Vernon Garrett

Born: Jan. 18, 1933
Place of birth: Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. When he was 15 he sang with local gospel groups like the Southern Wonders. Claude Jeter of the Swan Silvertones heard him when he opened for them and the Soul Stirrers. For a short time he was with the Swan Silvertones. "Then I left and went into the service. I was aboard the USS Sarsfield EDD 837 in the Korean war. We worked all over the Atlantic and as far as Guam. We worked with the first US atomic sub, the USS Nautilus, out of Key West Florida. All around Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, where the rough waters are..... I stayed in Omaha for about three months after I got out of the service and joined a vocal group called The Mixers.

In Los Angeles the hot talent show at that time was run by Johnny Otis at the Club Oasis every Thursday night..... That's how I started singing on my own. From there I met a group called The Sliders. They needed a lead singer and I joined their group. We became a very well known group in L.A. along with the Hollywood Flames, The Penguins, The Fortunes and other groups. We did a recording called "Love is Like a Mountain" for George Garabinia. Gene Mumford hired away our tenor for Billy Ward and The Dominoes. That was the end of our group and I was back on my own again.

I was working as a solo vocalist when I met my wife Jewel. She wanted to sing with me but I continued as a solo for awhile. Finally, she went on a talent show and won second prize. That was my first chance to really hear her sing and she handled it very well. That's when we became the team of Vernon and Jewel. We started working together in a little club in Compton California every weekend. People paid 50 cents to get in. I was playing drums and singing and another guy was singing with us, King Solomon. They liked us so well I got off the drums and we really became a full fledged team. Illinois Jacquet, the jazz saxophonist, owned the Network recording label and heard about us through his brother in-law. He had his brother Russell put us under contract and take us in the studio. The first song we recorded was "You're Going to be Paid for the Way You Treated Me".....

....We were a team. Times were tough at first....Finally, we did a guest shot at Slim Jenkin's club in Oakland and that was the beginning. Slim hired us for Friday and Saturday night. He provided a lady on organ and drums and paid us $75 a night. He said if the crowd got better he'd give us a raise. Jewel, the guitar player, and I split it even, $25 a piece. We had a full sound with that guitar player and the lady on the B3. People started coming and he started booking us to open for the big road acts like Bobby Bland, Etta James, and other big acts. People liked us and we were riding in Cadillacs and Lincoln Mercuries! Eventually, Kent Records heard us and put us under contract. That's where we made the male/female version of "Lonely Lonely Nights". We sold about 80,000 copies in Chicago alone. We did very well for several years together. We were so successful we even built our own 32 unit apartment building.

Then Jewel got sick with breast cancer. She did well after the operation, but eventually the cancer spread to her lungs and she passed away. I was so despondent I stopped my career. I just drove back between L.A. and San Francisco and drank a lot. I wasn't broke, I wasn't looking for anything, I just didn't know what to do. I was back in San Francisco in the Pickwick hotel downtown. I don't know if I was dreaming, had a vision or what. I felt I was very much awake. It was my wife. I buried her in a turquoise blue gown and there she was. She asked me what was I doing there when God gave me the talent to sing and I knew that what's she wanted me to do. That was it. I went downstairs, checked out, got in my car stayed on the highway for about an hour, cried, got myself together and drove back into L.A.

That weekend I walked into a club where Charlie Green had a 5 piece orchestra and a guy was singing the very song my wife had sung on that talent show. I asked the piano player if I could sit in and Charlie Green hired me that same night. That's when I started back to work. The return of Vernon Garrett, all by myself. Before that it had always been Vernon and Jewel. I was still under contract to Kent Records. They put me with Richard Parker and had him produce a session with me. Maxwell Davis did the production after that until Kent records went out of business. After that I did some on my own. I free lanced two albums with Jerry White. "Love Me Right" and "Johnnie Walker Red" did real well for me. He never paid me any royalties. Told me it didn't sell. Never even sent me a statement. I know "Stranger in my Bed" did well in Texas. I keep up with all the record shops, Mr. Blues and all the others, so I was familiar with how it was doing. There was no way for me to keep an account so I stopped fooling with him.

