Joe Medwick born June 21, 1931

 

Joe Medwick (June 21, 1931* – April 12, 1992) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter who was the great underground hero of Texas Soul/R&B. Whether it was writing songs or singing them his talents were truly astonishing. But thanks to his preference for the Houston nightlife offered by the city’s notorious Third Ward rather than his career, his name never got outside of the city limits.

He was born Medwick N. Veasey in Houston, Texas, on June 21, 1931, the son of Rayfield Veasey and Renatta Watson. Though mainly noted as a lyricist whose songs were often covered by other singers, Veasey, best-known both personally and professionally as Joe Medwick, also recorded and released material (under pseudonyms) on various labels from 1958 through 1988. A lifelong Houstonian, Veasey grew up in Third Ward and attended Yates High School. As a youth he reportedly adopted the nickname “Joe” as a prefix to his given name because of the national popularity of the major league baseball player Joe Medwick (who first starred for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s). In his teens Veasey launched his singing career, performing with the Chosen Gospel Singers for approximately four years before turning his focus to secular music.

                                   

After serving in Korea with the US Army, he returned to the Third Ward in Houston, where he performed in a blues club, Shady's Playhouse, often with pianist Teddy Reynolds (who later accompanied Bobby Bland), and increasingly spent his time writing lyrics and composing tunes for other blues musicians to sing. According to the Texas State Historical Association: "Medwick was often able to sell the resulting material almost immediately to local music producers. In doing so, he rarely asked for formal contracts to establish proper songwriting credit for himself, instead choosing to peddle the songs outright —thereby surrendering any rights to potential royalty payments — for ready cash. Thus, among his musician peers and industry insiders (if not always supported by publishing documentation), Medwick is commonly known to have written or co-written many songs which became hits for other artists with the writing credits typically attributed exclusively to the person who had purchased (and thereafter registered the copyrights on) the compositions."

TNT Briggs, Don Robey and Bobby Bland

He sold many of his songs to Don Robey, the owner of the Duke and Peacock labels whose major stars were Bobby Bland and Junior Parker. In a few cases, including "Further On Up The Road", Medwick was given a co-writing credit, though it is thought that Medwick in fact wrote the song with Johnny Copeland rather than with Robey. Copeland said: "Joe tied the record up with Mr. Robey, just as he did with every song. Joe sold Mr. Robey maybe five hundred songs, ten, fifteen dollars apiece..." In many other cases, including "I Pity the Fool", "Turn On Your Love Light", "Call On Me", "I Don't Want No Woman", "Driving Wheel", and "Cry, Cry, Cry", it is believed that Medwick wrote the songs but the credit was taken by Robey, often using his song writing pseudonym Deadric Malone. In a 1990 interview, Medwick acknowledged his poor judgement in trading his songs for cash, while absolving Robey of any blame. He also sold his songs to other record producers in Houston, including Huey Meaux.

During the late 1950s, Medwick also recorded his own songs occasionally for Robey, none of which created much interest. During the 1960s he recorded for small local labels including Paradise, Allboy, East-West, Boogaloo and Pacemaker, often using various names. It is thought that his best songs were held back from him, so that bigger stars like Bobby Bland - with whom he later fell out - could record them instead.  A handful of releases on Teardrop, Westpark, VE GEO and Kimberly make up the remainder of Medwick's singles output. In '65 he appeared on Monument for one release and a year later he recorded Robert Parker's Barefootin'.

Drinking took its toll during the '70s and '80s, and Medwick languished in complete obscurity through the disco years. In 1978, Huey Meaux issued a compilation LP of many of Medwick's demo recordings, Why Do Heartaches Pick On Me. In the mid-'80s former Little Richard sax titan Grady Gaines came out of retirement and launched The Texas Upsetters, an old-school R&B band that still plays today. Medwick was tabbed as one of two lead vocalists for the combo, with his old friend from the gospel days, Big Robert Smith taking the other slot. Gaines signed with Black Top Records and released two albums, “Full Gain” (1988), and “Horn Of Plenty”, on which Medwick and his songs could at last be heard identified correctly. Fate seemed to finally be smiling on Medwick but then he was stricken by liver cancer and died at his home in Houston on April 12, 1992. As a military veteran, Veasey is buried in Houston National Cemetery.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Bear Family liner notes)(*other sources give 1933 as birth year.)

(I could only find two photographs of Joe on the web and one of them is taken from the video below)