When Richard Bowden returned to his hometown of Linden, Texas after several years as half of the successful musical comedy team of Pinkard and Bowden, he arrived with dreams of making his hometown as important to people from out of town as it was to him and his friends.  He took an active role in the community and joined forces with a group of his friends that were dreaming of restoring the town’s vacant American Legion hall to serve a similar purpose as it had during their childhood.  Local residents had often gathered to dance to the music of local musicians including Richard and his friends David Lovelace, Greg Attaway, John Early, Joe Hamilton, David Hulme and Pat Roberson.  Many Lindenites would join in this new energy to bring those memories to a new life, one now known as Music City Texas Theater.  And before 2003 it would become the center of their lives as musicians once again.

Not long after Richard had returned, a group had assembled including Richard, his former band mates David Lovelace & Greg Attaway and other friends John Early and Joe Hamilton.  By the time the theater opened, they had put a few road concerts behind them so they began performing on a regular schedule at the new theater.  Unfortunately, soon after David would lose a long battle with his health and pass at much too early an age.  Eventually, Pat Roberson would join the group and David’s brother Richard would occasionally sit in.  By 2005, a Jefferson native, Mark Harrell, would join the band as a regular and Joe would leave for other pursuits.  By 2007, Mark was finding an increased demand for his talents keeping him close to the Dallas-Fort Worth area so a former band mate of Richard's, Southern California transplant Mark Vidito was asked to step in.

click on band member names for individual stories

A few months later the group decided to take to Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas and assemble some of their favorite songs into an album.  “Rising Over Texas” was born.  Greg “Moon” Attaway on drums, percussion and vocals, Richard Bowden on guitar and vocals, John Early on guitar and vocals, Pat Roberson on bass guitar and vocals and Mark Vidito on keyboards and vocals.

The group assembled a list of their history and credits and the summary ends up including some pretty decent talent.  Collectively and alphabetically, if you’ve seen or heard any of these performers you may have already experienced what one or more of these guys do:   Chuck Berry - Blue Steel - Jackson Browne - Burrito Brothers - The Chandeliers - Chapter One - Cold Steel - Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen - Crossroads - John Day - Dixie Hot Shots - The Drifters - Duck, Mole & Catfish - The Eagles - Ensky - Don Everly - Felicity - Freddie Fender - David and Carol Flynn - Dan Fogelberg - Fool’s Gold - Forever and a Day - The Four Speeds - Lud Grande - Greg Harris - Alexander Harvey - Don Henley - Hickory Hill - The Jades - Doug Kershaw - Lone Star - Matt Margucci - Dan McCorison - Stevie Nicks - Roger McGuinn - Pacific - Pecos - Pinkard & Bowden - Purple Cigar - Bonnie Raitt - Johnny Rodriquez - Linda Ronstadt - Sawyer Brown - Shiloh - Mike Wiggins & Loco

Matt Early - Live Audio Producer

Apollo 11 Image courtesy of NASA