Al Bell, Longtime Stax producer also had me on his ICA label. Monk Higgins found a song for me, "I'm at The Crossroads I Got a Choice to Make" written by jazz guitarist Freddie Robinson. At the time I was at a crossroads myself. My girlfriend wanted to know if I was going to stay with her or go back to my new wife. I really liked that song. It took us about 12 hours to cut it, but when we were done we had a good record. It started happening in the last part of 1978 and went on into 1979 and it's still going on. That's the song most people know me by and the one they want to hear. It did great in Chicago, St Louis, all over. Made the top 20 in Jet Magazine. That was my biggest seller. I'm still working behind that record.

I consider myself a rhythm and blues, ballad, and blues singer. Back when I was doing talent shows I was doing top 40 stuff. The only gospel I have recorded was that one with the Swans. I write every so often. When an idea comes to me I'll write a song, but mostly I depend on other songwriters. I haven't had much chance to record my own stuff yet. "Doors of My Heart" on Too Hip to Be Happy is one of mine."

Album Discography

"I Made My Own Word: Kent/Modern Recordings" (Kent 2003)

**** This disc contains all of Vernon's Kent & Modern singles plus some choice tracks from his rare 1975 Grenade album "Going To My Baby's Place". Of the 24 tracks here his best-known track is the aching "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" from 1966. The version Kent uses here is an alternate take featuring a slightly different vocal. The other solo tracks are a mix of Motown-flavored pop-soul ("Slow and Easy," "You and Me Together"), nasty funk from his ("I've Learned My Lesson," "One Man's Loss"), bluesy ballads ("I Made My Own World"). The tracks with his then wife Jewel date from the mid-'60s and are slightly less successful than Garrett's solo tracks, but still fun songs like "Just to Hold My Hand" or "Let the Good Times Roll." The tracks like "You're So Fine" and the manic "In My Heart" that rock harder and let Garrett and the equally tough Jewel cut loose are much better. A handful of tracks come from a live club date from 1964.

"Going To My Baby's Place" (Grenade 1975; P-Vine 2003)

**** Fantastic and rare funk, soul & blues album by this throaty singer re-released on P-Vine Japan in 2003. A lost classic. Any fan of 70s funk must get a copy of this album.

"If You Can't Help Me Baby" (White Enterprises)

*** 1/2 Late 70s blues LP featuring some funky blues cuts like "I Can't Work And Watch You", "Johnnie Walker Red", the title cut & "Blood Of My Blood"

"Somebody Done Messed Up At The Crossroad" (White Enterprises)

*** 1/2 Contains the original version of Vernon's hit "Crossroads" which hit #33 on Billboard's R & B charts. Other cuts include "You Are My Trophy", Denise LaSalle's "Love Me Right" & "Stranger In My Bed Tonight".

"Crossroads" (California Gold 1982)

*** Mostly live set by Vernon. Contains a nearly 10 minute version of "Crossroads", plus "Jody Can Ease The Pain", "Love Vibration" & "I Love To See You Smile". The live tracks are amazing. The studio tracks are simply re-issues of a couple 60s tracks including one by Vernon & Jewel. See "Live And Well" review.

"Caught In A Crossfire" (Ichiban 1991)

**** First Ichiban CD has Garrett doing ripping versions of some of his classics: "Lonely, Lonely Nights", "Somebody Messed Up", "If You Can't Help Me Baby", "Lonely Lonely Nights" & more wonderfully produced by Gary B.B. Coleman. The version of Denise LaSalle's "Love Me Right" might be the definitive version here! Coleman and Garrett co-wrote the ripping "Bottom Line".

"Too Hip To Be Happy" (Ichiban 1994)

**** Some contemporary soul funk is added to the mix with Vernon tearing it up on the Jerry Ragovoy classics "You Don't Know Nothin' About Love" & "I'm A Burglar". It's the first two cuts that make me smile- upbeat toe-tappers "Are You The One" & "Just Call On Me". There's even a strong Garrett original here "Doors Of Your Heart". On "Lil Black Woman" all women get props but he's got special love for one kind in particular.

"Half Past The Blues" (Ichiban 1997)

**** High energy rollicking funk, soul & blues set highlighted by the cheeky single "Dill Pickle & Peppermint Stick". Disc starts with a good upbeat blues, "Blues In Your Town." Garrett's soulful side shows on another uptempo number, "Mixed Emotions," which hints at "I Can't Get Next To You". The Muscle Shoals Horns pack a powerful wallop on this cut. The whole band really sounds tight on the title cut, with Garrett turning in one of his better vocal performances. Unfortunately, Ichiban folded soon after it's release and ruined it's commercial hopes.

