Tag: America’s Got Talent

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The Masqueraders Pay Tribute to Fallen Group Member David Sanders

CREDIT: courtesy Harold Thomas

courtesy Harold Thomas

David ‘Cowboy’ Sanders

When the Masqueraders, a vocal group that has worked in Memphis since the 1960s, had their latest moment in the spotlight, on the television program America’s Got Talent (AGT) in 2016, they did it as a trio:  Sam Hutchins, Harold Thomas, and Robert “Tex” Wrightsil. But for most of the group’s tenure, they had been a quartet. Their baritone/bass singer, David “Cowboy” Sanders, had moved back to Dallas, where the group started over 60 years ago, due to his declining health.

“We wished he could have been there. With his voice, that would have been awesome,” says Harold Thomas.  

Sadly, those health problems culminated in Sanders’ death last Friday, August 14th.  His funeral will be today at 11 a.m. at the Eternal Rest Funeral Home in DeSoto, Texas.

For Sanders, it ended where it all began. The group left Dallas for Detroit in the mid-’60s and recorded for La Beat records. Later in that decade, they set up shop at American Sound Studios where they penned much of their own material, including their biggest hit, “I Ain’t Got to Love Nobody Else,” in 1968. They can also be heard singing backup on Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music,” on Wilson Pickett’s “I’m in Love,” and on several tracks from the Box Tops’ album, Cry Like a Baby.
courtesy Harold Thomas

The Masqueraders

Their last hurrah, prior to their AGT performances, was on Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul label, but that imprint went under soon after. Their final album on Bang Records in 1980 failed to chart, so the Masqueraders went back to their day jobs. They did the occasional recording session in the ’90s, and began to sing on Beale Street regularly by the early 2000s.

That was when they noticed a change in Sanders. “We didn’t know why he was shaking at the time,” says Thomas, “but there was a doctor there at Blues City Cafe one night when we were playing. Maybe 15 years ago. And when we came off stage he said, ‘Man, I know what’s wrong with your buddy. He’s got Parkinson’s. And it’s gonna get worse. Take my card and give my office a call and I’ll help him.’

“And he did that. He got David set up and gave him some medicine, and he was doing pretty good for a while. Anyway, we stayed on until 2010, and David started getting worse, so he went home to Dallas to stay with his family for a while. They wanted him to come home anyway. Then he ended up in a nursing home, and he was in that nursing home about seven, eight years.”

Thomas, who arrived in Dallas yesterday with the remaining Masqueraders, last saw Sanders in February. “He was kinda weak. You could hardly hear him. I knew he wanted to sing. Me and Tex went down to see him and we started singing a song, and he wanted to sing with us. But he was too weak. I think what hurt him the most was that he couldn’t sing anymore. That just blew him away.”

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Music Music Features

Drew Erwin is Keeping It Simple

There was a time when Drew Erwin performed his original songs on an electric guitar, with a lead guitarist, keyboard player, bass player, and drummer behind him.

Times have changed. Simplicity is key.

“Normally, it’s just me and a guitar,” Erwin says. “A microphone. Most of the time I’m playing acoustic.”

He likes it that way. “I don’t have to rely on anybody else. I’m just kind of doing my own thing.”

He’s learned to savor his independence. Erwin, 21, first appeared on the music scene in 2012, when he was a semi-finalist on America’s Got Talent. The experience isn’t one of his favorite memories. He was told what to wear and what song to sing. He didn’t win. But he didn’t stop singing.

Erwin scaled things down when he began playing a weekly gig at Silly Goose, downtown. The owner saw one of his videos on YouTube and invited him to play. It turned into a regular Friday gig. “It’s been, seriously, probably the best thing for me as far as getting better and working at stuff,” Erwin says. “My ear has gotten so much better. I’ve really conditioned my voice, because I’m playing for three hours down there.”

Erwin also credits the University of Memphis music department, where he will graduate with a music business degree this spring. On November 5th, as the headliner at the fourth annual This Is Memphis festival at Clayborn Temple, he’ll perform selections from his new EP, Covers in a Bar, with a 16-piece string ensemble. The event, which showcases members of U of M music department, is produced by the university’s Blue Tom Records.

An old upright piano was the impetus for his new EP. “I had just purchased a 1960s Wurlitzer upright piano. I really liked the way that it was all beat up and banged up.”

