Urban Tulsa Weekly, August 19-25, 2004,
O MY GARDE! The Willie Cry boys are swarming with activity.
by Jeremy Charles
Spread the work of Brett Horton across a table and you won't see the same personality twice. He's a musician, author, illustrator, filmmaker and prankster. When Horton started his own record label just months ago, he added yet another ball to an already dizzying juggling act.
Willie Cry Records, the brainchild of Horton and friend, Lance Grover, is really more a coterie than a record label. For years, Horton and Grover strove to find a way to bring together the diverse talents of their friends. "We really just wanted a stamp to put on our own work," says Horton.
With independent record labels popping up and burning out like fireflies on a summer night, many struggle to succeed. But the definition of success is largely in the eye of the beholder. For Willie Cry Records, being visible on the local/regional musical landscape was always the true goal. They aren't clawing for national attention. In fact, they aren't looking for validation from anyone but themselves, which makes Willie Cry a refreshingly pure endeavor.
Both Horton and Grover are native Oklahomans with deep roots in Ponca City, the oft-forgotten town where the 'Twenties Still Roar.' They refer to it affectionately as 'Ponca' and speak of the city more like a friend than a place on the lonely prairie.
The name of their record label is taken from a play, "The Gift of Willie Cry", written by Earl Sutton, who happens to be Horton's long time neighbor and family friend. Willie Cry, Horton explains, is an important figure in Ponca City history. He was purportedly the first Indian to lease his land to eager white settlers seeking to tap into the vast oil reserves below tribal lands.
The result would permanently transform the Ponca City area, opening the floodgates for the great Oil Boom, which brought highfalutin' American culture to the city's doorstep with outlandish parties, wild new music, and the influence of Vaudeville. Whether it is conscious or not, the identity of their hometown undeniably shapes the music and art of Horton and Grover.
The list of their projects is frenetic and multifaceted. It's no exaggeration to say that the guys of Willie Cry fly by the seat of their pants. In talking with them, one realizes that their history has been written by the twists of happenstance, and sometimes just dumb luck. Take for example, one of their first bands together, Rock Party.
"We knew it was a stupid name," says Grover, with a mischievous gleam in his eye, "and we were really bad at the time." They decided to experiment and see how poorly they could play and still draw a crowd. What began in jest ended up taking on a life of its own.
Soon, Rock Party was playing for packed crowds as the house band for the 'V' in Ponca City, when a sponsorship from Coors fell into their lap. "They brought in the Coors Light girls and everything," says Grover. The 'V' was really the local VFW that had been annexed by a drove of young hipsters.
It was then that the trail of serendipitous successes began. A short film they made several years ago entitled "The Night They Dropped It" surfaced once in an Austin screening room to a receptive audience, unbeknownst to both Horton and Grover. The only copy had disappeared years earlier in the clutches of sticky-fingered pals. "Our friends steal our things," says Horton with a shrug and a laugh. There are no hard feelings about it - that's just the way they operate.
A synergistic energy drives them to perpetually reinvent themselves. When their body of work is examined as a whole, it seems purposefully disparate. But nothing could be further from the truth. "We don't sit down and say 'Let's do something different'. We just do what we like to do," says Grover.
And what they like to do is change - constantly. They've been pop-rockers, pranksters, actors, philosopher-poets, and even vaudeville showmen. The catalog of their oddball experiments grows almost daily.
"We used to sit at the Cornerstone café," a local greasy spoon in Ponca City, "and get hopped up on coffee," says Grover. There they would share wild ideas and weird stories. At one of these rap sessions, Horton proposed an elaborate rock show performed with mock-vaudevillian spectacle theatrics and song. "It got so big that we couldn't possibly pull it off live," says Grover.
But the concept lived, eventually becoming the album 'Legends of Voddville' by Horton and Grover's band, The Gardes. Listening to this 2003 release from Willie Cry Records conjures images of Horton and Grover at the turn of the century, peddling elixir in shabby pin striped tuxedos with big bushy mustaches curled into handlebars. You see them gripping megaphones and prancing about the town square. One of the tracks in the recording sessions captures them in a sword-fighting scene.
The newest release from Willie Cry Records deserves more than a cursory look. It is a compilation disc entitled 'OK Invasion Vol. 1' featuring well-known Oklahoman musicians. As the name implies, Oklahoma sounds are the central theme to the release. However, the bands that comprise the album are not bound together by style. "It's just about good music," says Horton.
Three songs from a band called the Down Trunks open a collection hand-picked by Horton. Two members of the Down Trunks are fellow natives of Ponca City, Chad and Darren Matheson. Self-described as "roots rock with a twist of cowpunk," they play primarily in the Kansas City area.
The unforgettable psychedelic fiddle player, Randy Crouch, appears on the collection with three much-loved songs including, "What's Goin' On?" and "Maintain." Horton sought out Crouch, whom he calls a "wizard in fisherman's clothing," for the compilation. He was enraptured by Crouch's unique persona and the rich folklore that forms around him, wherever he goes. "I heard stories of him playing the fiddle with his toes," recalls Horton, and he decided Crouch was a must-have.
Following three songs from The Gardes, regional favorite and road warrior, Mike Hosty, of the Hosty Duo, rounds out the compilation. Hosty's distinctive, humorous storytelling style is captured in its most impressive form - a live recording. The selected Hosty tracks are representative of his more-than-just-blues-rock songs that compel even the most uptight listeners to boogie late into the night.
So, what's next for Horton and Grover? Lately, the Willie Cry boys have been swarming with activity. The Gardes released their second full-length album, 'O My Garde', last month. Horton published a book of off-beat poetry as well, featuring his own illustrations and the paintings of cohort, Aaron Frisby. The book is entitled "Two Too Deep Fools, and more supposedly…" and can be purchased through order in bookstores worldwide.
Momentum for their penultimate project is building, an amalgam of their diverse interests: writing, acting, film, art and music. They will begin shooting their first full-length film entitled "Only an Impression" later this year. Horton, Grover and friends will star in the film, which will feature an original soundtrack by The Gardes.
Keep up with the high-jinx of Horton and Grover at their band's website: www.TheGardes.com.