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Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air: Legends
of West Texas Music
"Indeed, Oglesby's introduction of more
than two dozen musicians who called Lubbock home should be required
reading not only for music fans, but for Lubbock residents and
anyone thinking about moving here. On these pages, music becomes
a part of Lubbock's living history."
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Chris Oglesby Interviews
However, this interview was brought together by David Keller and Tanya So, two of the most die-hard creators and advocates of art and music in Lubbock. They were roommates of Kent's brother Kevin Mings at the time, in the house where Texas Blues legend Angela Strehli grew up. I can't begin to explain how helpful and loving David and Tanya were to me whenever I first came home to Lubbock to write my book. Kent and I were to meet for the interview at J. Patrick O'Malley's, a tiny pub--right across University Avenue from Texas Tech University--where I had spent much time in college. (It since has changed names, after almost twenty years). The BelAires had the regular Monday night gig there that season. I was waiting for Kent to show up for sound-check. It was
mid-afternoon, and I remember a group of college girls and one
guy came in. I chuckle, "Stick around." When I left J. Pat's at 1:00 o'clock that night, that
same group of girls was Rockin' and Rollin' like their mothers
would not imagine they ever could. I didn't worry for the girls' safety; I'm sure they got a ride home that night. This
is a sketch I made during the Mings: We were at O.L. Slaton Junior High. There were these two little ol’ girls; set of twins. They looked like they were ten years old. Actually, I was at Lubbock  High; Kevin
& Wes [Kent's brothers] met these two
little girls at Slaton - and everybody kinda’ made fun of
‘em, because they were smaller and not pretty, y’know....I
think they mighta’ asked if we knew were to get some pot
one time. And of course we did.
But you know, I kinda’ felt sorry for ‘em a little
bit. And I thought, "Well, these girls can’t be bad."
And we got to be real good friends with ‘em, started hangin’
out with ‘em. They were 14 or 15; they was a year or two
younger than us. They looked a lot younger. This was ‘76
or ‘77... Ponty had come in and took custody of the children so they
moved in with Ponty. Naturally we just migrated over to Ponty’s
house. Had no idea who he was. And, hell, I didn’t have
any idea who Joe Ely
was - let alone this guy. Then we started getting together to go to these shows; ‘cause
Ponty had his kids and he’d be doing the Tornado Jams and all that ... So we started
to go to these shows and there was Jesse
["Guitar" Taylor] playin’, and Joe,
and Ponty - Man, what a band! And this is kinda’ weird that just from that kinda’
chance meeting with those two girls…Had no idea who they
were...And then started hangin’ around Ponty and Jesse,
goin’ to all those shows.... Chris: Well, did you know you wanted to write songs and perform before you met all those guys? Mings: Oh yea! I had a song book when I was about 8 years old. Chris: But it was just the girls that made you want to go these shows? You didn’t know who these guys in the band were?
But it was really Ponty and Jesse and Joe - Seein’ them up there "Live" - that re-kindled what I knew I always wanted to do. Chris: Did you play in any bands in high school? Mings: No, man, I never did even…I never learned
to play guitar until I was almost eighteen years old. Joel Searsey taught me my first chords on guitar. I’ve known Joel since junior high. Joel was in my crowd when I met Samara. Chris: Tell me about Joel ‘cause he was an interesting
guy. Mings: I met Joel at Lubbock High. We used to call
him "Stoned Joel." He was a nut, man.. So I started
hangin’ out with him. He was another one of those "lost
souls" that nobody would hang around with. For some reason
just I’m attracted to those kinda’ people because they’re
so interesting…In the high school setting, a "real
cool cat" like that… They don’t stand a chance,
Man. Like Samara and Rachel - Real cool girls but they didn’t
stand a chance in the high school scene, man! Chris: Do you think that has anything to do with music? Mings: Well, I’m sure it does. Because see, Joel was a third generation musician. His daddy was a professional musician, and his granddaddy. And Samara and Rachel grew up with Ponty, and he was a professional musician. I don’t know what happened to me. None of my folks were professional musicians. Of course they were very musical. But it was all in the church.
