"It's a long, long way From Tennessee to Texas…" That's a line from an old Johnny Bush song, the one where he scats along with the fiddle player, Johnny Gimble... You see the song is about a singer who goes to Nashville and after getting the door slammed in his face a hundred times he's forced to hitchhike back to Texas with his thumb in the air. The only difference between that song and the Roger Wallace story is that Roger bypassed Nashville altogether and went straight to Texas. Roger got to Austin in the summer of '94 after leaving the town of Knoxville, Tennessee behind. He landed a job at Antone's Records due to the fact that he'd been a blues DJ for four years back home. He had many influences musically growing up, traditional country was around the house thanks to Mom and Dad. Often, Blues and Rockabilly bands came to town and it was in the audience of these roots cats that Roger decided that music was his destiny. Initially Roger, like most kids, resisted "the Parents'" music but when he actually began listening to Country Music like Hank Williams and Willie Nelson, well, that gave Roger the inspiration to explore that area of his creativity to the delight of music fans everywhere. Besides, who knew that by the time he got here the Blues Scene would be reduced to Antone's Blue Monday, Sunday jams on 6th street, and only a few really good bands? In fact, the Country Music Scene in Austin was just starting to take off in the post-Henry's era. Bands like The Derailers and Ted Roddy's Tearjoint Troubadors were just starting out and Junior Brown was starting to gain major notoriety. Luckily, around the same time Roger moved here from Tennessee another superb talent, Jim Stringer was pulling up in the van from Lawrence Kansas. (To tell the truth some other local honky tonkers seemed to heed the "Hillbilly Bat Signal" that summer as upright bassist Sharon Ward came down with Jim, as well as the legendary guitarist and drummer newlyweds David and Karen Biller from Indiana, and myself from Oklahoma City as well.) Well, Jim was the first to host a jam for Traditional Country and Rockabilly players in town called the Roots Hoot. I remember the night Roger first got up to sing, he did Roy Brown's "Boogie at Midnight" and the jaws just dropped. From there the seeds were sown and Roger began to put together the bands that would eventually lead him to where he is today. Two CD's and a thousand gigs later Roger has spread the Traditional Country gospel all over the states and Europe and people are beginning to take notice. But why stop there? To a guy like Roger there's no such thing as enough good music so he can also be found performing with Teri Joyce (one of Austin's finest songwriters) and the Tagalongs and with The Lowells. The Lowells are a unique band in Austin in that it's the only country band that sports three part harmony singing on almost every song courtesy of Roger, Michael Heil and Bill Bailey. The Lowells are rounded out by Timmy "The Top Cat" Campbell on drums, "Sweet" Gary Newcomb on lead guitar, and myself Shaan "The Pickin' Paniolo" Shirazi on bass. The story won't end here though, keep coming back to the site to keep up to date on Roger 's tours, recordings, and other projects. If you haven't yet heard Roger, try to catch him when he comes to your town or pick up a CD and enjoy it for the rest of your life. -- Shaan Shirazi "The Pickin' Paniolo"