From:  "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu May 13, 2004  1:32 am
Subject:  This Is My Story : Gary Bryant
 
GARY BRYANT (By Tony Wilkinson)

Born 11 May 1936, Spokane, Washington

Died 19 November 1999, Spokane, Washington

The death of country singer and songwriter Gary Bryant from the effects of a
brain tumour was reported on 19 November 1999. Whilst never in the top league,
he was held in high esteem by many of his colleagues, especially by Tillman
Franks - his one time manager -who has been quoted as saying that "Gary was one
of the best entertainers on the Louisiana Hayride, and he toured lots with
Johnny Horton".

Born 11 May 1936 in Spokane, Washington State, he started out in the music
business as the featured singer - at the age of 17 - with T Texas Tyler. He
subsequently joined the Hayride in 1956 and soon thereafter had two releases on
Decca Records followed by issues on the Starday and Mercury labels.

Whilst at the Hayride, he became friends with D J Fontana and also had the
unenviable task of closing the evening's performances - following directly on
from the final show at that venue by Elvis Presley. An experience that stayed
with throughout his life.

Bryant was also a gifted composer had had tunes cut by Donnie Young (aka Johnny
Paycheck), Ferlin Husky, Roger Miller. He nearly had the cut on the then latest
Ricky Nelson single in 1958 with the tune "I Can't Dance" which he had
co-composed with Merle Kilgore. The final decision on whether Ricky was to cut
the song was down to Ozzie Nelson but the evening before the meeting, Bryant
went out on the town with Faron Young and his manager and ended up selling the
song to the pair that night - for a reputed $50.00. (Faron Young went onto
record the title, one of Faron's few rock 'n' roll recordings). Nelson's
management decided a couple of days later to proceed with the song as his then
next single but of course it was now too late.

Gary recorded some rockabilly flavoured country for Jerry Dennon's Jerden
Records in the mid sixties but tiring of the road, he became a full time
broadcaster on both television and radio, ending up in his native Spokane region
where he linked up with childhood friends such as Bobby Wayne and Don Weise.
Upon retiring from this, he went back into live performances again and at the
time of his death was cutting a new album on which he was striving to get the
old sound of fast country and rockabilly.

An in depth interview between Gary and Ken Burke appears in the Winter 1999
issue of the American magazine "Blue Suede News" and covers many facets of his
career in depth. Five children and two sisters survive Bryant.

Sadly there is no compilation of Gary's material available. A suggestion to Bear
Family?