“Covers in a Bar,” the title track, was the first song Erwin wrote for the EP. “I was teaching guitar lessons out in Collierville. I got home, made a cup of coffee, and just sat down at that piano. That was the first thing I came up with.” The autobiographical song alludes to his America’s Got Talent experience and is “about not wanting to die in Memphis playing covers in a bar.”

He liked the simplicity of his voice backed by one musical instrument and wanted to replicate that on the EP. “Instead of really geeking out, trying to make some big production, I just went on the floor live. Me and my guitar. I did the guitar and vocal live. No click track or anything like that. Then just overdubbed little stuff. But for the most part, it’s just acoustic guitar and a vocal, then some piano overdub and some electric guitar overdub on some of the songs.”

Erwin began “learning different chord progressions and what works melodically. I just kind of got a clearer, ‘Hey. I can do this. Just me. I don’t need a band.’ And honestly, I feel like I can rope people in better if it’s just me. When I take away all the distractions.”

The recordings are “all incredibly personal,” he says. “Like if a song’s about somebody, they know that that song’s about them. I wanted you to feel like you were in the room listening to the record. It was a live take, and instead of worrying about the production and stuff, it was more about the delivery and how I was saying things — even if I was flat on the note. If the note was emotional, I was like, ‘I’ll just keep that there.'”

Songwriting is more comfortable these days, he says. “When I was writing songs, I was trying to write a hit song or something. I just got out of the whole ‘I want to write catchy hooks’ and just switched to, ‘I want to write real things that I’m emotionally invested in and can be passionate about when I’m singing about them.’ I just want to do away with all the bullshit and just write things that mean stuff to me.”

Football took precedence over music when Erwin was growing up in Arlington, Tenn. He began playing the game when he was 5 years old.

He also loved music. “I think my favorite thing in elementary school was going to music class. Sports was always after school, but while I was at school I’d rather be hanging out doing that kind of stuff.”

Lisa Smith, his elementary school teacher at Macon-Hall Elementary School in Cordova, was an influence. “She made music so much fun. We had the little xylophone and glockenspiels and stuff. I remember in elementary school we had weeks that would be dedicated to the Beach Boys. And weeks that would be dedicated to the Beatles.”

Erwin was in a talent show when he was in the fifth grade. “I sang a song by The Fray. It might have been ‘Cable Car.’ But I remember everybody went nuts because nobody even knew that I liked to sing.
“I was always aware that I could carry a tune. But I never imagined that, literally, my daily life would revolve around it 24-7.”

The King figured into his musical life at one point. “I remember in the fifth grade we did a live wax museum. The little card I drew was Elvis. So, I had to dress up like Elvis and learn all about Elvis.”
In sixth grade, Erwin and other students wrote songs on their laptops. “They would pull up GarageBand and Apple loops and we would make songs: ‘Everybody make a song and we’ll play it at the end of class and we can see whose song we like best.’”

Erwin continued to play football at Arlington HIgh School. He played strong safety. But music wasn’t far away. “I always had software on a laptop and I would record and make little raps, make songs for fun. That’s when I realized I had a passion for the production side of things. That’s where I got a lot of my first exposure to recording.”

During a football game his sophomore year, Erwin shattered his hand and had to have a metal plate put in. Since he couldn’t play football, he picked up his guitar and began singing and writing songs.
He put a video he made of himself singing John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” on YouTube. Without telling him, his parents sent the video to “America’s Got Talent.” Erwin was chosen to appear on the show.

He wanted to play guitar and sing the song he put on the video, but one of the show’s producers said they wanted him to play piano – because they already had a guitarist on the show – and sing “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia. In keeping with the boy band image Erwin felt they were going for, someone with the show even selected his outfit, which included a tight red shirt – something Erwin never would wear.

Judges included Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel.

Erwin lost to a bird act.

Back in Arlington, Erwin continued to play football. His dream was to play for Holy Cross or Harvard, but during summer workouts going into his senior year, he tore his hamstring while overworking himself running the 40-yard dash. He wasn’t able to attend the key camps he wanted to attend. He gave up football.

Erwin enrolled at University of Mississippi at Oxford. “ In high school a lot of my identity was rooted in the fact that I was the captain of the football team. I was that guy. I was good at sports. I was one person. Just the sports guy. I was just all about sports and being competitive. Then I got to college and realized none of that matters anymore. I wasn’t on the football team. That’s such a big school nobody cares who you are. It was kind of a struggle to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be.

“I didn’t have football to do. I tried to do the whole partying, fraternity. Make friends that way. And I couldn’t. The thing that I fell back on was I still had a guitar. The only thing that I did was sing in my dorm at night and play guitar. I had a Yamaha keyboard.”

