
, blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
, Southern rock
Southern rock
Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...
and rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
music.
Blues roots
Born Sidney Eugene Kelton, in Booneville, MississippiBooneville, Mississippi
Booneville is a city in Prentiss County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 8,625 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Prentiss County....
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, his mother sang gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
on the radio. She divorced his ne'er-do-well father when he was six. Afterward they lived with his grandfather, a cotton plantation share cropper. On weekends he listened to down-home blues in a dirt-floored juke joint. His step father, Bob Allbritton, who played rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
guitar then in a manner, as it can be said that Conway Twitty, sang country songs, exposed Kelton to all types of music. His mother bought him a Sears Silvertone guitar at the age of ten, and they moved to Texas where he formed his first band, The Moven Shadows. Following a serious motorcycle accident, he played with several cover bands until "giving up" music after his first marriage. It took years of moving through various jobs, getting back into music after a divorce, and trying for a few years to get together a band, going through what he called "the worst of the worst" musicians, before he finally formed The Gene Kelton Band with bass player A. J. Fee and drummer Russel Shelby, around the time of a national blues revival sparked by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
. Kelton has been a full-time musician since 1983, when he began playing for tips in bars after losing his DJ job while newlywed in his second marriage and, in desperate straits, trying to support his unemployed bride and two sons from his previous marriage. While publishing Texas Blues magazine in the early 1990s, he lost everything but the rights to his songs in his second divorce. The band went through another name, The Love Buzzards, before fans called them "die hards" for playing long sessions in the hot sun suggesting their final revision. Finally, a demo tape played on KPFT helped Kelton raise enough money to release his first album. Another musician saying, "Gene you play a really mean guitar," led to his nickname and the title of the group's second album.
Die Hard career
In 1992 he named his current band The Die Hards, under which name they have been playing ever since. At the time of his death Kelton was playing with drummer Ted McCumber and bass guitarist Ed Starkey( who has played with such names as the Dottie WestDottie West
Dottie West was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists...
Band).
In December 1999, he released his first blues CD (Jambone Records), Most Requested
Most Requested
Most Requested is the debut album for "Mean" Gene Kelton and the Die Hards. It was released in 2000 by Jambone Records. It contains 15 of the most requested songs from the band's live performances.-Track listing:All Tracks by Mean Gene Kelton...
. The album was quickly picked up by several Houston Radio stations, occupying the #1 call-in request on some of these stations. In addition to radio coverage, which garnered him mainly local attention, his popularity spread online through such sites as mp3.com
MP3.com
MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...
where various songs from Most Requested remained at the top 10 for two years. Kelton's making his music available for download on the internet has resulted in a listener base spanning the globe with over 150 radio stations around the world carrying his music and an average of over 150,000 hits per month on his website. In 2003, he released his second blues CD Mean Guitar
Mean Guitar
Mean Guitar is the second album for "Mean" Gene Kelton and the Die Hards. It was released in 2003 by JamBone Records. It contains 15 songs that are "hotter than a welder's arc, fusing together Chuck Berry/Johnny Winter/Albert Collins and Delta Blues influences into one molten melting pot of...
. In 2007, Kelton released Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis
Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis
Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis is the third album for "Mean" Gene Kelton and the Die Hards. It was released in 2007 by JamBone Records. It contains 13 songs that are licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises in Los Angeles, California. All thirteen songs were recorded in a row,...
, a tribute to the Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, recorded in Sun Studios.
Style
Kelton's songs are most notable for powerful guitar and lyrics that range from emotional to raunchy. His raunchier songs often use innuendoInnuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...
, with lyrics that taken literally are perfectly benign. Such songs include: "The Avon Man", "Let Me Pump Your Gas", and "Two Thangs". Others are a little more overt in their sexuality, such as "The Texas City Dyke", "My Blow Up Lover", and, his most well-known tune, "My Baby Don't Wear No Panties", which Kelton began improvising to the tune of "Mean Mistreater" in 1988 when, after a drunken girl jumped up on a bar table, ripped off her shirt and began dancing, a guy yelled out, "That ain't nothing, my baby don't wear no panties." Eventually it evolved into the current audience participation version with fans shouting, "How do you know?" after each chorus. Discovering how audiences respond to songs with sexual innuendos, Kelton really caught their attention by beginning "The Texas City Dyke", "She's got tattoos on her titties." Gradually he developed this into his song by using all the jokes he had heard about this landmark fishing dyke.
Some of his songs have a more pained or melancholy feeling to them. Examples are the nostalgic songs "Cruisin' Texas Avenue" and "Leaving Paradise". Another common theme in several of his songs is the power of the blues. Songs like "Sweet Mother Blues" and "If Everybody Loved The Blues", extol blues music as having remarkable properties, like being able to end war and having "almighty healin' powers".
Many of his songs use alliteration
Alliteration
In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...
in their lyrics. Some alliterative lines include "Sweetest song we ever sang was in each others arms" and "Sowed my seeds in search of truth". His songs also contain lots of image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
ry.
Self-described as a performing "black leather blues and redneck rock 'n roll," Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards have been called by ReverbNation "one of the top Biker Rally and Blues Festival headliner acts."
Death
Kelton was killed on December 28, 2010, when his SUV collided head-on with a school busSchool bus
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...
in Crosby, Texas
Crosby, Texas
Crosby is a census-designated place in Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,714 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Crosby is located at ....
, two days before he was due to perform on New Years Eve at Rowdy Buck's in Crosby, Texas
Crosby, Texas
Crosby is a census-designated place in Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,714 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Crosby is located at ....
.
Discography
- Most RequestedMost RequestedMost Requested is the debut album for "Mean" Gene Kelton and the Die Hards. It was released in 2000 by Jambone Records. It contains 15 of the most requested songs from the band's live performances.-Track listing:All Tracks by Mean Gene Kelton...
(1999) - Mean GuitarMean GuitarMean Guitar is the second album for "Mean" Gene Kelton and the Die Hards. It was released in 2003 by JamBone Records. It contains 15 songs that are "hotter than a welder's arc, fusing together Chuck Berry/Johnny Winter/Albert Collins and Delta Blues influences into one molten melting pot of...
(2003) - Going Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To ElvisGoing Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To ElvisGoing Back To Memphis: A Biker Band Tribute To Elvis is the third album for "Mean" Gene Kelton and the Die Hards. It was released in 2007 by JamBone Records. It contains 13 songs that are licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises in Los Angeles, California. All thirteen songs were recorded in a row,...
(2007) - The Lost Sessions - unpublished but available at shows