Clovis Music Festival kicks off Friday

STAFF WRITER

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The Kentucky Headhunters played the 2014 Clovis Music Festival. Some of their hit songs include “Dumas Walker,” “Redneck Girl” and “Walk Softly (On This Heart of Mine).”

Ask anyone in town to define the “Clovis Sound,” and you’re sure to get dozens of different answers.

Some say it’s the local flavor that bands from west Texas and eastern New Mexico produce around town. Others say it’s the music Norman Petty produced in his studio on Seventh Street; that included hit tunes from rock legends Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. Still others will say the Clovis Sound is the actual method Norman Petty used to record albums.

Kenneth Broad, the tour guide at the studio and a close friend of Norman and Vi Petty, said the Clovis Sound is Norman Petty’s strategic combination of vocals and music, and the balance of it all.

“He was a genius with sound and an expert in his field,” Broad said. “It was quality kind of music that was recorded with a lot of tender love and care, the way he recorded. Norman was very dedicated to it.”

Soon after Norman Petty’s death in 1984, his wife, Vi Petty, wanted to make sure her husband’s legacy was never forgotten, Broad said.

So in 1987, the Clovis Music Festival was born.

“It was a memorial-type gathering for the contribution Norman made to the music world and Clovis,” Broad said.

Several people around Clovis pitched in to help Vi Petty, Broad said. And musical guests performed at the Mesa Theater on Main Street.

“A lot of people that were closely involved with Norman came to the rescue and put on a big tribute,” Broad said. “For the most part we just say, ‘Hey Vi, we’re telling your story and telling people about your music and how it impacted people all around the world.’”

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ernie Kos said the budget that year was around $30,000. It’s grown since then.

“It’s about a $120,000 budget,” Kos said. “We won’t know until it’s over how well we did. Our goal is not to make money; we’d like to just break even and celebrate the history.”

This year marks the 29th Clovis Music Festival, which gears up Friday with free tours of the Norman Petty Studio.

Festivities last until Saturday night with headlining musical act Lou Gramm, former lead singer for ’80s rock band Foreigner.

Kos said the music festival is the biggest draw of the year for tourism in Clovis, and people come from all around the world just to see the studio and listen to the bands.

“It’s the one thing that we have that’s a real tourist attraction that will bring people from around the world here,” Kos said. “It’s the only thing we really have that people would come to that’s related to tourism, so that has an economic impact.”

Broad said the festival has changed a lot since the first one, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“It’s changed in the interest of music,” Broad said. “It’s changed as people’s ideas (have) and what music they like to provide. They’ve kept a good variety for people to choose from and take part in.”

Broad said the spectrum of music that’s been played in years past ranges from Bobby Vee to Lonestar and, this year, Tejano music.

“We’ve never done Tejano nights, so we’re trying that,” Kos said.

The lineup for Tejano night on Friday includes Grupo Mezcal and Grammy-award winner Michael Salgado.

“I’ve been a musician since I was 12 or 13,” said Louie Pacheco, the front man for Grupo Mezcal. “I like the tranquility that it gives me just by playing.”

Pacheco said growing up in Hereford during the 1960s and ’70s had an influence on him musically, especially when he heard bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and “Tex Mex” groups from the area.

“All musicians are influenced by other musicians,” Pacheco said, “and you take a little bit of the Beatles or the Stones or the Tex Mex groups, and you kind of create a melting pot, a variety, and from there you take your own style … and you come out with an even different style.”

Norman Petty’s music, of course, influenced Pacheco as well, he said.

“Norman Petty, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison … all of those were influences during my youth,” Pacheco said. “It was just a spectrum of musicians.”

Pacheco will be performing Friday night with his daughter, Monica Pacheco, along with Laura Leal, Gonzalo Lozano and Frank Recio.