Mings: See, my folks divorced when I was about 7 years
old. There were six kids; We had three girls and then three boys,
in that order. The three boys - we were the youngest so we went
to live with our grandparents ‘cause mom couldn’t take
care of us… The first times, learning to sing…Mom played the piano, and we all sang. And Ma-maw was always hummin’ hymns while she’s doing dishes. Chris: So you were singin’ three times a week? Mings: Aw, man! We were at church three times a week, and then if we had a revival it was FIVE nights a week. But you always had Sunday school and church on Sunday morning. Training meeting on Sunday night. Wednesday prayer meeting on Wednesday. So that’s three times a week we was in church. Chris: Did that have anything to do with you wanting to play guitar, or is that totally different things? Mings: No. But it had a lot to do with the way that I think...Y’know, 'cause I read The Bible a lot. It’s a very poetic book, and it’s got a lot of hidden meanings; I seemed to realize that early on. So it really intrigued me - y’know, about the stuff behind what’s written in The Bible. Chris: It’s hard to talk about this whole Lubbock music thing without at least throwin’ in something about The Bible…[Laughs]. Mings: Right. It’s West Texas. Chris: Did y’all - you and your brothers - start playing music at the same time? Mings: Pretty much. I played guitar for about a year. And we got Wesley a bass guitar. Kevin had got some drums. If I started guitar when I was about 17, by the time I was about 18 they had picked up instruments, and we had a little four-piece combo with Joel - a little garage band; We never did do any gigs. We’d play in our backyard ‘til the cops came... Chris: Tell me about your gig tonight. Mings: It’s a pretty wild crowd on Monday here. Sometimes they don’t come in at all. But most the times there’s a big crowd usually comes in about 11:00 - 11:30. These fraternities have their chapter meetings on Monday nights, too. So after their chapter meetings, they all come out here and party. But last week we didn’t have much of a crowd at all...So I don’t know.
Chris: I’ve had some good nights, man. Mings: Any more though, there’s so many more clubs that have opened up with that Buddy Holly District. You got the Conference Café and Bleachers: two killer sports bars. That knocks a lot of ‘em out. And you got the Daiquiri Bar over there. And you got the martini bar and you got Kyle Abernathy’s and you got Stubb's and y’know… But if you look, man, there’s a deal like about every
ten or fifteen years out here. ‘Cause you had Buddy Holly…Ten
or fifteen years after he died, you had ol’ Waylon
Jennings come right out of here; out of Littlefield....Made
it big. And it wasn’t just Waylon either. Goddamn, you had
all kind of pickers in Waylon’s period comin’ out..
About another fifteen years, Ely starts hittin’ it. And
not just Ely, either. You had Butch, and Jimmie, and Jesse and
all these at the same time. Chris: [Laughs] That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Mings: It may be kinda’ like droughts and flood years. Y’know, you get your drought years, for six-seven years, and then, Bam! You got three years of flood.
Chris: The tattoo. Mings: When I was a kid, I’d stand there by the
stage and I’d watch that sombitch…Jesse had the tattoos and he’d have
a sleeveless shirt and the biceps, and he’d be sweatin’.
Jesse just sweats like a pig. I mean the first song...He’s
drenched. Dude, I’m not lyin’, Man! I thought, "Man, I want a band like that! I want a band like that." Jesse volunteered to play on our album, for nothing but air fare and meals.
So there’s all these people down there at the studio and
they were watchin’ Jesse’s in the booth playin’.
And I mean he’s just cuttin’ some chops, Man. I mean!…And
this little lady - the money person -she was goin’, "Where
did you get this guy?" I think they were from New Mexico.
They’re older folks. They really had no idea who Jesse Taylor
was. All they knew is they had to spend $250 to get him up from
Austin, and "What the hell is this?" Chris: So he basically just did it for the plane ticket? Mings: Yea well, we set up a couple of gigs in town with him and paid him, so he made a little money. He told me a year ago, when I first started this project; he goes, "Man, I want to record on your album." He says, "Man, I work really cheap. For you guys, I work for nothin’!" Well, "Hell, yea! Jess!" So we flew him in and flew him out. Got him a couple of gigs while he was here. Got a little money in his pocket. -end of
interview- This
is a sketch I made of an old sign
- thanks to Tanya So for the pictures of Kent and The Texas BelAires -
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I'm not really sure how Kent and I met. He's about my age. He's
been playing in Lubbock for about as long as I've been going
out. I guess the first time I ever saw his band - The
Texas BelAires - is when they where sharing a regular
gig with a band in Lubbock called 
