This year, we lost a great friend and musician, J.T. Bryan. When I was just barely a teenager...maybe...I met J.T. And, I'm not sure exactly where it was. J.T. and Joe Julian both lived in Paris and had a band. I think the name of it was "The Texas Playboys". "Play" as in playing Texas fiddle music! Another member of their band was Ross Whit from Honey Grove. That is probably how I came to first meet them. Ross lived just a couple of blocks from me in Honey Grove and played fiddle with J.T. and Joe. Somewhere along the way, they ask me to play banjo with them. I believe that I had my first FOUR STRING banjo at the time. Yes FOUR STRING! I had somehow learned to pick "five-string" banjo tunes on the "four", but it wasn't easy.
Before I knew it, I was playing with J.T., Joe, and Ross at county fairs and nursing homes. But, the most fun was traveling with them to places such as Bowie Texas (Jim Bowie Days) and several other towns that had fiddlin' contests at their local events. J.T. and Joe had a reputation for being some of the best accompanists in Texas when it came to playing Texas fiddle music. And I knew it first hand! I'm not sure how many times I've seen them accept "best" awards for their work with the fiddlers.
I remember driving to Paris as a teenager (got my hardship drivers license at an early age) and spending Saturday mornings at Frank Smith's filling station, just north of the square. There were always a handful of fiddlers and guitar pickers there for the Saturday morning jam. And after hearing every other guitar picker for MILES around, I know that J.T. was THE best rhythm player I've ever known.
In the recent years past, J.T. owned and operated the Paris Violin Shop. Some of my best memories will always be those of visiting J.T. on Saturday mornings and picking a few hours with the regulars who invariably dropped by to see him.
J.T. passed away on May 9 of this year. The music got a lot sweeter in heaven and went a little downhill here on earth...
In memory of J.T. Bryan
1927-2010
