rom: howardsx
Date: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:27pm

SONNY FISHER
  	
Forwarded to me: from Houston Chronicle. I hadn't seen this elsewhere.

Therman "Sonny" Fisher, a rockabilly artist in Houston during the '50s, died
Oct. 8. He was 73. Fisher only made a few recordings with Starday Records in
Houston during the mid-'50s, most notably Rockin' Daddy and Hold Me Baby,
but he left a lasting impact in Europe.

With his trademark jaw-length sideburns and slick pompadour, Fisher embodied
the spirit of Texas rockabilly during its infancy to his many European fans.

"For Europeans, it was the first time they heard people like him," said
Jacky Chalard, of Big Beat Records in Paris. "Nobody in Europe had seen a
man like Sonny. That was magic for people in Europe."

Drawn to music
Fisher was born Nov. 13, 1931, in Chandler. His family later relocated to
Tacoma, Wash., but Fisher moved back to Texas, settling in Houston.

He was drawn to music by his father, who played guitar and sang cowboy
songs. Fisher eventually would start his own band, playing hillbilly music.

Later, he would say, the band became influenced by Joe Turner, Fats Domino
and B.B. King. He also became an early fan of Elvis Presley and saw him at
the Texas Korral in Houston.

Fisher was signed by Jack Starnes of Starday Records, who saw him perform at
the Cosy Corner in Houston. Starnes was a business partner of H.W. "Pappy"
Daily, who later recorded the Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson and George Jones.

His first recording session was in early January 1955 at Bill Quinn's
Goldstar Studio in Houston.

Nicknamed the "Wild Man From Texas" Fisher was an original rockabilly,
Chalard said.

Fisher never achieved great fame in the U.S., Chalard said, because he was
never able to move beyond a regional recording label. But his career was
revived in the 1980s when he was invited by rockabilly fans in England and
then France.

"For a man never going on stage since the '50s, he was great," Chalard said.
"Everybody said to me the voice of the chap is like a kid of 21 years old."

Fisher would later record an album with Sleepy LaBeef in Spain in 1993 with
the Spanish group, Los Solitarios.

While in France during the early '80s, Chalard said Fisher stayed at his
home and appeared on French television.

Chalard produced an album, Texas Rockabilly Period by Fisher at his Davoust
Studios in Paris.

Last encounter

Chalard last saw Fisher in 1982 or 1983 when they parted at an airport in
Paris. He said Fisher planned to return to France because he believed he
still had a lot to offer there.

"He said, 'I'll telephone you,' and never heard from him again," Chalard
said. "We shaked hands and he called me, 'son.' "

Chalard said he repeatedly tried to track down Fisher. Concert promoters in
France were eager to book him. But he was never able to reach him and
assumed he had died in the more than 20 years since their last encounter.

"In one week (after he left) we don't have any more news. I tried to contact
people in America," Chalard said. "Sonny is like a gypsy man, he changed his
house all the time. It was impossible to contact him."

Survivors include three daughters, Vickie Daigle; Kimberlerly Eason; and
Felisha Evans; four sons, Gary Bennett Fisher; Tony Wayne Fisher; Gordon B.
Fisher; and Wendell C. Fisher; a sister, Judy Webber; and two brothers,
Charles Frieley; and Carl Frieley; nine grandchildren; and seven great
grandchildren.

Services were Thursday at Brookside Funeral Home. Burial was at Brookside
Memorial Park.