"Live And Well" (California Gold 1999)

*** This obscure CD contains the four AWESOME live tracks from the "Crossroads" LP from 1982 plus 4 studio tracks, such as "Welfare Blues".

"Don't Look Any Further" (Evejim 2000)

*** Here Vernon does excellent versions of two Dennis Edwards hits (title track & "You're My Aphrodesiac") and four cuts co-written by Leon Haywood. Most noteworthy is "Giving My Love To The Other Man". Being that four of these songs shows up on his next (and superior) disc this release is docked half a star. Vernon fans, however, need the 6 other cuts here.

"When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" (Evejim 2002)

**** It's ludicrous that such a talented singer like Vernon Garrett hasn't gotten more attention. This is well-produced soul/blues/R & B- full of gutsy singing and catchy hooks. Vernon tackles the famous title track with confidence, as he does with "If You Don't Know Me By Now". Both these songs are duets with Brenda Lee Eager. She sounded so good I searched the Net for a cd of hers and couldn't find one! A Shame I tell ya! There's an update of "Crossroads 2002", which would sound great on the radio and would be a hit in a better world. Same goes for the fabulous opener "My Trial Of Love". Soul/Blues fans of Little Milton, Z.Z. Hill, Artie "Blues Boy" White and Johnnie Taylor will dig this album.

"I Made My Own Word: Kent/Modern Recordings" (Kent 2003)

**** This disc contains all of Vernon's Kent & Modern singles plus some choice tracks from his rare 1975 Grenade album "Going To My Baby's Place". Of the 24 tracks here his best-known track is the aching "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" from 1966. The version Kent uses here is an alternate take featuring a slightly different vocal. The other solo tracks are a mix of Motown-flavored pop-soul ("Slow and Easy," "You and Me Together"), nasty funk from his ("I've Learned My Lesson," "One Man's Loss"), bluesy ballads ("I Made My Own World"). The tracks with his then wife Jewel date from the mid-'60s and are slightly less successful than Garrett's solo tracks, but still fun songs like "Just to Hold My Hand" or "Let the Good Times Roll." The tracks like "You're So Fine" and the manic "In My Heart" that rock harder and let Garrett and the equally tough Jewel cut loose are much better. A handful of tracks come from a live club date from 1964.

"New Beginnings" (Video Uptown 2005)  LISTEN

** 1/2 First new music in four years from R & B legend Vernon Garrett is a gospel project. He's no stranger to the art form as he sung with the gospel group Swan Silvertones in his early years. It's also no surprise that the majority of the music on this cd differs very little from the rollicking, gutbucket soul and blues he's been putting out for years. After all "soul" music was born from "church" music. One only has to go back to Ray Charles' 1952-1959 Atlantic Recordings to see what some consider the "birth of soul". Charles took the very same feverish melodies and rhythms from the church and secularized them (or "profaned" them as they used it say). Because of this fact fans of Vernon's music will have little problem accepting his "shout-outs" to God here (it's far less heavy-handed than most gospel records- and he only says "Jesus" once- not that I'd mind if it were more). Despite the lack of credits the material here appears to be all originals- (sorry no "Amazing Grace"). "New Beginnings" commences with a lovely acoustic guitar and music shakers ode to his mother's devotional life called "Mother Bowed". The song slowly builds to a spirited call-and-response between Vernon's throaty lead vocals and his own impassioned backups. "God is Knocking On Your Door" is a boogie piano number featuring friend and guitarist Frank Ace. "I've Changed My Life" is a thumping soul blues you'd expect to hear on any good modern soul/blues record albeit with tribute to the Lord rather than a fine-looking woman. "Sing For The Lord" and "Got Him In My Life" are more traditional stand-up-from-your-seat and sing along pieces, while "Got God In My Heart" is smooth contemporary R & B with some great singing from our man. Yes, Vernon can sang whatever he so pleases. So if you don't mind him substituting Him/Lord/God for the usual she/her/baby you'll enjoy this record as much as his others