By Bruce Beck
Globe-News Correspondent
The events of Sept. 11 so affected
a former Amarillo man that a song he wrote and recorded will benefit the
New York Firefighters Relief Fund.
Gary Harvey, a guitarist now living
in Port Charlotte, Fla., wrote "911" the day after the World Trade Center
and Pentagon attacks.
"I turned on the TV and saw what
was happening," said Harvey, who attended both Amarillo and Tascosa high
schools in the early 1980s. "I just dropped to my knees and said a prayer.
I wrote the song in 45 minutes."
Harvey said he then called a friend
at a recording studio, told him what he had done and asked for some studio
time.
"They graciously donated the time,
and I got it done in one take," Harvey said. "It's not very polished and
I can do better, but it's a song from the heart."
He is selling a CD containing the
song for $10. Profits from each sale would go directly to the New York
Firefighters Relief Fund.
The journeyman musician began his
odyssey in an Amarillo junior high school band, he said. He played in various
bands growing up and once hooked up with Andy Chase and Todd Osenbaugh
in the Fretmeisters.
"I played the Caravan every chance
I'd get, Boondocks, Funfest, the bars on Amarillo Boulevard, and every
Moose and Elks lodge," Harvey said. "Basically, any place that would have
me."
To help pay the bills, Harvey worked
at various times at a United supermarket and at Tolzein's Music. It was
during a stint at the latter that he met musician Jimmy Collins of Tucumcari,
N.M., who would figure in his future.
Harvey moved to Los Angeles to attend
the Musicians Institute of California. When Collins heard that Harvey had
graduated, "He hired me right out of school and moved me to Tucumcari,
the halfway spot between Los Angeles and Nashville," he said.
Collins wrote "I Love Texas" and
his band arranged to shoot the video at Amarillo's Midnight Rodeo, which
in another incarnation was the United supermarket where Harvey had worked.
Harvey said he needed a more consistent
lifestyle, so for a musician, that meant a move to Las Vegas. Monroe Powell's
Platters needed a guitarist for a three-week engagement, "and they kept
me for seven years," he said.
When the band relocated to Florida,
Harvey went along, but left in May. He now plays with Jim Morris and Big
Bamboo. Harvey said he was about to join the group for a Baltimore engagement
when the World Trade Center was attacked and he put his reaction to words
and music.
Harvey said anyone interested in
"911" can obtain one through garyharvey.com.
"Or get in touch with my mom, Zenith
Harvey, at Gordon's Jewelers in Westgate Mall, or my dad, Raymond Harvey,
at Amarillo Hardware, and they can get in touch with me," Harvey said. |