From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Feb 17, 2003  1:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Johnny Bush
 
JOHNNY BUSH

Born John Bush Shin III, 17 February 1935, Houston, Texas

Country singer / songwriter / guitarist / drummer.
With a vocal style reminiscent of Ray Price, Bush enjoyed minor chart
success between 1968 and 1981 on Stop Records and RCA Records
as well as various independent labels.

Bush began his professional career in San Antonio in the early fifties.
He made his first (rockabilly influenced) records in 1958 for the Allstar 
label, In My World All Alone/ You've Said That Before and Your Kind 
Of Love / I Should Have Known. One of the early Texas bands he joined
(as a drummer) also included Willie Nelson, then still an aspiring recording
artist. In the 1960s Bush became a member of the Record Men, one of
Nelson's early road bands. Bush soon moved on to join Ray Price's band,
the Cherokee Cowboys, for three years. After several failed attempts to get
a solo record deal, Bush was helped by Willie Nelson, who paid for him to
cut his first album, Sound of a Heartache. In 1968 Bush recorded his own
first Top 10 single, "Undo the Right", on the Stop label. His "You Gave Me
A Mountain" (a Marty Robbins composition) reached # 7 on the country
charts in 1969. However, Bush's most enduring claim to fame is probably
the song "Whiskey River", which he wrote and had a # 14 hit with in 1972 ;
it became Willie Nelson's signature song later.

Just as Bush reached the brink of stardom, he started to lose his vocal range.
Doctors were not able to diagnose the reason until 1978, when they found 
he had a rare neurological disorder, spastic dysphonia. This did not prevent
his recording, but his career soon took a downturn. Working with "voice 
builder" Gary Catona in 1985, Bush was able to bring back about 70% of
his original voice. The following year he and Darrell McCall teamed up to
record the successful honky-tonk album Hot Texas Country. He then
assembled a large country band and began performing around San Antonio.
In 1994, he and the band released Time Changes Everything and launched
a major tour; RCA also released a greatest hits album. 

Representative recordings:
Greatest Hits (RCA, 2 CD-set, 1994).
Talk To My Heart (Watermelon, 1998).