Bobby Mitchell: Press

A phone call from Nashville might jump start his musical career, but Bobby Mitchell may not exactly be ready for the world of big black hats, tight black jeans and starched white shirts.

The singer/songwriter isn't exactly your Grand Ole Opry poster boy, considering his East Texas baritone drawl, rumpled redneck-next-door appearance and fictitious songs about trailer park ne'er-do-wells who specialize in fast living and fast women in no particular order.
"Those Nash-villains just produce all those kiss-butt songs because they're selling mainly to the female market." said Mitchell.
Mitchell's low-key approach seems to be finding a niche. He has sold more that 400 copies of his self-produced debut CD, "Redneck Havin' Fun," at shows and the mytexasmusic.com Web site since its 2003 release.
Meanwhile, one of his songs, "That's What Tequila Does" - with that memorable line, "she looked at me and wondered who I was, that's what tequila does" - has been getting a smidgen of radio airplay in Arkansas and California.
Mitchell, who grew up in the industrial sprawl of Baytown, started off by imitating Elvis Presley in front of a mirror. He says he picked up the guitar at 18 just to learn enough chords to help him put the songs in his head down on paper. He wrote on and off for years but says he hauled his guitar out of the closet for good when he felt a new batch of lyrics springing forth after a 1996 divorce.
In fact, one of Mitchell's songs, "Heartbreaker," led him directly to the alter again. It was written for his new wife,Teresa, who dared him to write a song about her. They were married soon after in 2000, and honeymooned at his cabin in the Hill Country.
Mitchell says he keeps a mini-recorder handy to captrue lyrical brainstorms, especially during the long daily commute from his home in Richmond to Galveston, where he works his day job as a grain-elevator operator.
"I've got seven or eight song ideas on ther right now," he said
Most of his songs are quirky guitar-pickin' odes to relationships (before,during and after) and raunchier versions of the kind of simple party songs that Jimmy Buffett has parlayed into a fortune.
Mitchell's "Seaweed on the Beach," tells the tale of a single guy looking for love, who drives up and down Galveston's Seawall Boulevard but all he can find is seaweed and seaulls. As for the "Moonpie Song" or "My 30-06" well perhaps no further explanation is necessary.
Though in his early days of writing he first tried his hand at creating parodies of well-known songs, Mitchell says he hasn't really included them in his performances, but says he will bring a new one out for his gig Saturday at the Old Quarter. Let's just say it's a take on the old-style country nugget "Green Green Grass of Home" that involves a different herbal substance.
And he's bringing a backing band form the Houston area including Clyde Sayre and Danny Jones on guitar and Robert Bonin on bass.
Though Mitchell likes to create music to put smiles on faces in the audience, deep down he says he is most proud of his more serious country and western creations especially "2:15 in the Morning" about a singer who loses his loved one by spending too many nights singing in bars.
"Anything that touches people is a good song, I think." he says. 'I've always tried to write about songs you'd hear in a little old dive that some guy could relate to."