About Pat and Tex LaMountain
Have a seat, relax. How about a cup of tea?
BioA Few Miles Later?… They may be old but they’re not dead. Who says up and coming means young? There appears to be a new trend set by the likes of Pat and Tex LaMountain and such folk-world acts as Buskin and Batteau. Raise your kids, pay the last tuition bill and go on government support of the arts via social security! It works for me. Tex LaMountain was an early seventies music world “success” story – playing acoustic guitar and singing in Vanguard recording’s Clean Living, a country-folk-rock band. He left the band after a few years and teamed up with Pat DeCou, a western Massachusetts local singer-songwriter. The two performed a few years as a duo (winning Mt. Snow’s up and coming folk artist recognition in the summer of 1977 along the way). They released their first 33 rpm ALBUM of original songs in 1979 on the Rainbow Snake Records label: Down Here on the Earth. It was a regional effort and the duo never toured to promote it because soon after they teamed up with songwriter Charlie King and others to form Bright Morning Star, a nationally touring folk band. Pat & Tex left the group in 1980 to pursue their own music. They got married, moved to Santa Cruz, California where they were active performers and members of the Santa Cruz Songwriters Guild. They returned to western Mass. in 1982. They played regionally in a variety of bands and configurations, all the time writing and developing their specific blend of folk. In 1986 they released Home on their Garden Gate Recordings label. It featured eleven originals and a stunning jazzy piano arrangement of Home on the Range, featuring Leah Kunkel on harmony vocals. They are re-releasing Home as a CD in 2010. “It was never really shopped around because we were awarded over fifty grants to organize concerts of local songwriters,” says Pat. The LaMountains were parenting and working conventional jobs, keeping their fingers in the music but paying bills the old fashioned way with JOBS. Pat was director of a local theater and Finance Director of non-profits. Tex was a sales rep for a retail/wholesale firm.Their writing was developing. Pat got fed up with her guitar playing and quit but continued singing. She tried fiddle but the words and songs drew her in. They created a recording studio in their home. For a while the studio was run by well-known regional recording engineer and musician Joe Podlesny and often hired out by regional artists. In 1991 they released a cassette of Songs From Western Massachusetts – including songs from famous western Mass. songwriters like Arlo Guthrie, James Taylor, Buffy Ste Marie and Barbara Keith, plus a half dozen Pat & Tex originals. All along they worked with different musicians to hone their own sound. Their studio eventually became their own personal computer-based recording lab. They released a CD of originals and most often requested covers in 2007: A Few Good Hits to the Heart. Pat had an old recording project of her songs from the late 80’s that was recorded and performed by Joe Pod, their engineer – with drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitars. They decided to mix it, adding some harmony vocals and Tex added some lead guitar. They released this CD in October 2009: A Few Miles Later. Pat started playing guitar again and relearned all of these songs for the CD release party. Tex loved playing leads which her guitar playing made possible. His finger picking and acoustic strumming styles were getting noticed at blue grass and folk sessions. But the singer-songwriter music was what kept drawing them.Pat’s songs were more edgy and pop. She had confidence in her singing. After years of fluctuating, her guitar playing suddenly clicked and the synchronization of singing and playing began to blossom. Tex’s lead playing, balanced by his thoughtful, well-constructed melodies full of hooks and harmonies was catching the attention of his fellow songwriters in the Franklin County Musicians Cooperative that they helped launch in 2003. They played every summer at the Greenfield Energy Park Coop Concerts series, developing their sound. Then they ran into John White, a bass player who had a musical past reminiscent of Tex’s. The old standards were in his blood, the complexity of those jazz based songs and the melodies drew him in. He had played bass in his father’s big band since the age of nine until in his youth rock and roll took him into a different world. Tex was delighted to meet a bass player who had the rock sensitivity and training as well as the interest in more complex and melodic music. Both were elated to meet a soul brother in the music world. Suddenly the restaurant audiences could be seen air dancing in their booths. John’s bass was energizing the music and Pat & Tex were having a blast. John liked the quirky “acid folk” songs of Pat’s repertoire. He loved the hooks and melodies in Tex’s complex crafted songs. He was helping develop and arrange their music.
Tex and Pat
Pat and Tex