Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Metal Work of Gary Moreland

My dear friend Gary Moreland has been turning out some interesting items in his shop near Bonham Texas. After working for the Veterans Hospital for many years, he is now retired and has time to do some fun things in life. Gary has played and sung for the Bois d'Arc Bottom since 1976. His father was a great painter and I assume Gary learned a lot from his dad just as I did from mine.

Gary and his family lived across the street from me in Honey Grove Texas in the 1960's and 70's. He moved to Los Angeles for a period of time and eventually came back to Honey Grove just I was graduating from high school. That's when we starting playing music together, banjo and guitar. We eventually met up with some great musicians from Wolfe City and formed the Bois d'Arc Bottom Band.

Back to the story...  Gary is pretty good at coming up with fun projects and I wanted to share a couple of those recent items he created.

The first gift he created and gave to me was this metal creation that looks a lot like Buddy Emmons playing the steel guitar.  But, Gary has a story that goes along with it that reveals the item is actually me playing steel guitar (Big "B" instead of my hero and teacher, Buddy Emmons. Here's the story...

I went out to my shop and this dude was settin’ there pickin’ some mean steel geetar. He said “Hey, can you help me find the Big B?” I said you mean the Big E?” He said no, the Big B!! He said ” The Big B gota lotta Big E in him”. I said, “Heck I been knowin’ that for years. I said “I’ll just take you to him”. He said thanks pard, I’d appreciate that.” So, there ya go. Another adventure in the life of BW and G. Stay tuned for my next blog which will feature the unnamed guitar picker!  Could it actually be Gary?!