Erwin called up singer/songwriter/musician Ben Callicott. “I knew that he was at Memphis. I didn’t really know him, but I had his phone number. He was like, ‘Yeah, dude. I started my first semester. It’s kind of cool so far. You should think about it.’ And the next thing I knew Ben Yonas called me on the phone.”
Yonas, a U of M music business professor, persuaded Erwin to transfer to U of M.

Fitting in with the other music students wasn’t easy at first. “I was so new to the music crowd. I had come from a completely different world in high school. Trying to figure out what was cool or what kind of guitar do I need to play to fit in. Or what clothes should I wear. And this and that.

“I was trying to impress people for an amount of time. I just kind of realized I’m not this crazy good guitarist. I’m not this bluesy guy. I like to tell stories when I write. I just happen to have a guitar and sing on top of them.”

And, he said, “I was never really truly confident in my abilities as a musician and a songwriter because I never felt like it was truly who I was. I always felt like this football guy trying to pretend he knew what he was doing. Now, I’ve been doing it long enough and put in the hours and I’m just confident who I am. This is what I’m going to do with my life. There’s no doubt in my mind.

“I think I’m just a lot more comfortable now with who I am. Just because of the experiences. I’ve pretty much found myself over the course of my college career. I’m not pretending to be anybody anymore.”
That’s a testament to U of M. “If it weren’t for University of Memphis I wouldn’t speak the language. Because in high school i was never in choir. I was never in a band. I was always doing football. Now I don’t go a day without doing something with it. That’s what’s so cool.

“I’m not timid anymore. I’m not nervous of what somebody who is musically superior to me is going to think. Because it’s like, ‘OK. That’s just your opinion. There are other people who really enjoy what I’m trying to do right now.’”

The weekly Silly Goose gig also helped him, Erwin said. “I feel like a lot of this falls back on playing somewhere Friday night. Because there are nights when it’s not super fun or rewarding and people aren’t into it. But then there are nights when people can’t get enough of it.”

Being on “America’s Got Talent” doesn’t come up as much, Erwin said. “But I still feel like it follows me around.”

He cringes when he sees the video of the show. “Just because I was so not good. It’s just so green and so cheesy and so corny. But then part of me is like, ‘Yeah, but it was also five or six years ago. And that was my first time performing. And, yeah, I can cringe when I look at it.’ But I’m also like, ‘I’m confident in myself now that it’s like that video doesn’t define me.’”

Does Erwin ever wish he was never on “America’s Got Talent”? “All the time. I really do. But it’s one of those things. I met cool people through that. And it’s just a good way to get your foot through the door. But I also at the same time I just hate that if you Google my name it’s inevitable you’re going to find that video.”

If he could turn back the time, Erwin would do things differently on “America’s Got Talent.” “I would get up there and do what I wanted. I wouldn’t let them manipulate me. And then five years down, if it still gave me that clout and star quality, I wouldn’t be ashamed of it because it was authentically me. Even if Howard Stern trash talked me on live TV I wouldn’t care because it would be truly who I am.”

But, he said, “If it weren’t for that show, I don’t think Ben Yonas at the University of Memphis would have ever known about me and called me up on the phone while I was at Ole Miss asking what I was interested in. You know what I’m saying? Everything happens for a reason.”

Erwin will graduate with a degree in music business this spring. “I plan on pursuing my solo career the rest of my life. Writing songs. But, also, I’ve probably sunk – at least right now just in my college years – at least 30 grand into my own studio equipment and microphones. I probably have 13 guitars. I’m just really into the whole recording side of things. I’m already working on a couple of different records for people. I want to be a producer. I want to work with people who are just themselves and back it up with the songs that they write.”
Erwin wants to stay in Memphis. “Memphis is cool. Especially with local music. Really. There’s a lot of buzz that’s going on and people are getting excited in the community. I don’t want to be one of those guys who, as soon as I get done, goes to try to work for some office in Nashville. Or try to go up there and write songs. I like this city. And I’ve made my living in this city. I’m invested in it. I’m here.”

"Covers in a Bar" from Michael Donahue on Vimeo.

