Biography
Biography
Trigger & Some Dudes Named Roy is the invention of a fella named Mike Trigg. Born in Brownwood, Texas, Trigg was dubbed Trigger by classmates in the 1st grade and it stuck.
Trigger's early experiences with music involved 6 months with an abusive, migraine riddled piano teacher at age 10, and one year of middle school band with a verbally abusive band director. That was pretty much it other than church singing and listening to his parents folk records and Broadway Musical soundtracks.
At age 30, the true musical weirdness began, as Glen Campbell’s long time bass player, Bill Graham, also from Brownwood, moved back to town and into the house next door. Suddenly there were musicians and songwriters everywhere. As Trigger sat in Graham’s Brownwood studio, observing the songwriting process, lyrics began popping into his head. He began thinking he could possibly write some songs, but his urge was to do it differently. From his earliest childhood days he had always been drawn to songs that made him laugh.
Trigger bought a guitar and a chord book, learned 3 campfire chords and started throwing words around. His earliest songs were sometimes crude and he found that writing funny and smart was not easy work. He listened to The Kingston Trio, The Chad Mitchell Trio, The Smothers Brothers, Roger Miller, Ray Stevens, John Prine, Randy Newman, Monty Python, Broadway shows, and other stuff to see what humorous songwriters did and why certain things worked. Comedic rhythms, timing, and some verbally twisted senses of humor were the things that got him going.
Bill Graham’s studio was creatively rich. With Graham's encouragement and the help of engineer Rick “Ratman” Carpenter, who for years ran FOH sound for the Bellamy Brothers, Trigger was able to experiment freely. Greg “Doc” Sikes, who played the rodeo circuit with Reba McIntire, was a killer guitar player and a studio regular. Singer/Songwriter Craig Dillingham who, as a kid, was touring with Ray Price, was coming in with his work. Trigger even sat in on songwriting sessions with the late Jerry Williams, who, as a teenager, played with Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix, and as an adult wrote hits for Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton, including Clapton’s incredibly beautiful “Running on Faith”.
Yada, yada, yada, Trigger eventually had to move to San Antonio to get some sleep. He played some parties, back porches, and barns, and won honorable mention in a songwriting contest or two, even though there was no genre that fit what he was doing. Nobody knew where to put him, but a couple of songs made their way to local radio. After that, regular life happened for a good long time with a couple of careers far removed from music. Then up pops, W. Ross Wells.
Mr. Wells grew up in Brownwood, played guitar, and was a Graham studio regular and Trigger fan before ending up in Houston, years later, as a highly decorated film-maker and co-owner of the hot little film production house, Zenfilm. Wells wanted to know “where’s the Trigger music and why aren’t we getting it recorded?”
With no good excuse, the deal was on and up pops Dan Workman.
Dan is President and co-owner of SugarHill Recording Studios and had begun doing some work with Ross Wells and Zenfilm. Dan’s resume is rich. He has worked on projects with Beyonce, Destiny’s Child, Lyle Lovett, ZZ Top and many more. So here’s W. Ross Wells walking into SugarHill one day with some messy bedroom demos of Trigger & Some Dudes Named Roy. Dan was kind enough to listen. He got it. He declared himself in on the project if for no other reason than it was going to be a heck of lot of fun. And fun it has been.
So what is this music? We call it Peculiar Country and we figure most folks won't argue with that as a genre title.
Our album, "Cowboy Logic", is out and two weeks after the release, Trigger & Some Dudes Named Roy got a call to play this stuff on live radio in New York City, broadcasting from Times Square. The show's producer said, "This is some crazy stuff. I love it."
Thanks to everyone who has made this happen. There have been many, including a lot of long time casual fans.
Our mission, now and always, is to make you laugh.
Thank ya and giddyup, Trigger and Some Dudes Named Roy
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CDs that you can hold in your hand available at Amazon.com
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