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"There's just a few people
that call themselves stars
can actually sit down with a
guitar and sing you a song"
-- "Merle Haggard" --
that call themselves stars
can actually sit down with a
guitar and sing you a song"
-- "Merle Haggard" --
Odessa American - Lifestyles - 8/26/05
Feeling Haggard?
Former Odessan opens for Merle Haggard on Sept. 7
By Jennifer Edwards
Odessa American
September 7 marks a banner outlaw day for one former Odessan as well as fantastic
tunes for thousands of Dallas fans.
That’s the day country singer, songwriter and guitar-player Coby McDonald, born and
partially reared in Odessa, will play with one of his biggest influences: Merle Haggard.
McDonald, now a Dallas resident, will open for the famous country patriarch Sept. 7 at
Southern Junction, one of Dallas’ “A-list” clubs.
McDonald, as can be expected, is thrilled.
“The management decided they wanted me to open up for him,” he said. “I was
ecstatic. I almost fell out of my chair.”
Dallas may be where McDonald gets his biggest break, but The Ranch in Midland is
where he’ll be on stage tonight and Saturday.
And Odessa is still where he cut his teeth.
Born in Odessa to Odessa High graduate Verna McDonald and Permian graduate Mike
McDonald, the budding country musician lived here with his parents and sister, Jody,
until he was 11, when his dad got transferred to Dallas.
Up until then McDonald, now 30, was getting Odessa schooling on classic country.
“My whole passion for country music came from there,” he said. “My grandma and
grandpa had country music on all the time.
“They had a radio on the icebox, and I remember sitting on the floor with him showing
me pictures of Hank Williams Sr., George Jones and Lefty Frizzell,” McDonald
remembered.
And it was in Odessa that he got his start in music.
He was 6 when his grandfather got him that first guitar, and he was 10 when he played
— really played, not just thumped — his first piano, Mike McDonald said.
His dad remembers him as a kid who just picked music right up.
“Back when that show ‘Hill Street Blues’ came on, he could hear the song and just
started banging it out on the piano,” Mike McDonald said. “We were just blown away.
He has a natural ear for music.”
That natural ear was fed often and richly, his dad said.
“Coby was raised up listening to country music,” he said. “I always got Coby backstage
with Moe Bandy or Charlie Pride or Charlie Daniels. Moe Bandy was a big attraction
when Coby was little.”
Folks like Charlie Daniels and Merle Haggard represent the type of music Coby
McDonald now wants to make a name reviving: Outlaw Country.
“Guys like Waylon and Merle Haggard were huge heroes,” he said. “They were the
reasons I wanted a guitar and wanted to do country music.
“To this day, the thing I love most is the outlaw country.”
McDonald said he’s written a tribute to Haggard and his ilk.
“I just wrote a new song called ‘Bringing Outlaw Country Back Again,’ ” he said.
That’s become McDonald’s mission statement of sorts, he said.
Even though he’s had some commercial success, placing first in a battle of the bands
concert and regaling a crowd of about 15,000 at 2003’s Lonestar Biker Bash, he said
he’s not intending to go Nashville.
“I’m going with an independent label, following the way that a lot of Texas country acts
have gone,” he said. “Nashville is great, but only if I can do music my way, from what
comes from inside of me.
“I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter, overproduced product. I want to do stuff I can believe
in,” he said.
No matter how big he gets, he’ll still be back to visit Odessa, he said.
“I still consider Odessa home,” he said. “Grandmothers and aunts and uncles still live
there and mom had me and my sister there.
“My heart is still in Odessa.”
Some Odessan’s hearts are still with him.
“I couldn’t be happier, I tell you,” his grandmother Neva Clanton said. “We’re all excited
about it.”
http://www.oaoa.com/lifestyle/life082605a.htm
Former Odessan opens for Merle Haggard on Sept. 7
By Jennifer Edwards
Odessa American
September 7 marks a banner outlaw day for one former Odessan as well as fantastic
tunes for thousands of Dallas fans.
That’s the day country singer, songwriter and guitar-player Coby McDonald, born and
partially reared in Odessa, will play with one of his biggest influences: Merle Haggard.
McDonald, now a Dallas resident, will open for the famous country patriarch Sept. 7 at
Southern Junction, one of Dallas’ “A-list” clubs.
McDonald, as can be expected, is thrilled.
“The management decided they wanted me to open up for him,” he said. “I was
ecstatic. I almost fell out of my chair.”
Dallas may be where McDonald gets his biggest break, but The Ranch in Midland is
where he’ll be on stage tonight and Saturday.
And Odessa is still where he cut his teeth.
Born in Odessa to Odessa High graduate Verna McDonald and Permian graduate Mike
McDonald, the budding country musician lived here with his parents and sister, Jody,
until he was 11, when his dad got transferred to Dallas.
Up until then McDonald, now 30, was getting Odessa schooling on classic country.
“My whole passion for country music came from there,” he said. “My grandma and
grandpa had country music on all the time.
“They had a radio on the icebox, and I remember sitting on the floor with him showing
me pictures of Hank Williams Sr., George Jones and Lefty Frizzell,” McDonald
remembered.
And it was in Odessa that he got his start in music.
He was 6 when his grandfather got him that first guitar, and he was 10 when he played
— really played, not just thumped — his first piano, Mike McDonald said.
His dad remembers him as a kid who just picked music right up.
“Back when that show ‘Hill Street Blues’ came on, he could hear the song and just
started banging it out on the piano,” Mike McDonald said. “We were just blown away.
He has a natural ear for music.”
That natural ear was fed often and richly, his dad said.
“Coby was raised up listening to country music,” he said. “I always got Coby backstage
with Moe Bandy or Charlie Pride or Charlie Daniels. Moe Bandy was a big attraction
when Coby was little.”
Folks like Charlie Daniels and Merle Haggard represent the type of music Coby
McDonald now wants to make a name reviving: Outlaw Country.
“Guys like Waylon and Merle Haggard were huge heroes,” he said. “They were the
reasons I wanted a guitar and wanted to do country music.
“To this day, the thing I love most is the outlaw country.”
McDonald said he’s written a tribute to Haggard and his ilk.
“I just wrote a new song called ‘Bringing Outlaw Country Back Again,’ ” he said.
That’s become McDonald’s mission statement of sorts, he said.
Even though he’s had some commercial success, placing first in a battle of the bands
concert and regaling a crowd of about 15,000 at 2003’s Lonestar Biker Bash, he said
he’s not intending to go Nashville.
“I’m going with an independent label, following the way that a lot of Texas country acts
have gone,” he said. “Nashville is great, but only if I can do music my way, from what
comes from inside of me.
“I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter, overproduced product. I want to do stuff I can believe
in,” he said.
No matter how big he gets, he’ll still be back to visit Odessa, he said.
“I still consider Odessa home,” he said. “Grandmothers and aunts and uncles still live
there and mom had me and my sister there.
“My heart is still in Odessa.”
Some Odessan’s hearts are still with him.
“I couldn’t be happier, I tell you,” his grandmother Neva Clanton said. “We’re all excited
about it.”
http://www.oaoa.com/lifestyle/life082605a.htm
| Coby McDonald Band |