Drew Erwin is Keeping It Simple

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Music Music Features

Another Shot at Glory for the Masqueraders

Things were not looking positive for the Masqueraders a year ago. A vocal trio in the vein of the Impressions, who had put out records through most of the 1960s and ’70s, their last hurrah had been on Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul label. When that business went under, so did their career. After a final album on Bang Records in 1980 failed to chart, the Masqueraders went back to their day jobs, and though they did the occasional session in the 1990s and began to sing on Beale Street by the early 2000s, they had not performed together for some time when 2016 rolled around.

Then a friend heard one member of the group, Harold Thomas, singing at a Christmas party. That led to a gospel producer inquiring about back-up harmonies for an artist he worked with, so Harold called fellow band mates Robert “Tex” Wrightsil and Sam Hutchins, and soon they were back in the studio — as a favor. The producer offered them their own deal, but the group was not satisfied with the recordings. Nonetheless, they were up and running again. Tex heard that America’s Got Talent (AGT) was holding auditions at the Cook Convention Center, and, as they were well-rehearsed anyway, they thought they’d give it a shot.

On audition day, the wait was so long they almost went home, but Thomas rallied his comrades. Finally, their name was called. They had chosen Sam Cooke’s classic “A Change Is Gonna Come,” a song deep in their musical DNA, to which they applied their trademark sheen of fluid harmonies. The producers were floored. By the time the group taped their performance, AGT had added strings to their minimal backing track, making for a swelling, emotional performance. Singing for the audition audience reminded Thomas of playing a massive soul revue in Philadelphia during their late ’60s heyday, but that was nothing compared to the audience they reached when their moment was broadcast and posted to YouTube. To date, the clip has been viewed over a million times. As Thomas recalls, “My daughter said, ‘Dad, I think y’all have gone viral!'”

Even more important, the judges — clearly gobsmacked — loved them. As we go to press, the Masqueraders’ second performance for AGT, “Bring It on Home to Me,” will be airing on Tuesday’s “Judge Cut” episode, and the judges’ verdicts will then determine if they go on to perform live in the competition rounds. That will be when fans around the world can vote for them in real time and propel them into the finals.

It’s been a long, meandering road to this point. The group left Dallas, their hometown, for Detroit in the mid-1960s and auditioned for Motown. When Hitsville passed, the Masqueraders headed over to La Beat records, which released several sides of theirs. But Detroit winters were too much for them, and soon they showed up in Memphis with two-dozen songs they had written for themselves. Stopping first at American Sound Studio on a whim, they ended up working there for years. Not only did they release their own material, including their biggest hit, “I Ain’t Got to Love Nobody Else,” in 1968, they added their harmonious blend to other artists’ records. That’s the Masqueraders you hear on Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music,” on Wilson Pickett’s “I’m in Love,” and on several tracks from the Box Tops’ album, Cry Like a Baby.

Many years later, when the group was playing Blues City Cafe regularly, singing the usual batch of tourist-friendly covers, they were surprised to meet British fans who said their early work, and the ’70s material they cut for Willie Mitchell and Isaac Hayes, was popular in the “Northern Soul” scene. This ultimately led to three trips to Europe in recent years, for which they had to scramble to re-learn all their own songs. But such appreciation in the U.K. was too sporadic to support them, leading to the long spell of inactivity that preceded their AGT audition.

Thomas is convinced that this most recent success grew from their initial generosity in helping that gospel producer for free: God has seen fit to reward them. Even if they go no further, the notoriety thus far could lead to a lot more work. “We got calls from Canada, New Jersey — even my man over in Spain,” says Thomas, “but we can’t do nothing right now while we’re still involved in AGT.”

That’s fine with Thomas. He’s looking to heaven when he says, “Lord, it’s up to you. Whoever you want to win gonna win. I won’t be mad. I’ll just be happy that we got as far as we got.”

NOTE: After we went to press, the Masqueraders aired their second performance on AGT. As the show’s wiki site notes, “Howie Mandel, Mel B, guest judge Chris Hardwick, Heidi Klum, and Simon Cowell all gave the trio standing ovations. The Masqueraders’ performance was strong enough for the judges to send them to the Quarterfinals instead of Carlos De Antonis and Darcy Callus.”

They’re moving on up! Keep tabs on their progress in upcoming episodes of America’s Got Talent, when you can call in and register your vote for our hometown favorites.


Another Shot at Glory for the Masqueraders

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Music Music Blog

The Masqueraders Got Talent!

The Masqueraders

Some readers may recognize the Masqueraders from their many years on Beale Street, often at the Blues City Café, sometimes playing with only a keyboard to back up their sublime harmonies. Others with a historical bent may recognize them as featured artists on rare and collectible singles from the La Beat, Wand, Bell, AGP, and Hi record labels, stretching back over 50 years. You might also know their background harmonies on albums by the Box Tops and Isaac Hayes, and even an LP of their own on Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul imprint.

Either way, you may have done a double take if you happened to see them two weeks ago on NBC’s America’s Got Talent! It was heartening to see them playing before the huge studio audience, not to mention the millions tuning in on their televisions and devices. I’ll let you be the judge, but for once I tend to agree with the celebrity panel: they killed it!

Note that with the judges behind them all the way, they will advance to the “Judge Cuts” rounds, which begin on Tuesday, July 18th. Tune in to see how they fare, and we’ll keep reporting if and when they advance through future performances.

The Masqueraders Got Talent!

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Opinion Viewpoint

Idol Fancies

Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon,

Going to the candidates’ debate.

Laugh about it, shout about it.

When you’ve got to choose,

Every way you look at it you lose.

— “Mrs. Robinson” by Paul Simon

These traveling roadshows called debates have increasingly taken on the air of a TV reality program. I watched one Republican debate, but after seeing a majority of the candidates admit, en masse, that they questioned the validity of evolution, I didn’t need to watch another.

The Republican debates are equivalent to the summer replacement show America’s Got Talent. (The Democrats shade toward American Idol.) The contestants are carefully scrutinized as to appearance and confidence levels, and expectations run high each week over who will stumble and who will rise to the challenge. They even have judges posing as questioners. They critique the candidates’ answers and attempt to build rivalries within the group. The role of the intemperate asshole judge is played by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (alternately, Chris Matthews). The flaw in the concept is that we can’t phone in each week and get somebody booted in order to thin this herd and maybe hear something of substance.

I took an online poll in which you were asked to match your opinions with the candidate who most closely holds your views. Mine came out Dennis Kucinich, which is good and bad.

I admire the congressman’s courage to call for impeachment openly and often. (He nearly got a vote to the floor last week.) I agree with him on ending the war in Iraq and holding the planners accountable. And he has been the single most consistent liberal voice in all these dark Bush years.

But I also know Kucinich hasn’t got a chance to win the nomination. I’ll happily vote for him in the Tennessee presidential primary to make a statement. Hell, I once voted for Prince Mongo for county mayor. I also voted for LaToya London on American Idol.

But once again, machine politics and corporate cash rule over procedure, and even though Kucinich’s rousing debate performances rival the American Idol appearances of Bo Bice, he’s going to lose to the blond lady who was mistreated when she was younger.

Before Hillary gets measured for crown and scepter, however, it would be well to remember that not a single vote has yet been cast and that the American voter is a famously fickle animal who will turn on you in an instant. How else can you explain Taylor Hicks winning American Idol, or George Bush winning anything, for that matter?

I’m sure Kucinich is at least as deserving as fellow ugly duckling Clay Aiken was. But if I had to review Hillary’s debate performances thus far, I would say, à la Randy Jackson, “It was just aw’ite for me, Dog. You’re a little pitchy.”

While this lite operetta continues, President Zero is neglecting some serious issues: The Chinese are trying to date-rape our children; Wal-Mart has been discovered taking out life insurance policies on its aged workers and collecting benefits when they die; Laci Peterson has morphed into Stacy Peterson; a discovered statement left behind by the still-deceased Saddam Hussein said his flim-flammery about WMD was not to threaten the U.S. but to fool Iran.

Barack Obama has promised to take off the gloves this week. And did I fail to mention our troops are in the middle of a foreign civil war with no end in sight? Too bad we can’t just vote the troops off the island.

Al Gore may have won his Oscar and his Nobel Prize, but Carrie Underwood and Daughtry kicked major butt at the AMA’s, and Fantasia was up for an award, too. With the current television writers’ strike, the mid-January start of the new season of American Idol might have to be moved up, just like those nervy upstart states want to do with their Johnny-come-lately primaries.

Then we could have five nights of nothing but American Idol and debates. But if the debates are going to compete, they have to really want it, Dog. This is, after all, a singing competition. And there is one lonely voice singing in the corner, crying, “Impeach now. Impeach now.” Can you hear him? It’s Dennis “The Dark Horse” Kucinich, and his spouse is better looking than Hillary’s any day.

Hey, no one believed Ruben Studdard could win either. Seacrest out.

Randy Haspel is, among other things, a Memphis musician and wit. He writes at bornagainhippies.blogspot.com.